Sunday Morning Coffee - October 12

Sunday mornings usually find me writing last minute items for our radio show, Highway 6 - Your Road to the Country.  It's a rural lifestyle show coming out of Central Iowa and this nation's only full hour talk show about living and loving small farms and acreages.

Sunday Morning Coffee was, in a way, the the radio show before we started the show.  In it we look at several topics in quick bites.

Let's go:

There seem to be few bright spots in the news these days.  One of the scary things for farm states is the drop in the price of corn and soybeans.  In the past sixty days the commodities markets have lost 30% with corn dropping back to around $4 on the heals of the USDA estimate of a larger harvest that previously reported.  So, what does that mean?  1)  Slower economy in rural areas; 2)  Reduced prices but increased costs to farmers.  However, lower crop prices should help livestock farmers/ranchers.  We'll see.  Monday the government is closed (Columbus Day) but the markets are open.

The Iowa Chops have won their first two games of their American Hockey League (AHL) debut in Des Moines.  Both wins are come from behind victories.  The Chops (farm team for the Anaheim Ducks) replaced the Iowa Stars (farm team for the Dallas Stars) this season and play a very different style of hockey.  The Stars were a skating team...the Chops are a physical team and it's got the fans excited.  Not a hockey fan?   Come on...  Go once and get hooked!

Who is in charge?  With Americans disapproving of nearly everything going on in the country it's clear there is a profound lack of leadership.  And, when the conservative talk show hosts are relentless in their attacks on the Bush Administration...  Well, none of this looks good for John McCain.  The real question is can Obama turn the millions of young voters out on election day?  As David Yepsen from the Des Moines Register said today, "Don't count McCain out just yet."  David also said McCain won the first debate.

On a related note...Iowans can vote early and 14% of the voters already have.  The numbers:  65% - Obama, 31% McCain.  The Daily Kos has early numbers from some other states like Georgia and North Carolina.

Yesterday my wife rode her bicycle 127 miles.  That is NOT a typo!  It would have been a little less, but she made a wrong turn.  Here is the proof in the form of a phone photo she sent to me still 27 miles short of being home.  Amazing and yep, I'm pretty proud of that.  Nice job!

Hey...it's 7:15...time to head to the studio 983wowfm for the show.  Thanks for reading.  A reminder Highway 6 - Your Road to the Country can be heard by using your computer.  Just head here and click in.

Michael P. Libbie - Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications