Saturday, December 24, 2011
Political operatives have moved away from small caucuses in people's homes to large venues that can hold hundreds of caucus-goers.
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Gone are the days of living-room caucuses in Iowa By Lynn Campbell IowaPolitics.com DES MOINES — When Vonnie Kinkade hosted a presidential caucus at her Creston home, she served coffee and iced tea, and her garage was packed with about 30 people. But that was about 12 years ago, she said, when Republican George W. Bush won the Jan. 24, 2000, caucuses with nearly 41 percent of the vote. Since then, organizers for the 1,774 precincts in Iowa's 99 counties have moved away from holding caucuses in people's homes. The vast majority of Iowa's first-in-the-nation GOP presidential caucuses on Jan. 3 will be held in public places like schools, churches, libraries, community halls and fire stations. "It's hard enough to get people to these things, …
Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann met a raucous crowd at Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City on Thursday. Police were called in to keep the peace.
By now the GOP presidential candidates have seen it all: hecklers, protesters, haters of all shapes and sizes. Well, mostly all. On Thursday afternoon in Iowa City, Michele Bachmann encountered a man dressed in a robot suit, who shouted her down with the aid of a built-in megaphone. He called himself, "roboprof," and was booed and quickly asked to leave Hamburg Inn No. 2, where Bachmann made the campaign stop. "I am a gay robot. I oppose Bachmann's position on gays, whether they are human or robot," said the man, who declined to give his name, although he admitted to being the same robot who heckled Bill Clinton at the University of Iowa in 2007. See more: Video of Iowa City Bachmann Stop Captures Gay Robot, Occupy Iowa City Mic Check, …
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
In Iowa and the other early voting states, support among Power Outsiders dips a bit for Gingrich. Ron Paul, meanwhile, continues to gain support among the electorate at large.
While not as dramatic as the change in some polls of the wider electorate, support for Mitt Romney among local Republican activists in Iowa and the other early voting states has risen over the past week, while support for Newt Gingrich has slipped. Still, with just two weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses, the latest Power Outsiders survey conducted by The Huffington Post and Patch also shows that more than one-third of these local Republican insiders remain uncertain about their choice for president. Ron Paul has little support among local, "inside" Republicans but continues to gain in polls of the electorate at large. Why do you think that is? Tell us in the comments section below. The Power Outsiders poll is an ongoing effort to …
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Bob Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley give their nod to the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, which could give his organization a boost.
Bob Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley, two of Iowa's most high-profile and influential evangelical leaders, today endorsed Rick Santorum for the GOP nomination for president and called for other candidates to drop out of the race to join behind him. The endorsements, while a boost for Santorum, were personal and not on behalf of their religious organizations, which may indicate that the fractured social conservative vote in Iowa remains so. Vander Plaats, president of The Family Leader, was the Iowa state chairman for Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign, which he lost to John McCain after winning the Iowa caucuses. Last year The Hill named the Vander Plaats endorsement as one of the top 10 coveted endorsements of Republicans running …
Monday, December 19, 2011
Although the presidential candidate did address other issues, the repetitive theme of the night was Gingrich denouncing negative ads that have been run against him.
Newt Gingrich has a small favor to ask of his GOP rivals for the presidential nomination: Cut out the negative advertising. "When you see one of these guys, ask them how they can keep these negative ads on the air," Gingrich implored a crowd of about 125 during a campaign stop in Hiawatha on Monday evening. Gingrich, accompanied by his wife, Callista, spoke for about a half hour at a town hall style event Monday night at Level 10 Apparel, a screen printing custom-clothing company in Hiawatha. If Level 10 had made Gingrich a customized T-shirt to match the theme of much of his speech, it would have had a picture of a negative ad with an X over it. The former House Speaker asked the crowd to tell his attack-minded fellow candidates they "…
Public Policy Polling shows Gingrich in third, behind Paul and Mitt Romney. Other polls show Gingrich's support falling, too.
