Cotton breaks the ice with Iowa GOP

By Ed Tibbetts, Quad-City Times

CLEVELAND - U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, often mentioned as a presidential candidate someday, offered up a blend of personal resume and rural highlights during an appearance Tuesday before Iowa's delegation to the Republican convention.

Cotton, a first-term Republican from Arkansas, spoke at an economic forum at a gastropub here. He didn't waste time establishing a connection with a roomful of Iowans.

'I'm just going to say that I am the only politician who will speak to you this week who loves Iowa so much that I married a girl born in Iowa,” he said to laughter.

The 39-year-old Army veteran, who served in Iraq and won a Senate seat in 2014, is thought to have high political ambitions. He was visiting with delegates from three early nominating states at the convention this week, according to news reports.

In front of the Iowans, he said the Obama administration's foreign policy is 'impotent,” accused the president of abandoning allies and echoed Republicans criticizing Hillary Clinton over the FBI's investigation over her use of a personal email server.

He also said the Republican Party is the 'law and order” party, a phrase finding new use in a day when racial tensions are high.

'We respect and we admire, and yes, we love our police officers,” he said. 'We give them the benefit of the doubt, and we stand with them thick and thin.”

Cotton enraged Democrats last year when he spearheaded a letter to Iran from 47 Republican senators, including Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, warning that any nuclear deal with the United States could be reversed.

Critics said the letter interfered with what traditionally has been the foreign policy turf of the White House. But it also vaulted Cotton, in the minds of many, into a foreign policy leadership position.

Grassley, R-Iowa, praised Cotton on Tuesday and said that should he ever run for president, he's already established national security credentials.

'If that's a major issue when he decides to run for president, I would say he's pretty much up to date,” Grassley said.

In his remarks to the Iowa group, Cotton not only talked about his wife being born in Sioux City, but made reference to his rural roots, drawing laughter when he described himself as an 'indentured servant” while working on the family farm.

It's always been a delicate dance for politicians to position themselves for the future when much of the message of a national political convention is to focus intensely on the vote to be held just months down the road. And, given the divisions in the party this year over nominee Donald Trump, the pressure to steer clear of any kind of opportunism may be greater.

Iowa's delegation, in fact, isn't drawing the kind of star power some were expecting.

Ernst, R-Iowa, who herself drew some questions after visiting the New Hampshire delegation Tuesday - she called it a favor to colleague, Sen. Kelly Ayotte - said now is not the time to be looking toward running in 2020.

'I think that we focus on this election,” she said.