Biden Campaign Proves That Endorsements From The Wrong Sources Can Hurt A Campaign-- Meet Abby Finkenauer (IA-02)

Worthless careerists, Abby and Joe, have nothing to offer voters

Did conservative Democrat Abby Finkenauer's endorsement of Biden ruin his Iowa campaign? Iowa's first district used to be very blue. Obama beat McCain there, 58.5% to 40.4%, Obama's biggest win in the state. It was also the scene of his biggest victory against Romney in 2012-- 56.2% to 42.5% Then the Democratic Party shoved centrist status quo candidate Hillary Clinton down the party's throat and Iowans looking for fundamental change turned to Trump. A strong Democratic district turned red, or, at best, purple. Trump beat Hillary in IA-01. In 2014 when Democrat Bruce Braley gave up the congressional seat for an ill-fated Senate run, multimillionaire Republican wing nut Rod Blum won the seat and kept it in 2016 thanks to DCCC interference. It took the anti-red wave of 2018 to dislodge him-- despite another worthless DCCC/EMILY's List candidate, state Rep. Abby Finkenauer (an unaccomplished joke in the state legislature).

Finkenauer immediately established herself as a waste of a seat--worthless in the House as she had been in Iowa's state legislature, a pointless backbencher happy to do nothing at all. She quickly ran up an "F"-graded voting record, worse than the records of many Blue Dogs and New Dems. Stephanie Murphy is the chief Blue Dog and even her record is slightly better than Finkenauer's!

No one noticed her until she endorsed Status Quo Joe a couple of months ago. His pathetic and clueless campaign aggressively promoted the anti-charismatic Finkenauer as "Biden's AOC." Laughably, while AOC was helping to draw hundreds and even thousands to Bernie rallies, Finkenauer rarely brought in more than a dozen people to Biden events. She was as colossal a failure in her own district as she was in DC.

That became more than obvious on caucus day, when Biden was gutted like a fish across her district. There are 20 counties in the district, although most of the voters live in the 3 bluest counties-- Linn (Cedar Rapids), Dubuque and Black Hawk (Waterloo). Below are all the counties in descending order of voting population and how the candidates with 15% of more of the vote fared (SDE-wise) in each county.

Linn

• Bernie- 5,274 (28.4%)
• Mayo- 4,571 (24.6%)
• Elizabeth- 3,912 (21.0%)
• Biden- 2,813 (15.1%)

Blackhawk

• Bernie- 3,070 (31.5%)
• Mayo- 2,182 (22.4%)
• Biden- 1,697 (17.4)
• Elizabeth- 1,677 (17.2%)

Dubuque

• Mayo- 2,160 (29.9%)
• Bernie- 1,680 (23.2%)
• Biden- 1,653 (22.9%)
• Elizabeth- 1,093 (15.1%)

Marshall

• Bernie- 816 (34.0%)
• Mayo- 672 (28.0%)
• Biden- 512 (21.3%)

Benton

• Biden- 465 (31.0%)
• Mayo- 435 (29.0%)
• Bernie- 353 (23.5%)

Bremer

• Mayo- 567 (33.3%)
• Elizabeth- 363 (21.3%)
• Biden- 317 (18.6%)
• Klobuchar- 272 (16.0%)

Winneshiek

• Mayo- 486 (30.4%)
• Klobuchar- 397 (24.8%)
• Bernie- 333 (20.8%)
• Elizabeth- 269 (16.8%)

Jones

• Mayo- 368 (30.7%)
• Biden- 256 (21.3%)
• Bernie- 256 (21.3%)
• Klobuchar- 208 (17.3%)

Jackson

• Mayo- 377 (31.4%)
• Biden- 309 (25.8%)
• Klobuchar- 189 (15.8)

Buchanan

• Biden- 383 (29.8%)
• Mayo- 342 (26.6%)
• Klobuchar- 219 (17.0%)

Poweshiek

• Bernie- 504 (36.0%)
• Elizabeth- 392 (28.0%)
• Klobuchar- 210 (15.0%)

