Episode #112: Ready, Ames, Fire: The Iowa Caucuses Are Nearing

Just days to go before the 2016 Iowa caucuses! And who better to bring us up to speed on what's going on than Kathie Obradovich, the political columnist for the Des Moines Register. Kathie reviews the history, endorsements and who's got the momentum. One thing seems clear. If the two parties nominate candidates anathema to the middle, Michael Bloomberg is ready to consider seriously running as an independent in November. The 73-year old billionaire ex-mayor of New York is said to be plotting out a strategy that would get him on the ballot in all 50 states this fall. James McCann of Purdue University talks about the hurdles Bloomberg would have to get past. We also go back eight years to the 2008 South Carolina primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Scott Huffmon of Winthrop University talks about the bitterness between the two Democratic frontrunners at the time and how race -- and charges of race-baiting -- became paramount. And finally, we check in with Peter Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont, who joined a group of ex-House members for a recent trip to Cuba to talk about the opening of relations between our two countries. Smith shares his observations about trade, politics and the future. Photo via Flickr user Jimmy Emerson, DVM This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The post Episode #112: Ready, Ames, Fire: The Iowa Caucuses Are Nearing appeared first on Ken Rudin's Political Junkie.