Support for Newt Gingrich in Iowa is "imploding" as Ron Paul continues to gain strength, according to several polls, including one from Public Policy Polling that shows Paul surging to the lead. That poll roughly tracks a "poll of polls" from Real Clear Politics, which shows Gingrich up by a single point over Paul and two points ahead of Mitt Romney. That's down from a 10-point lead only two weeks ago. Can Ron Paul really pull off a win in the Iowa caucuses? Tell us in the comments section below. The Public Policy poll shows Paul at 23 percent, Romney at 20 percent and Gingrich falling to 14 percent, ahead of Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, who each are polling at 10 percent. "Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding …
The New Hampshire author of this opinion piece makes the case that Iowa just doesn't really matter come election time. Not compared to New Hampshire, anyway.
Editors Note: First, it was The Atlantic and the "journalist" Stephen Bloom, who dissed Iowans with a piece of lazy writing that called us everything but human. Our own Brian Morelli, Iowa associate regional editor for Patch, responded to that one. Now we've got a New Hampshirite going at us. Our friends at Patch in the Granite State carried the opinion piece below from Jim Splaine, a former state representative and senator. He tries to make the case that the January 3 Iowa Caucus doesn't mean much. His piece is a lot more reasoned than The Atlantic drivel. Still, we'll have to respectfully take exception to his thoughts. Iowa goes first for a reason, Mr. Splaine: Reason. What do you think of what this guy has to say? Tell us -- and him…
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Romney acknowledged he once supported a woman's right to an abortion, but now considers himself pro-life. Opponents attack him as a flip-flopper. Iowans weigh in.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Can Iowa overlook Romney's flip flops? By Hannah Hess IowaPolitics.com IOWA CITY — Cedar Rapids Republican Kevin McCarville, a 60-year-old card-carrying member of anti-abortion advocacy group National Right to Life, considers himself adamantly "pro-life." He told a Mitt Romney backer last year that he never could support the former Massachusetts governor's bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination because of his perceived inconsistency on abortion. Romney vowed to "preserve and protect a woman's right to choose," during his 2002 bid for governor, then wrote a 2005 op-ed for the Boston Globe, stating he was "pro-life" — one of many issue stances that his rivals have characterized as a flip-flop. But on Friday, McCarville said he …
Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Des Moines Register says Romney has the qualities of sobriety, wisdom and judgment.
The Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper, tonight gave its endorsement for the GOP presidential nomination to Mitt Romney, calling him "the most qualified Republican candidate competing in the Iowa caucuses." The newspaper rejected Newt Gingrich as "an undisciplined partisan who would alienate, not unite, if he reverts to mean-spirited attacks on display as House speaker." Of Ron Paul, who has been near the top of most Iowa polls with Gingrich and Romney, the endorsement said his "libertarian ideology would lead to economic chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford." Posted on the Register's website tonight and set for the newspaper's Sunday print editions, the endorsement is likely to find little favor among…
Friday, December 16, 2011
Presidential hopeful Ron Paul hopes to raise $4 million today to finance his campaign through contributions from supporters across the country. The fundraiser is being called a "money bomb."
On this day four years ago, Republican candidate Ron Paul did something that many thought just simply couldn't be done. On Dec. 16, 2007, the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, Paul raised more than $6.4 million in one single day to finance his run for the White House. That's $6.4 million. In one. Single. Day. Today, he hopes to do it again. Coined "the money bomb," Paul's campaign has been bombarding supporters' inboxes and blowing up You Tube with a call to raise more than $4 million. According to his e-mails, the money will fund his campaign as he moves into New Hampshire after the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucus. "I have an aggressive mail, Internet, and TV ad blitz planned to reach the undecided voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, but I need …
randy crawford
5:14 pm on Sunday, April 15, 2012
(2) then what is the university worth beyond functioning (sort of) at the level of passing irrelevant fancy? Why aren't they then paying me to goof off and do as I please on the public dime, or give me a cozy job so I can do that type of thing on my abundant free time? Trouten is trying to dismiss the shouting and censorship of Occupy under the euphemism of 'mic check' as if, in an obviouis … more ›