Fayette

• Mayo- 432 (36.0%)
• Biden- 264 (22.0%)
• Bernie- 180 (15.0%)

Clayton

• Mayo- 367 (38.0%)
• Klobuchar- 217 (22.4%)
• Bernie- 183 (18.9%)
• Biden- 167 (17.3%)

Iowa

• Mayo- 260 (26.0%)
• Elizabeth- 260 (26.0%)
• Bernie- 240 (24.0%)
• Biden- 200 (20.0%)

Delaware

• Mayo- 248 (27.5%)
• Klobuchar- 218 (24.2%)
• Elizabeth- 195 (21.6%)
• Biden- 188 (20.8%)

Tama

• Bernie- 298 (28.4%)
• Mayo- 285 (27.2%)
• Biden- 220 (21.0%)

Allamakee

• Mayo- 233 (36.1%)
• Klobuchar- 140 (21.7%)
• Bernie- 101 (15.6%)

Mitchell

• Klobuchar- 180 (35.2%)
• Mayo- 113 (22.1%)
• Biden- 90 (17.6%)

Howard

• Mayo- 171 (34.2%)
• Biden- 100 (20.0%)
• Bernie- 86 (17.2%)

Worth

• Klobuchar- 120 (27.3%)
• Mayo- 87 (19.8%)
• Bernie- 73 (16.6%)

And district-wide, what did Finkenauer do for Biden? Not much if anything, the SDEs for all the top candidates:

• Mayo- 14,356
• Bernie- 13,447
• Biden- 9,634
• Elizabeth- 8,361
• Klobuchar- 2,190

These calculations are based on the official party reports accounting for 96.43% of caucus goers. Status quo Joe and Elizabeth are battling it out to see who will be in third place and who will be in fourth place. He probably would have done better without Finkenauer's kiss of death endorsement.

Just wait 'til he gets to the suburbs east of Sacramento, where he was endorsed by spineless and despised lesser-of-two evils incumbent Ami Bera, whose elderly father in rotting in prison for taking the rap for one of Bera's fund-raising frauds. Or to Massachusetts, where two collossally unpopular members of Congress, conservatives Stephen Lynch and Seth Moulton have both endorsed him. Worse yet, in Oregon he has been endorsed by political pariah right-wing Blue Dog Kurt Schrader-- the only House Democrat opposing the pro-labor legislation pending before the House this week. Fun weeks ahead for Team Biden!

Kurt Schrader: The face of Biden's Oregon efforts

Bob Lefsetz is probably the most incisive critic of the American music business. This week he also took a swing at Status Quo Joe's crumbling campaign. "One thing’s for sure," he wrote; "Biden’s toast. But how could this be? For months we’ve endured polls, talking heads, telling us he was the leader and the people’s choice, the man with experience shooting right up the middle. But it turns out that’s not what people wanted at all."

So, the pollsters got it wrong. Oh, there was that Des Moines Register poll that was canceled that was supposedly more accurate, and I’m sure Nate Silver and the rest of the experts will weasel once again and tell us how they really got it right, but they didn’t. Turns out it’s not only government that is out of touch with the public, but the pollsters and the media too.

It all comes down to if you’re winning. If the present environment is working for you, you want no change.

But it turns out the present environment isn’t working for most of America.

Let’s start with Trump. The same media outlets and pollsters failed to see the disharmony that led to the Donald’s election, they convinced us, even him, that his campaign was a sideshow, a way for Trump to burnish his brand, to start a TV network, to get richer. Little did we expect that he would use the Presidency to get richer.

And on the other side you’ve got Bernie. According to Hillary Clinton, an evil hatemonger who refuses to play well with others. Meanwhile, Bernie almost deposed the anointed Hillary in 2016 and it appears he’s gonna run to the roses this year. Turns out most of the populace is not happy with business as usual.

