Yes, there was a time when opposition research didn’t include sitting down, opening up Internet Explorer, or Firefox, or Safari, and firing up your search engine to look for tidbits on a political candidate.  This time shall be known as P.G. (Pre Google).  Kind of a funny thing when you think about it, and according to Ed Tibbets, Republican candidate for Iowa governor Chris (or Christopher) Rants thought about it and is drawing attention to the fact that one of his opponents, former Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad, last made news in the P.G. era of politics.

He has a good point. Today’s politics is a lot different than it was in Branstad’s hey-day. Today, opposition research is pretty easy. Google makes it so. Even looking for the really embarrassing courthouse stuff is easier, thanks to the Internet and the increasing willingness of courts to post documents online.

But, as Rants pointed out, Branstad is shielded from some of this because the stories written about his four terms are all pre-Google.

Well, today it looks like Rants is trying to even the scales. He’s added a new feature to his web site — an archive in which he’s scanned “news from the 80s and 90s,” as he puts it.

Don’t expect a lot of stories about Duran Duran, Big Hair or the A-Team.

Man who couldn’t do with a dose of some B.A. Baracus! See all of Ed Tibbetts’ post here.