Republican presidential candidates and their supporters swarm the Land of Lincoln for Tuesday’s contest.
2012 Election
Santorum’s Grim Delegate Math
Rick Santorum’s campaign held an hour-long conference call with reporters on Tuesday with two purposes: 1) to say that it’s not fair that all anyone is talking about is Mitt Romney’s delegate lead, and 2) explain their memo claiming that Mitt Romney’s delegate lead isn’t as big as everyone else says it is.
How Mitt Can Win, Cont.
He can lie. As Bryan Walsh discusses and the New York Times amplifies today, Romney has been selling whoppers about the President’s position on gasoline prices. This continues a disturbing trend that has existed from the very start of his campaign: Romney and his handlers have been all too willing to tell blatant untruths about the President.
For Rick Santorum, Staying Alive Means Keeping Things Interesting
As Illinois Republicans go to the polls today, it has been some ten weeks since the first votes of this GOP primary were cast in Iowa. Since then, the campaign has offered a rich buffet of plot twists and controversies: the rise …
What Santorum Means By the Odds of an Open Convention ‘Increasing’
That’s the line he used Monday morning in an interview with CBS News. Here’s what he can’t say, but really means:
The already slim chances of Santorum securing the 1,144 delegates required to clinch the nomination are rapidly decreasing. Mitt Romney routed him in Puerto Rico over the weekend and two polls out Monday show him trailing …
Mitt Romney Embraces the Economy Counterfactual
Awhile back, we wrote that a sunnier economic outlook is calling into question who will have to make the difficult argument that the economy could have been better or worse if Barack Obama had not been elected in 2008. For most of his term, that burden has fallen to the President, who reacted to a stagnant recovery with constant …
How an Obama-Romney Election Battle Would Pit Small Donors Against Large
The 2012 election is, in many ways, shaping up to be a contest defined by financial disparity. The rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street movement, predicated on the idea of an existential struggle between the 99% and the 1%, has …
Babies of the Campaign Trail
For presidential candidates, posing with supporters’ babies is a rite of passage as important as eating deep-fried state fair food or enduring endless debates. TIME celebrates this hallowed tradition with 34 photos of infants in …
On Social Issues, Santorum Can’t Help Himself
When it comes to religion and morality, Rick Santorum is in a tricky position. He is clearly guided by his devout Catholic faith and most passionate about cultural values. And that explains a lot of his appeal among conservative …
Santorum’s Momentum Meets Romney’s Money in Illinois
John Zahm has his hands full. He is the only paid campaign staffer for Rick Santorum in the entire state of Illinois, which hosts the next crucial clash in the Republican nominating contest on Tuesday. A local Tea Party leader …
Over-Selling a Comeback: The Big Risk in Joe Biden’s First Campaign Speech
Pop quiz: What’s the difference between an Obama campaign event and an Obama White House event?
Answer: At a White House event, Republicans are called “folks” or “politicians.” At a campaign event, names are named.
Vice …
Has Gingrich’s Dyspeptic Candidacy Overstayed Its Welcome?
National Review‘s Rich Lowry, writing in the new issue of TIME, makes the case that it has:
Santorum has outclassed Gingrich. The former Pennsylvania Senator is famously undisciplined, but compared with Gingrich, he’s a robot. He can be prickly, but compared with Gingrich, he’s Little Miss Sunshine. He has won nine contests, more than
…
Why Ron Paul May Cut a Deal with Mitt Romney
For Ron Paul, victory is finally in sight. No, not a swearing-in ceremony next Jan. 20 or even a single statewide win. Halfway through the primary season, Paul has won only a preference poll in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and he is …