Let’s talk about the Clintons. Sure, they were eviscerated by the right, but they also used their position to get rich, even Chelsea has gotten rich, she’s even wealthier than Hunter Biden! But sucking up to Wall Street and the rest of the billionaires was de rigueur, because everybody else did it. You needed their money to win. But Bernie didn’t take a dime from the usual suspects and this time around he’s raised more money than anybody!

... [T]he Democrats have no center. It’s a big party under a big tent but a self-serving cabal runs it and they don’t want any change. Now that Bernie Sanders is a distinct possibility the truth has finally come out, those in power, at the DNC, don’t want any change, no different from the Grammys. You see a new guy is gonna come in, who gets to choose the head of the party and…a lot of people are gonna lose their influence, if not their jobs.

So, America doesn’t appear that different from Afghanistan, some other tribal country.

... [E]ssentially no one is alive who remembers when America was a second-class nation. Everybody thinks the U.S. of A. is the greatest country in the world, it cannot be defeated.

As for Vietnam and Iraq, the belief is the agitators undermined us and if we just gave the armed forces and Dick Cheney and the other rulers carte blanche, we would have won again.

Only that doesn’t take into account hearts and minds. The North Vietnamese were willing to sacrifice everything for the cause. And the truth is so many of the losers in today’s society feel the same way. They’re sick of billionaires, sick of kowtowing to the rich, they want some power.

Which is how Trump got elected. He represented change.

Hillary was damaged goods offering business as usual.

Just like Joe Biden.

But the insiders tell us we must nominate someone safe in order to win in November, we must sacrifice all our beliefs, all our interests, for a greater good…which would only benefit the entrenched. Which brings up the question why bother to vote at all?

A huge slice of the public never does. Many because they believe there will be no difference. And after living through twenty five years of tech innovation they know that change can happen overnight, if people choose to make it happen. They also know that techies run circles around D.C., elected officials don’t understand tech, never mind regulate tech.

But all we hear from insiders is how dumb the populace is.

But that’s because they don’t understand it’s not about issues so much as emotions.

Oh, the Republicans always focus on a divisive issue, but the Democrats…Hillary Clinton fake smiled, just like old Joe, and no one bought it, they didn’t speak to your soul, they were controlled by those with the cash.

Globalization is here to stay. What’s your answer to that?

Trump’s is to promise impossibilities as he engages in trade wars. No, manufacturing is not coming back to America, and coal mining won’t boom. Instead of providing false hope, why don’t you give the disenfranchised a roadmap as well as a safety net as opposed to service jobs that don’t put food on the table, never mind a roof over your head.

This is why Bernie is resonating, because it’s crooked and you’re screwed. Everybody knows this, it’s just the winners don’t want to admit they’ve bent the system to their satisfaction, they just tell others to pull up their bootstraps, it’s easy, everyone can be a millionaire, even though you can’t get into a good college because they’ve paid for slots, with either bribes or buildings, and have had their kids tutored and… It would be like trying to become a coder in a school without computers, it can’t be done.

I’m not saying a whole hell of a lot new here, I’m just wondering when the powers-that-be are gonna wake up and admit what’s going on.

Add up the numbers. Put Sanders and Warren together and…

It appears the public wants radical change.

But what does the media do? Concoct a phony war between them.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi steals Trump’s thunder by ripping up his speech. He wouldn’t shake her hand and she took revenge. And owns the news cycle.

Sometimes you’ve got to test the limits, sometimes you have to push the envelope, sometimes you have to throw decorum out the window, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

But all the left can do is respond to the talking points of the right, as opposed to leading.

Which is one reason Mayor Pete can’t win. Do you think people are gonna buy his phony smile? He appears devious, and he’s selling nothing other than himself. It’s like he constructed his campaign on a computer. Let’s see, where’s the best slot, somewhere between Bernie and Biden, if you can believe in this guy, you probably went to Harvard and worked at McKinsey yourself.

Meanwhile, if you didn’t go to an Ivy, good luck getting that gig at McKinsey. As for the funds, they load your employer up with debt, take their investment and profits out first and you’re left holding the bag.

But you’re supposed to laud them because they’re rich.

