Category Archives: Iowa


Thoughts on Iowa debate

The loser was clearly the moderator. What was Alan Keyes doing there?
But I thought that Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson did well.
Interestingly, CNN and Fox both had dial focus groups. CNN had a Huckabee clip that he performed well on. Fox had Romney and Thompson.
Probably the most memorable piece was Thompson refusing […]

Romney goes negative on Huckabee

The first negative TV ad of the cycle comes out with Mitt Romney attacking Mike Huckabee’s immigration position.  The commentariat and the Huckabee campaign have responded pretty sharply.
Jonathan Martin called it "Mitt desperation".
Chris Cilizza said:

First, it attempts to blur any differences between Romney and Huckabee on issues of importance to social conservative voters by noting […]

CNN setting a Romney narrative?

From yesterday.

Note the closing quote:
this is a narrative that is continuing with Mitt Romney that he says something publicly that might not match what he is doing privately or what he has done in the past
H/T: Jen Rubin. Marc Ambinder was also there.

Tags: Immigration, Iowa, Media, Romney

Fred’s all in?

The Weekly Standard in reporting through a blog and a story that Fred Thompson is "all in" in Iowa. From the story, the operative quote appears to be:
"Iowa is critical to our campaign, and it may in fact be everything to our campaign," says one Thompson official. "If we don’t do what we need to […]

Yepsen on the Iowa caucus

The Politico and GWU sponsored a panel with local reporters from New Hampshire, Iowa, and Nevada.
David Yepsen had a couple of interesting things to say. He asserted that GOP turnout was likely to be about 90k, based on recent polling. In that context, he mentioned that there are 20k Mormons in Iowa. The point is […]

Romney, falling in IA polls, gives “Mormon Speech”

For months and months and months, there has been speculation that Mitt Romney would give a "Mormon Speech." There have been several reports that this has been an issue inside the usually disciplined Romney campaign. Well. He’s giving it on Thursday. Earlier Romney told the AP:
"I have some folks who think I should do it […]

Romney’s IA immigration piece and his strange cynicism

Jonathan Martin posted the PDF of Mitt Romney’s immigration contrast mail piece in Iowa. He compares himself to the other top 4 GOP candidates. But look at the dates.
The thing that strikes me…. Romney’s position on immigration is defended with 2 quotes from 2007 and one from 2003 and 2004.  His quotes for Rudy Giuliani […]

‘Voters’ Who Broke Story on Romney Calls On Romney Payroll

I thought that I was going to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving. Perhaps not.
Erick Erickson at Redstate (disclosure I too contribute to Redstate) has uncovered some more information on the Mitt Romney phone scandal. Leon Wolf, another Redstate contributor who today endorsed Mitt Romney, also pointed out that this happened previously (described then) when Leon […]

The strange anti-Romney push poll

Let me start with a story.
Several years ago, in a swing House seat, volunteers for the Democratic candidate, started calling the finance committee of the Republican candidate, three days out. The message? That the Democratic candidate was a Jew and "we can’t let another Jew get in office." The Democrat volunteers identified themselves on […]

ARG, Fred, and Mitt

I normally don’t write about polls, especially ARG polls. But I was struck by two things in the most recent batch.
The first one, which lots of people have talked about is Mitt Romney’s rise in South Carolina. That’s new. Is it real? Is it TV moving numbers?
But the second thing is Fred Thompson. His collapse. […]