Des Moines, Iowa
Three candidates and one candidate’s band of sons attended Valley High this morning to make one final appeal to young voters before this evening’s caucuses. Their brief speeches, given in a gym draped with …
iowa
The Iowa Ad Bonanza: GOP Candidates’ Closing Arguments on TV
As the GOP presidential primary campaign winds down its Iowa chapter, the candidates have taken to their buses and prop planes to sniff out undecided voters in the farthest reaches of the state before Tuesday’s caucuses. But to the nonfanatical participants, those who haven’t crowded into coffee shops or diners to catch a glimpse of the …
How Rick Santorum’s Old-School Politicking Is Paying Off in Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Rick Santorum was a surprise hiding in plain sight. All year, as rivals peaked and plummeted and the glut of televised debates offered a national megaphone, Santorum ran a textbook local race, doggedly criss-crossing Iowa’s remote precincts in a pickup truck, meeting small clusters of voters to enumerate his merits. …
Mitt Romney’s Fierce General Election Strategy at Work in Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
For Mitt Romney’s campaign, there’s no question whom this election is really about. “Let’s be real clear, Barack Obama came out to Iowa and he talked about hope and change,” New Jersey Gov. Chris …
Why Rick Santorum Is No Social-Conservative Savior
With less than a week to go before the Iowa caucuses, it looks like the “come-from-way-behind Rick Santorum boomlet” I joked about a month ago could actually be a reality. And unlike many of the other candidate surges that have …
What the Rick Santorum Swell Has Wrought
“People say, when are you gonna get your surge?” Rick Santorum said today in Iowa. “I say, January 3.” He’s gloating and rightly so; a TIME/CNN poll released Wednesday showed Santorum thundering up the leader-board at the most opportune of times: five days before the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
If Santorum is indeed pulling …
On the Trail With Ron Paul: Love, Curiosity and Anger in Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Through the booms and busts of the Iowa campaign—Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich—Ron Paul has steadily built his following in the Hawkeye State, where he now sits atop the polls. But …
With Support Slipping, Gingrich Falls Back on Appeal for Comity
Spencer, Iowa
Newt Gingrich has a problem. It’s not just the avalanche of attack ads burying his campaign, or his comparative lack of cash, or the nattering naysayers’ inability to wrap their heads around his unorthodox …
Mitt Romney in Iowa: Winning, One Slogan at a Time
Clinton, Iowa
As Mitt Romney enters the final stretch in Iowa, poll numbers rising, crowds appearing, the inevitability beginning to sink in, his message is honed down, lean and mean, with declarative sentences that slice the …
Q&A: Kent Sorenson, the Iowa Senator Who Just Jumped Ship from Bachmann to Paul
On Wednesday afternoon, state senator Kent Sorenson appeared with Michele Bachmann as the chair of her Iowa campaign. On Wednesday evening, Sorenson was stepping onto the stage at a veterans’ rally to endorse Ron Paul, switching …
CNN/TIME/ORC Poll: Gingrich Collapse Fuels Santorum Surge in Iowa, Solidifies Romney Lead in New Hampshire
With less than a week to go until Republicans cast the first votes of the 2012 presidential race in Iowa, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas congressman Ron Paul remain atop the field there, even as the fortunes …
Ron Paul’s Novel Coalition Faces Its Major Moment in Iowa
Go to any Ron Paul event and the audience is part of the tale. They’re younger, rowdier, more socially diverse than Republican rally regulars. Any one of them might have driven across the state to see Paul speak or be able to …
Details of Mortgage Servicing Settlement Between Banks and AGs Begin to Emerge
The never-ending negotiations between the 50 state attorneys general (minus a few big ones) and five major banks over penalties and standards for past, present and future mortgage servicing are finally ending, and some details …