The old America is dead. The internet proved that those telling us what was going on had no clue. Meanwhile, the rich on the left and right, the elites, rigged the game to their advantage, telling the less fortunate that it was just luck they lost out, that there was nothing they could do about it.

So, the public wants its revenge.

Any Democrat can beat Trump if the party just gets behind the nominee. Instead, the DNC keeps going on about who’s electable.

You know who is electable?

THE ONE THAT WINS!

Democrats Need Someone Who Can Defeat Trump-- And That's Bernie, Not A Pale And Doddering Imitation Of Hillary

Yesterday, Bernie had an immense endorsement-- the Sunrise Movement. There were three more notable Bernie endorsements as well, one from Kshama Sawant, a Socialist member of the Seattle City Council, one from actress Emily Ratajkowski, which you can watch in the video below, and one from the Dream Defenders. Sawant: "we need a political revolution against the billionaire class, an Organizer-in-Chief prepared to build the movement of millions needed to win far-reaching change."




Jessica Corbett, writing for Common Dreams, explained the significance of the Dream Defenders endorsement. "Praising the 'visionary agenda' of Sen. Bernie Sanders and decrying the corporate media's treatment of him as a 'fringe candidate' in the Democratic presidential primary race, the Florida-based social justice group Dream Defenders on Wednesday joined the massive grassroots movement Sanders is building for his second presidential run."

Dream Defenders initially formed to fight for justice for Trayvon Martin but has since blossomed into a broader "movement for freedom and liberation in Florida." A lengthy statement from the group's Fight PAC endorsing Sanders spotlighted his campaign slogan ("Not Me, Us") and explained that "Bernie is not our political savior. It is the movement behind him that will change this country."

"Our people believe in Bernie and his vision for building power with us," the statement said. "He has the most diverse, the youngest, and the most working class base of any candidate. He has more donations from students, Walmart Workers, Amazon workers and teachers than anyone else-- at an average of $18."

"The mainstream media is afraid of this," the group added, condemning how some major media outlets have regarded Sanders' campaign. "That's why they've attempted to paint Bernie as some fringe candidate and his support base as comprised of only 'white Bernie bros' and erase the millions of black, brown, and immigrant youth and women at the helm of his campaign."

Welcoming the group's support in a tweet, Sanders thanked Dream Defenders for its "incredible" work in Florida, emphasized the power of young people, and reiterated his commitment to working with his movement "to create a nation where every person is able to live with justice and dignity."

Sanders also shared a video that Dream Defenders released detailing its history and goals. As the group's statement explained, "Because our lives and the lives of the people we love depend on it, we have chosen to take a side in this election: to stand against a world order rooted in greed, authoritarianism, and violence."

Dream Defenders highlighted how Sanders' agenda aligns with that of the group, including tuition-free public college, the elimination of student and medical debt, Medicare for All, a jobs guarantee, a moratorium on deportations, the reunification of separated families, overhauling the immigration system, ending mass incarceration, a just transition for incarcerated individuals, cutting the U.S. military budget, pursing diplomacy with Iran, and respecting the rights of Palestinians.

"Bernie's track record is consistent. Throughout his career, he has pushed visionary ideas long before they were politically popular," the group said of Sanders, a democratic socialist. "Bernie is not offering band-aid solutions to the crises we are living in. He believes in a total transformation of our economic and political systems."

Pointing to recent polling that shows significant support among U.S. millennial voters for socialist political candidates, Dream Defenders added that "the media's erasure of young women, and people of color as core constituencies of the Bernie Sanders campaign reflects the establishment's discomfort with acknowledging that the working-class is in fact multi-racial, and the growing consensus that capitalism cannot save us."

In a Politico piece that came out in the midst of all these endorsements, reporter Natasha Korecki acted as a press agent for the Biden campaign. One of the most vile and evil sources within the Democratic Party is New Dem founder and former DCCC anti-progressive strategist Simon Rosenberg, currently urging Status Quo Joe to go all out in calling Bernie a "socialist!!!!" and using the whole GOP panoply of smears against him. "The gloves-off strategy didn’t work for Clinton, " fumed Rosenberg, "and it isn’t going to work this time either."

