Watchdog Blog

Archive for the '2012 elections' Category

Herb Strentz: Iowa as the Center of the Political Universe

DES MOINES – Everyone wants a turn in the spotlight. Small states and smaller towns in particular position themselves as, say, the World’s Sock Capital (Fort Payne, AL), Artichoke Capital (Castroville, CA) Paddlefish Capital (Fort Thompson, SD). Indeed, you could excite spouse and family by saying next year’s vacation will be to world capitals. Even [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: International Monitors Needed for U.S. Elections?

Not long ago, the emphasis was on encouraging voter turnout. Nowadays, it’s on shutting down access to the polls. The efforts have become so numerous that New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice has taken to keeping a running tally of the restrictions. A recent count: • “At least 180 restrictive bills introduced since the [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: U.N. Monitors for American Elections?

Republican lawmakers are fond of talking about voter fraud to justify measures to make it harder to vote. Wendy Weiser of New York University’s Brennan Center of Justice put her finger on the nation’s biggest source of voter fraud when she said, “Every year, election officials strike millions of names from the voting rolls using [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: The GOP, Women, and Mary Louise Smith

If Republicans are interested in starting to dig themselves out of the hole they dug for themselves with women, they might consider dedicating the coming GOP national convention, in Tampa, to the memory of Mary Louise Smith, the first female chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. She held the post from 1974 to 1977, and [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: Anybody Got a Spare .81 mm Mortar for the GOP Convention?

If you were worried that you wouldn’t be allowed firearms at the Republican national convention this year in Tampa, relax. Florida Gov. Rick Scott stepped in to assure that there would be no firearms-free zone on his watch in Florida. Tampa’s mayor had written to Scott to request an executive order that would temporarily waive [...]

Herb Strentz: The Iowa GOP, Stuck on Its Caucuses

How appropriate! The Iowa Republican Party is among those finding a way to celebrate the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. Yes, the Grand Old Party is hard at work — re-arranging the deck chairs of the Iowa caucus. A committee and three sub-committees want to fashion a guarantee — not that the caucus [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: The Press Missed the Story on Santorum’s Dropping Out

In the midst of campaigning in the presidential primary in his home state of Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum on April 10 suddenly dropped out of the contest. My initial reaction: poor poll numbers must have done it. After all, Santorum was counting heavily on Pennsylvania to propel him back into the race against Mitt Romney. As [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: Pining for a Smoke-Filled Room

To paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, the Republican presidential nominating contest is nasty, brutish and long. Not to mention costly. The contenders are exhausting themselves, their bank accounts and the public’s patience. Low voter turnouts are evidence of how fed up the public is with the endless campaigning and tasteless attacking. And that’s just from one party. [...]

Herb Strentz: Write This Down: Reporters Aren’t Stenographers

DES MOINES – Given much of the presidential campaign news coverage, it is fair to wonder if most journalists are more like vampires than watchdogs, considering how the press and the vampires both shrink at the sign of the cross. That notion has been troubling me for more than two years now in the build [...]

Gilbert Cranberg: Are People Confused, or Just Not Very Bright?

Paul Krugman in a February 17 column noted that many Americans make use of government programs but are oblivious that they are beneficiaries. He quoted a Cornell University professor who found that 44 percent of Social Security recipients, 43 percent of those receiving jobless benefits, and 40 percent of those on Medicare say they “have [...]