Iowa Politics: Defeat is an Orphan (Nov. 9, 2026)

Defeat is an orphan.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

As the saying goes, victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

After the heavy losses sustained by Republicans in last week's election, defeat may be an orphan, but there are plenty of folks pointing out who the fathers of the orphan defeat are, and claiming they knew this would happen all along.

Perhaps we need Mori Povich to run some DNA tests on the father of the orphaned child.

The number of Republicans in essence saying I told you so is surprisingly high, even curiouser when you consider how few of them said anything publicly in advance.

I'm guessing they were pretty quiet in private too, but see this now is a chance to put some distance between the White House and themselves, knowing that the president cannot run again.

but the opportunistic politician will and needs to posture in front of voters.

I get the idea of moving along quickly, but it's the throwing your team under the bus part that is unique and not terribly helpful given that the administration has more than two full years in office.

Then again, I am glad some of these folks

the ones who only tolerated President Trump when it served their purpose, but failed to move important legislation to show him that they were really in charge.

They're at least confirming what we thought.

The quicker they are to distance from Trump, the more certain we are that they are in it solely for themselves and not their party, their president, or most importantly, their constituents.

And again, these are people supposedly from the same political party.

Truth is one thing, but gleefully making up your own truth to score political points is why so many citizens shy away from politics.

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Monday, November 9 on Twitter, Instagram, Gitter, Threads and Truth Social at Iowa Politics.

I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540, KXEL.