To counter AOC's appeal as a Bernie surrogate, Biden has dug up some of his old friends from their graves and gotten them into a bus.

Since the start of the year, Biden has sharpened his messaging to highlight the distinctions, dedicating a bigger portion of his stump speech toward making the case that he is the candidate best-suited to work with Republicans and heal a divided country-- something the campaign says draws a sharp contrast with both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

As Biden hits his stride in Iowa, that theme represents a big part of his closing argument. As part of the case for his electability, he asserts that he, more than any other candidate, can help win back the Senate by providing a top of the ticket boost in places like North Carolina, Arizona and Texas-- states where there are questions about whether a candidate as liberal as Sanders would be an asset to the eventual Democratic Senate nominee.

“We think it is a clear point of difference with the approach of some of the other major candidates and one that is authentic to Biden and his record,” Dunn said.

Biden has recently sought to counter Sanders’ practice of rolling out star surrogates like Ocasio-Cortez, who drew massive crowds in the state in November and electrified Sanders’ supporters. Her tour through Iowa drew more than 2,000 people at each of the events.

Biden’s relatively staid endorsement events here couldn’t be more different from the razzle dazzle rallies showcasing Ocasio-Cortez. But they’ve featured political heavyweights designed to highlight Biden’s messaging about his experience and electability.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry-- who won the Iowa caucuses en route to the 2004 Democratic nomination-- was the headliner among a group of Democratic officeholders who embarked on a "We Know Joe" bus tour this week.

Former Gov. and ex-Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and his wife Christie, recently toured with Biden through rural Iowa in small, intimate venues. Rep. Abby Finkenauer-- a rising Democratic star in the state-- campaigned with Biden in mid-size events, the largest bringing about 700 people.

Finkenauer isn't a rising star in Iowa or anywhere else. She was a lazy hack in the Iowa legislature who was swept into Congress in the 2018 anti-red wave. Since getting to Congress, she has run up an entirely putrid record-- earning an "F" from ProgressivePunch. With Van Drew out of the party, she now has the 13th worst voting record of any Democrat in the House. That's the kind of garbage the Biden campaign is pushing forward as their version of AOC. AOC outdraws her 10 to 1 in her own district! No one cares about Abby Finkenauer. She means nothing to anyone; she was just an alternative to the lousy Trump asskisser who the voters wanted to replace. "Biden advisers and surrogates," parroted Korecki, "have framed the endorsements as clear markers of the differences between Sanders and Biden, with Ocasio-Cortez representing the left flank of the party and Finkenauer representing the mainstream-- she knocked off a Republican incumbent in a Northeast Iowa-based swing district, the kind of place that the Democratic nominee will need to defeat Donald Trump in November."

Glad they brought it up. IA-01 was a nice blue district that went for Obama 58.5% to 40.4% in 2008 when the PVI was D+5. In 2012 the district went for Obama again-- 56.2% to 42.5%. It wasn't until Wasserman Schultz and her corrupted DNC stole the nomination for Biden-in-a-skirt that IA-01, started turning red, (PVI is now D+1). Trump beat Hillary 48.7% to 45.2%. This is Bernie country, not Biden country. In 2018 the two big counties where virtually all the Democratic votes come from, looked like this:

• Linn- Bernie 52.3%, Hillary 47.4%
• Black Hawk- Bernie 52.9%, Hillary 46.7%

The Status Quo Joe people are right about one thing: IA-01 is the kind of place that the Democratic nominee will need to defeat Donald Trump in November-- and the candidate best suited to do that is the candidate of change, Bernie, not the candidate of "nothing fundamentally will change."

Can The Democrats Win The 3 GOP-Held Seats In Iowa In 2018?

