Posted August 04, 2021in Political Mercury
The 49-year-old South Dakota governor is supremely telegenic and wonderfully folksy, smart and unapologetic. The recent Family Leader Summit in Des Moines served as a one-two punch, and something of a [...]
Read More →
Posted June 30, 2021in Political Mercury
An obsession with balance can obscure the truth. In his brilliantly performed new audio book “The Bomber Mafia,” Malcolm Gladwell, using expert reporting, inviting prose and riveting sound effects, including actual [...]
Read More →
Posted May 24, 2021in Political Mercury
Manilla Democrat plans to spotlight farming, education, infrastructure and health care. Former Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer, a Manilla farmer and cattleman with deep family roots in rural Iowa politics, [...]
Read More →
Posted May 05, 2021in Political Mercury
In an age of scarcity (for many) and excess (for the few), the language and policies of diversity become zero-sum. What another gets, you lose. So goes the polarized thinking that [...]
Read More →
Posted March 31, 2021in Political Mercury
The mother of a 7-year-old Iowan said she’s used the recently launched and increasingly popular public-minded Twitter account Iowa Vaccine Alerts as a real-life and contemporary example of what the [...]
Read More →
Posted March 03, 2021in Political Mercury
At age 87, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, first elected to office during the Eisenhower administration, smiled broadly when pressed by audience members about a potential re-election campaign next year in [...]
Read More →
Posted January 06, 2021in Political Mercury
Fresh from freshman orientation in Washington, D.C., Congressman-elect Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, says he’s encouraged at prospects for bipartisan work in the capitol on agriculture. Having a fellow Iowan — former [...]
Read More →
Posted December 02, 2020in Political Mercury
He knew them by their eyes. That’s about all Wiltsie Cretsinger of Coon Rapids could see of the physicians and nurses who shepherded him through a brutal, 21-day, take-his-breath-away fight [...]
Read More →
Posted November 04, 2020in Political Mercury
Our coverage of the 2024 presidential election started — for me, at least — on Oct. 1, 2020 — well over a month before the Nov. 3 election. U.S. Sen. [...]
Read More →
Posted September 30, 2020in Political Mercury
One of the last questions I asked President Barack Obama during an interview in his second term was this: Would he consider locating his presidential library and museum in Iowa? [...]
Read More →
