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 …
iowa
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 …
Perry PAC Accuses Newt of Supervillainous Plot
The Super PAC supporting Rick Perry is airing a new ad bashing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in familiar terms. But it does so through a whimsical, old-timey newsreel device which I assume is meant to make the message feel less nasty. The Perry camp is probably mindful of the double-edged sword of going negative–namely that attack ads …
13 Days Till Iowa: Remember Rick Perry?
Davenport, Iowa
Is it elitist to expect that a candidate for President of the United States have a passing familiarity with the English language? Rick Perry is a mud-track biker when it comes to fluency, slipping and sliding …
Mitt Romney: Mr. Plurality
Adam mentions below that the prominent Iowa social conservative Bob Vander Plaats has endorsed the fervently pro-life, “values”-centric Rick Santorum. My first reaction is to shrug, because Rick Santorum is not only a virtually hopeless contender for the GOP nomination, but also an extreme long shot even to win Iowa, despite the slightly …
A Day of Iowa Splintering
The Iowa caucuses are unlikely to deliver any candidate a clear mandate in the Republican presidential nomination contest in two weeks. In fact, if anything, the chances for a split decision are growing every day — as today’s campaign highlights make abundantly clear.
Newt Gingrich Falls Back to Earth
The overall primary picture is still muddy, but several surveys released over the weekend found Newt Gingrich’s lead erased in Iowa and lessening nationwide. If current trends continue, Ron Paul seems well poised to win a split …
The Final Iowa Debate: A Snap-Shot of the Republican Race
Thursday night’s Republican presidential primary debate in Sioux City, the last before votes are cast next month in Iowa, played out as a microcosm of the current race. As his rivals’ attack ads are beginning to chip away at Newt …
Mitt Romney’s Return to Negativeland
Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens wrote a fine book about his work for George W. Bush on the 2000 presidential campaign, and he aptly describes the moment in just about every big-ticket campaign when the candidate opts to go negative. “You resolve to endure pain to inflict pain. It’s Serb vs. Muslim, Hatfield vs. McCoy, Spy vs. …
Gingrich and Paul: A History of Bad Blood
This is Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s third presidential bid, but never before has he gone negative the way he has in recent weeks on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Paul is spending $429,000 on television ads — a whopping amount, more than almost any other candidate — and much of that is in this 60-second buy in Iowa. The ad is brutal, …
Why Rick Perry’s New Ads Are Wrong on Religion–And Obama
For a swaggering Texas cowboy, Rick Perry certainly does have a serious victim complex. In two different campaign ads released in Iowa this week, the Texas governor defends his faith from enemies named and unnamed. “I’m not ashamed to talk about my faith,” he says in the first spot. “Some liberals say that faith is a sign of weakness. …
CNN/TIME/ORC Poll: Gingrich Posts Massive Gains in Key Early States
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, once given up for dead in the Republican presidential primary, picked the right moment for a dramatic comeback. With less than a month to go until voting begins, Gingrich now leads the field of …