With all the talk about Presidential Campaigns, debates, etc. these days, I thought the world could stand yet another story about how the caucus process works in Iowa.

John Edwards speaks about his health care plan at a town hall meeting in Dubuque IA. He emphasizes choice, continuity of coverage, offering competing coverage from the government and subsidizing coverage for the poor and middle class Americans. I think health care should be a top issue in the campaign and am glad to see that Edwards is putting forth a comprehensive plan. However, I think it is past time to take the private insurance companies out and begin to limit the AMA's influence over medical costs.

A truly interesting and extensive piece appeared over at the MAINstream Coalition's blog today that discussed an upcoming ballot initiative in Johnson County, Kansas that would move county judges from being appointed by a panel to being elected by the public.

The instigator of the ballot initiative is of course another wing-nut who thinks that by making judges become elected he would score a bunch of conservative judges - ignoring the fact that this will definitely not be the case, especially among the members of the Johnson County Bar Association.

The piece links to a 2007 AP story on the Tim Golba as well as info on the specific bill.

Crossposted from WiretapMag

In the most exciting news I've seen on election coverage, the Washington Post declares Young Voters to be one of the winners of last night's election.

"No age group has been more ridiculed for their lack of participation than those under 30. But in Indiana that age group comprised 16 percent of the overall vote while those 65 or older comprised 15 percent. Under 30s went for Obama 61 percent to 39 percent, a margin that all but neutralized Clinton's 44 percent margin among older Hoosiers."

According to a release from the Student PIRGs a number of Indiana voters were INCORRECTLY turned away from the polls today and given MISINFORMATION about the validity of their identification preventing them from casting a ballot they legally should have been able to cast.

Let me remind you - that when the US Supreme Court made its decision they decided...

Abstract. Any student of logic has to be astonished that the five most important arguments being advanced on behalf of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination are fallacious. Some of them, such as that, since she prevailed over Obama in certain large states, such as Pennsylvania, Obama would be unable to win those states in the general election, are even being featured on the front page of The New York Times. But that Obama lost to Hillary in the primary does not mean he would lose to John McCain in the general election. The best reasons for Hillary could not pass scrutiny in a freshman course on critical thinking.

Liz Rincon is the state director for the Pennsylvania League of Young Voters, and while she hasn't been on the ground organizing for more than several months she's done a lot.

"This was never supposed to happen. I think everyone was unprepared for this because Pennsylvania has never mattered before!" she said over the phone between spirits of answering questions to shouting voices in the background.

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Kansas State Treasurer and Republican candidate for Congress Lynn Jenkins (CPA) has spent the last several months trying to make her American Century scandal go away... and with good reason. That's some pretty sketchy hijinks if you ask me.

In her op-ed to the Kansas City Star, Jenkins CPA wrote (I would link but archived articles at the star older than a week old must be purchased for $2.95 proving once and for all that the Star is all about money ... not so much about news... but I digress)

Cross Posted on DailyKos

Now that the furor over Spitzer's prostitution-prosecution scandal has died down and Governor Paterson has been sworn in, things can get back to normal in New York's Capital Region. The region is home to the 21st New York Congressional District, where two amazing things are happening.

First, we have five announced candidates in a Democratic primary to fill retiring Representative Mike McNulty's seat, something that has never happened in the district before.

Second, out of all these five candidates, only one, Phil Steck, is distancing himself from the pack by joining local doctors and advocating for full, single-payer, universal health care. He's doing this for two main reasons: first, because it makes sense, and second, because no matter who gets elected President this year, once we have the White House, we're going to need Congressmen who are able to push him or her to keep their promises.

More below the fold.

The primaries came roaring through this week (I live in Ohio) so I got the same heavy dose of campaigning many of the rest of you already received. One of the strongest impressions it left is that this election season has many of the bad features of previous ones, only more so. As a result we have not had a discussion of many issues of substance.

The Kansas Second Congressional District race just started to get a little more interesting. And a whole lot more snarky.

BoydaBloc has posted a great video that captures the recent excitement.

This week after the Kansas GOP primary I got a tip off about a piece in a local Kansas paper about the caucus and the comparable turnout. Understandably, there was immense turnout for the Democratic caucus and not so much for the GOP despite the fact that the GOP caucus was infinitely more convenient - being on a Saturday morning which wasn't plagued with a blizzard.

After Edwards dropped out of the race, there were many tributes and appreciations. John Nichols delivered one of the best, in the Nation:

I'm a life-long Democrat running in the Democratic primary against one opponent who has voted Republican in every election from 1996 to 2006 and another who has never voted in a Democratic primary in the district. They are both trial lawyers who have hit the jackpot.