Rick Smith

President Obama and David Plouffe, his 2008 political strategist, joined a national conference call last week with Organizing for Action (OFA) volunteers. OFA is the non-partisan 501(c)4 issue advocacy organization that formed after the 2012 Obama campaign. It is the community organizing group that has been advocating for many of the key issues of President Obama’s agenda.…

Democrats are searching for the answers as to why they lost the 2016 election. It’s really pretty simple. Nationally, Democratic voters didn’t show up. Clinton attempted to reassemble the Obama coalition that elected him in 2008 and 2012. Unfortunately, 5 million of those 2012 Obama voters either didn’t vote, or voted for third party candidates…

NextGen Climate, the national climate change group, announced this week their new secret weapon to turn out millennial voters: their staff and volunteers will be bringing their pooches to events. They noticed, apparently quite by accident, that when their volunteers brought their puppies with them to events, the group had greater success at getting students…

The Republican Party should be very concerned about more news stories this week linking Donald Trump to the Russian government. These new allegations reinforce the building narrative that Trump has questionable business relationships and foreign investments with Russian interests closely allied with President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s bizarre bromance with Putin has fueled the impression that…

Trump and Republicans are fanning Obamacare fears over rising health insurance rates of 25%.  According to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, “thanks to financial assistance, most marketplace consumers this year will find plan options with premiums between $50 and $100 per month.”  What Trump and Republicans aren’t telling you is that with subsidies,…

Advocates of addressing climate change may finally be reaching the political threshold that will force worldwide action. This year has seen the implementation of a number of critical actions, agreements and commitments that suggest we have passed a tipping point for action. The Paris Climate Agreement surpassed the necessary number of ratifying nations last month…

Why are so many Iowa Republicans refusing to condemn Trump’s unfounded accusations that this election is corrupt and a rigged system?  If Trump attacks the validity of the election, couldn’t these Republicans’ reelection be questioned as well? There’s nothing more sacred to America’s democratic traditions than free and fair elections. Anyone who values our democratic electoral…

Senator Grassley is running ads bragging that he “works.” He claims he has a nearly perfect attendance record. He claims he rarely misses a vote. So why isn’t he fighting for Iowans that have been flood victims multiple times? Why can’t Grassley get adequate flood protection for Iowa? Our major cities have been hit by…

In yesterday’s article Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, defended Hillary Clinton’s record as Senator and as Secretary of State. In the continuation of that interview, he expands on the root causes for the firestorm of conflicts across the Middle East. Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have…