Register Endorsements

A few random thoughts on this Memorial Day Monday...

The Des Moines Register tops many of my thoughts...
Did you catch that story on Iowa Republicans in Sunday's paper? It offered a quote from former Lt. Governor Joy Corning, a Republican...next to a picture...of former Lt. Governor Sally Pederson, the Democrat. Oops. The Register offered a correction in Monday's paper for the mistaken photo.

The endorsements... I'm curious what the paper's endorsements will mean in this primary. Republican Terry Branstad received the paper's endorsement in the race for governor. Does that help or hurt in with the far-right conservatives who have had questions about whether he is conservative enough when they see a lefty-newspaper pick Branstad as the best candidate? Just wondering...

The paper went with Mark Rees in the 3rd District Republican Congressional race. There are 7 people in this race, although most people I talked with only expect 3 or so to have much of a showing. If that's the case...was Rees one of those 3 before? Or will this endorsement bump up his recognition enough to get him in the top 3? Rees is likely the most moderate candidate for his party...fiscal conservative and social moderate. Will enough of those types of voters come out in a primary that often gets dominated by more conservative voters? Can Rees convince enough people that his type of candidacy has the best chance of beating incumbent Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell this November?

And how about that slap of Roxanne Conlin the paper gave? Conlin is by far the most well-known and well-financed of the 3 Democrats in the U.S. Senate Race. Yet, the paper went with former state legislator, Tom Fiegen. Who saw that coming? Will the endorsement give Fiegen's long-shot campaign enough of a boost to push past her or will it be too little, too late? Either way, it's tough for Conlin's campaign to spin this snub as a good thing.

Speaking of that race...have you noticed Republican Senator Chuck Grassley started running tv ads? He doesn't have a primary, of course. But it's interesting the long-time leader feels the need to spend money now. Is it to counter some of the worst approval numbers of his time in office? Grassley usually destroys his opponents come election time, so is this a sign he thinks this year won't be as easy?

For the Love of the Game... Major League Baseball's blackout policy is a joke. And many of us aren't laughing. Yes, I'm biased here. But TBS carried the Cardinals-Cubs afternoon game Sunday. But Mediacom customers couldn't watch it. Instead, we got to watch CNN Headline News on that channel, as well as the regular channel that carried Headline News. Hey, I will watch the news there, but seriously, I don't need to see it on two channels at once! Why, black the game out here, MLB? We are more than 5 hours away from both Chicago and St. Louis. Blackout rules shouldn't apply to us in central Iowa. It makes no sense. All you do is drive people away from baseball at a time so many young people are instead tuning into the faster-paced sports like football and basketball. Nice move, Bud Selig. This Bud is not for you, Mr. Commissioner.