Saturday, as millions of women and their allies, not just in the U.S., but around the world, marched against Trump, one DC wag asked "where was all that energy during the election?" My response-- "at Bernie Sanders rallies-- drew hysterical anger from thin-skinned Clinton die-hards. It took some cheating, but Clinton managed to win the Iowa caucuses against the then largely unknown Democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, 49.9% to 49.6%. Most counties were pretty 50/50 but the biggest disapritiy between them came in Jefferson County where Bernie won 72.7% of the votes to her 27.3%. The biggest county in the state, Polk, was closer. Hillary won with 12,122 votes to Bernie's 10,525. Yesterday, women from Fairfield in Jefferson County carpooled and bused up to Des Moines to march against Trumpism. In 2016 Hillary's biggest rally in Iowa was about 3,000 people. Saturday's march in Des Moines drew 26,000-- Hillary supporters, Bernie supporters... as well as independents and perhaps even Republicans who had elected Iowa delegates for Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz... even Jeb Bush.

In the general, Trump kicked Clinton's ass. He beat her in the classic swing state 798,923 (51.8%) to 650,790 (42.2%)-- turning Obama's 2012 52-46% win on it's head. In 2012 two of the state's four congressional districts elected Democrats and two elected Republicans. These were the results for the Democratic candidates in each:

• IA-01- 57%
• IA-02- 55%
• IA-03- 44%
• IA-04- 45%

With Hillary on the top of the ticket in 2016, Iowa Democrats fell apart at every level. These were the congressional candidates' results:

• IA-01- 46.1%
• IA-02- 53.7%
• IA-03- 39.8%
• IA-04- 38.6%

The only Democrat Iowa has left it it's 6 person delegation to Washington is Dave Loebsack. The district's PVIs, by the way, don't favor Republicans:

• IA-01 D+5
• IA-02 D+4
• IA03- even
• IA-04- R+5

You can't fully blame Hillary for the Democrats loss in "safely" blue IA-01 though. The DCCC (and the toxic, deadly EMILY's List) insisted on "former" Republican conservative Monica Vernon, who was backed by the New Dems as well. A weak, garbage candidate, she lost to an unimpressive Republican extremist, Rod Blum, 206,273 (53.9%) to 176,447 (46.1%)-- in Iowa's most Democratic district. IA-01 has 20 counties. Vernon won only 2, Linn (Cedar Rapids) and Black Hawk (Waterloo)-- and each just barely. In 2012, Obama won Linn with 68,028 votes and won Black Hawk with 39,338 votes, almost 60% in each county. Hillary limped to sad 1 point wins over Trump in each county. Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley (who won 17 of the 20 counties) took 66,682 votes in Linn and 40,268 votes in Black Hawk. Vernon beat Blum 58,269 to 55,140 in Linn and 31,724 to 30,749 in Black Hawk. The DCCC and their allies wasted $2 million in the primary against a progressve, Pat Murphy, who could have won. In the general, Vernon outspent Blum by a million dollars-- $2,856,502 to $1,853,837. She was a truly bottom-of-the-barrel candidate who couldn't even commit to a $10 minimum wage, making a Republican argument that a "big" minimum wage increase would hurt small businesses. None of this augers well for the Democrats in 2018, does it?

That depends. There's another former Republican in the hunt, Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, formerly everybody's favorite Republican but now a Democrat everyone is trying to figure out. He was a Bernie backer; he's a total environmental guy. He voted to raise the county minimum wage to $10/hour... but they proposed putting it on hold until they could see what the very right-wing GOP-dominated state legislature would do. Someone complained that he wrote a paean to Fidel Castro on his Facebook page when the former Cuban president died but that isn't something I would hold against anyone. The big hope was that former state Rep. Nate Willems, a true and tested progressive, would run but I spoke with him today and he had reasons that were easy to understand for why he couldn't in 2018. And then there's a very young and very progressive state Rep., Abby Finkenauer (Dubuque), a strong advocate for a living wage and someone who several people are trying to draft. After spending some time on the phone with her today, I'd say she's leaning in that direction. Hopefully we'll be hearing more from her soon. Obviously that's the district where the Democrats have to start. If they can't win back IA-01, they can't win any other Iowa districts and they can't win back control of the House.

