Fox Twitter Account Hacked, Claims President Killed in Iowa

Hack Hoax: Fox said somebody hacked into its Twitter account and posted that someone had assassinated President Barack Obama at a restaurant in Iowa. Fox has taken down the malicious tweets. But, according to Mediabistro, one said:

@BarackObama shot twice at a Ross' restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family.

The Ross' restaurant comment wasn't completely random. There is a restaurant by that name in the Quad Cities' area and, according to WQAD-TV, candidate Obama had promised the restaurant's owner he would return one day to try the signature dish there. The president kept his word and stopped by the restaurant during his visit to the Alcoa plant last week.

Game Change

I'm no literary critic, but the new book, "Game Change" is a tough one to put down. I think I had the bags under my eyes today to prove it. I interviewed the two authors, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. I just got the book yesterday, so I had to do some heavy-duty, late-night reading to try to get ready.

The highlights of their work with Iowa references...

Hillary Clinton wasn't much for Iowa and she thinks even less of it now (and I'm being REALLY kind). Clinton and Barack Obama had a heck of a fight before they boarded their respective campaign planes out of D.C. for Des Moines. A heck of a fight! And both claimed to win the fight. John Edwards lied to the faces over dinner to two of his dedicated campaign workers who had come to Des Moines to help. And they knew he was lying. Oh, and he liked to go out of dates in Des Moines, not with his wife, of course. The Obamas were dining on caucus night at Fleming's, one of our favorite restaurants in the metro. The Clintons counted on former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to know the numbers for caucus night in Iowa. He terribly miscalculated the numbers.

Yes, these comments were mostly about the Democrats. That seems to be the bulk of what I've read so far. I'll have to see if there are interesting insights and juicy tidbits about the Republicans, too.

Here's our interview from today:

Obama Back on the Road

Cue Willie Nelson...



Barack Obama is going back on the road again. The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny (who knows Iowa well as a former reporter for the Des Moines Register) reports today that Obama will go travel more in the U.S. this year to re-connect with voters. Obama's popularity has been going down in the polls as more Americans lose their jobs and the country is in the middle of a heated fight about how to reform the health care system. No word, according to Zeleny's report, on whether Obama plans to come back to Iowa soon. But, of course, Iowa is really where it all began in many ways for him with his victory in the Iowa Caucuses.

Obama has begun his sophomore year at the White House. What did you think of his first year as president? Did he bring the change you wanted and the improvement to your day-to-day lives that you hoped? Grade the president on his performance...A,B,C,D or F.

Text the word, matters, to the number, 72466, on your cell phone to vote in our weekly text poll. After your vote, please share why you graded him the way you did at the bottom of this blog under the comments section. We will share some of your views tonight at the Channel 13 News at Ten.

Thanks for reading and thanks for voting.

President's Earth Day Stop Costs 9,116 gallons

Just how important are background and symbols to a president? President Barack Obama flew to Newton, Iowa, yesterday to talk about his alternative energy plan....how we need to be more green. He used a wind turbine tower manufacturer, Trinity Structural Towers, as his backdrop. The other backdrop was Earth Day. A CBS reporter tallied up the cost to the earth of this trip because of the president's travel and security requirements. His total: 9,116 gallons of fuel.