28 Comments

I’m happy to eat my earlier words about Harris as a 2019 candidate. The way she’s seized this opportunity says a lot. I’m delighted by the momentum.

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Lord Almighty!

What do you like the most? Her 52% absent record in the Senate of floor votes? Her record incarceration rate as Attorney General of California? gladly facilitating the genocide? Maintaining the status quo of policy for sale? Or the morally bankrupt act of being a woman of color willingly packing water for corrupt old white guys?

Asking for a friend……

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You mirror my recent feelings about Iowa and our “leadership”. Having Tim Walz on the ticket with Kamala Harris gives me a new exuberance about our own possibilities in Iowa. Thanks for the story of your reaction to him at the steak fry. So much hope for freedom and democracy!

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I often said that Minnesota was the best part of living in Iowa 😎

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Just what I would expect from anyone who would fry a phukin steak….

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It feels good to be this excited about a campaign again!

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Wut?

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Bob, extraordinary column today. Between your words and the words of Art Cullen, I am joyful this morning! Thank you for penning the essay. I have been writing a few small checks in support for our State democratic candidates' campaigns. I feel at my age I can invest in our grandchildren's future. I watched Washington Week last night on IPTV as I usually do and at the very end, the staff writer from the New Yorker magazine I believe, had the last comment and she warned that of all the things Trump is, he is a race baiter. All of us must reject the hate and darkness the Republican ticket represents on the national level. And I will end here to ask this question: will you remember the federal school lunch monies refused by the Reynolds administration in 2024? If yes, please contact your state senators and state representatives let them know how you feel about the new round of federal monies becoming available for 2025.

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Great column, Bob. You captured the same excitement and relief that so many of us are feeling. Thank you.

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Social studies teachers know fascism when they see it. Yup. And we need that humanities view of culture and politics in the halls of power.

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I feel the same way about Iowa. I have Gopher envy! Let's hope people wake up here in this Republican quagmire

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Harris and Walz are generating a lot of enthusiasm. We must expand the enthusiasm for Democrats down-ballot as well.

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I taught at the graduate level in a professional school for thirty years, proudly with a multi and interdisciplinary approach. This column so explains why that is VITAL for society. I have struggled to show why narrowing isn’t helpful for society; individual career is different. You show it so clearly. Thank you!

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Truth. And I'm not just counting on Harris-Walz to reinvigorate our nation. In my bones I can feel a regenerative spirit in Iowa ready to advance the common sense, rural values Mr. Walz the social studies teacher and winning high school football coach embodies.

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See you in September! Thank you for an excellent column about our possible future leaders.

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I taught for years and loved every year…even the tough ones….and my students…even the tough ones! I absolutely hate what Governor Reynolds and the Republicans have done to our public schools and our AEA! I started teaching in 1968…before AEA….and was so very grateful when they were implemented!!

I know Reynolds is not up for reelection until 2026…..just hoping that this November we can deny her the super majority that she has used to inflict so much pain on so many.

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Indeed!

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Amen! I remember thinking at the Steak Fry, " I wish he was President!"

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I'm 74, and well past my prime to do much physically to improve the chances to turn around Iowa politically, so my money goes to the local candidates and my writing focuses on the local scene through letters to the editor. Andy McKean gets a lot of my attention because I think he can blow the incumbent out of the saddle (Steve Bradley). Bradley took a pile of money from the Koch Brothers in order to win, and has cause irreparable damage to everything he voted on, even things that are important to the rural counties he represents, like public schools. Andy had the balls to walk away from the Republican Party that he espoused and joined the Democrats, a sin the MEGA Republicans could not stand for! So they ran with this dentist who has little knowledge of what he is doing in the legislature and relies heavily on the leadership to tell him how to vote and if it were to jump, he would have to ask how high!

Miller-Meeks also has a good opportunity to not get re-elected for the same reason. She may be a doctor, but the reality is I doubt if she understands people, especially the women voters much younger than she is who are going to bury her over abortion. Christina Bohannan did not lose by very much in the last match up, and this time the voting record of her opponent should give her a good shot at removing Miller-Meeks from office.

I agree with you whole heartedly that the choice for VP was inspiring for all the things you mentioned, Walz comes across as a progressive that is looking forward to help change things and appears very happy to get that chance, even as VP! It is a winning combination, while the fascists are now beginning to fall over their own rhetoric! The lies are finally beginning to take hold and the questionable comments are making even republicans think he has started to lose cognitive function, and becoming the Biden he had hoped to run against! All good!

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Excellent analysis!

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Amen!

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I'm happy about Walz, too, but some crap posting I see on social media make me nervous about GOP swift-boating him.

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Me too. The same guy who ran the Swift boating against Kerry is doing it with Walz. I don't think it is working.

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