Pat Rynard, writing for IowaStartingLine, is optimistic.

Many Democrats in Iowa are concerned that 2016 wasn’t simply an aberration, but the start of a shift in voting trends. Pointing out that Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by three million is cold comfort to Iowans who saw their state go from Obama +6 in 2012 to Trump +10 in 2016.

Will Iowa snap back that fast if Trump is an unpopular president? That’s what many potential candidates are asking themselves right now. Running for office is a big personal commitment, in time, money and the scrutiny it brings down upon you. People should run because they feel it’s the right thing to do and/or they have a cause to champion, but it’s tough to fault some from passing on a race that seems unwinnable.

Fortunately, though we’re only into the third day of the Trump presidency, many encouraging signs are already emerging.

For one, that enthusiasm gap between the parties that folks liked to talk about during the general election? It sure seems like it’s flipped to the Democrats’ and progressives’ favors considering the dueling crowd sizes of the inauguration and Women’s March. The D.C. rally was estimated at twice the size of the crowd for Trump’s swearing-in.

More important was the turnout in cities across the country. Des Moines saw 26,000 show up to the local Women’s March outside the Statehouse, while crowds of hundreds popped up around the state. That should give Iowa Democrats reassurance that the backlash against Trump won’t skip Iowa.

Comparisons to the energy of the Tea Party were apt-- there’s now clearly an energized grassroots base ready to fight. Some might question if it’s mostly made up of the people who voted for Clinton, as in it’s not an expansion of the party’s base. Even if that was the case, the biggest turnout for a rally Clinton ever got in Des Moines was about 3,000. With a 26,000 turnout yesterday, it’s clear Democrats will be much more united and enthusiastic when they’re fighting against Trump alone.

Trump’s first few days also haven’t really impressed. His inauguration speech didn’t do much to reach out to Americans beyond his core base of support. It’s still important to be cognizant of why he remains so popular among a slice of America, but he’s shown a complete inability to grow into the job so far.

And press secretary Sean Spicer’s “press conference” yesterday in which he just yelled at reporters was borderline unhinged. Now that he’s in the Oval Office, Trump needs to start producing results. It seems obvious he’s still fixated on petty appearances and grudges. That doesn’t bode well for a successful presidency.

On the state level, yesterday’s Iowa Democrats chair election produced a result that should unify activists. In the hours immediately after Derek Eadon’s victory, the vast majority of the SCC members from both Sanders and Clinton sides seemed happy and enthusiastic about moving forward and getting to work.

So while it’s obviously much too early to make any sort of prediction about the 2018 elections, Democrats have to feel good about what they’re starting to see. Assumptions that midterms would automatically be good for the party out of power isn’t a sure bet in Iowa now, but things appear to be moving in the right direction. There’s real reason for optimism, something many Democrats haven’t felt since election night.

UNRELATED To Iowa... But Noteworthy

This evening all the Senate Republicans except Rand Paul, who said he was worried that Pompeo's "desire for security will trump his defense of liberty," voted to confirm Trump's nominee for CIA Director. The Democrats who will own whatever unconstitutional crap Pompeo, a big torture enthusiast, pulls are:

• Joe Manchin (WV)
• Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
• Joe Donnelly (IN)
• Tim Kaine (VA)
• Claire McCaskill (MO)
• Dianne Feinstein (CA)
• Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
• Maggie Hassan (NH)
• Mark Warner (VA)
• Chuck Schumer (NY)
• Jack Reed (RI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
• Amy Klobuchar (MN)
• Brian Schatz (HI)
• Angus King (I-ME)

As long as we're talking about the U.S. Senate, the names above that have been bolded are all incumbent senators who will face reelection in 2018 (except Feinstein who will be retiring, although she hasn't announced that yet). Blue America has endorsed just 5 incumbents so far. You can find them all by tapping on the thermometer below (spoiler: no one who voted to confirm Pompeo).