How Rick Santorum’s Old-School Politicking Is Paying Off in Iowa

By: Alex Altman
Time Magazine
December 30, 2011
Des Moines, Iowa

Rick Santorum may have been quiet and not heard from in a lot in these debates, but that is because he has been doing what will get him atleast second place. Rick may not have the highest paid people backing his campaign but sometimes money is everything. Rick has been putting in a great deal of time in Iowa. Rick went down there when no other candidate was present and he just talked to the people of Iowa. Guess what? Rick has went up 11% since he has been spending a little extra time there. They say he is right on the tails of Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Some even say that he took Ron Paul's number two spot and that his percentage will slowly but surely increase. People are comparing Rick's increase in supporters similar to Huckabee's. Only difference is, is that most Iowa does not believe that Rick has teh power and support yet to win in the caucus overall but he most likely will come in second place. What has also helped Rick is the supporters he has recieved lately, they have helped him run more ads being as though it is closer to caucus time. They say he got these supporters recently because of his faith and commitment to the caucus. But as of today this is what people have to say

“If I had to predict today, I’d say Romney’s probably going to win, and there’s a race between Santorum and Paul for second,” Vander Plaats says. “But who knows. He could even pull this thing out.”

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/12/30/how-rick-santorums-old-school-politicking-is-paying-off-in-iowa/#ixzz1i5kow5jI

Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann and Santorum Go Extreme on Abortion

Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann and Santorum Go Extreme on Abortion
Dec 28, 2011 4:45 AM
Daily Beast
Michelle Goldberg
Personhood USA, held a "tele-town hall" hosted by a Iowa radio program and the big topic they talked about was ABORTION. This past November the Personhood USA tried to pass a ballot to define a human fertile egg as a person. This event supported the banning of abortion everywhere even during crazy circumstances. These crazy circumstances being rape, incest and detrimental to the mothers health. Rick Perry on this program stated that he agreed with their being no exceptions to abortions but earlier in other programs he said that he did agree with some exceptions. He obviously had a change of heart. This is why he says he changed  “And over the course of the last few weeks, the Christmas holidays and reflecting on that…all I can say is that God was working on my heart.” Bachmann also proved that she is very dishonest. She went on record to say that Obama is putting birth control and contraception on the market for girls as young as 8. This is conpletely false, Obama just denied the FDA to sell emergency contraception over the counter. They obviously have strong opinions on abortion , I wonder how our lives will change if one of these candidates become president.

Gingrich assails Romney for 'smear campaign'

Associated PressBy Shannon McCaffrey
Dec 20, 6:42 PM

Newt Gingrich is no longer so peaceful and calm. He is coming for Mitt Romney saying he is running a smeared campaign. Gingrich comes at Romney saying that he is contradicting himself claiming to be above this smear. But all the while Gingrich says "Understand, these are his people running his ads, doing his dirty work while he pretends to be above it,". At a machinery plant in Ottumwa, Iowa Gingrich said "I don't object to being outspent. I object to lies. I object to negative smear campaigns.". Although Gingrich is very upset but he said he will not break his promise to run a campaign that the people can be proud of.
 He says he will remain relentlessly positive and remain his composure. He might say he is going to be the more mature candidate and take the higher road but that has not stopped him from talking. "I think these guys hire consultants who get drunk, sit around and write stupid ads," Gingrich replied. "Every one of these candidates should take responsibility for the lies they are putting up". .Romney has no plan to halt the attacks and slaundering of Gingrichs name, he said he has every right to run his campaign just like he is now.







URL:http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GINGRICH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-20-17-35-09

Mr. Gingrich’s faulty judgment about the courts

Washington Post
Tuesday, December 20th
By: Editorial Board

"NEWT GINGRICH HAS a love-hate relationship with the Founding Fathers. He loves to cite them but hates to do so in context".


The Washington Post basically says how Gingrich is taking the law into his own hands. Gingrich is undermining the rule of law and what our judiciary system deals with everyday. He says as the president of the United States he will take it into his own hands to target particular judges and cancel certain courts; this is his form of liberal judiciary activism. He compares his thoughts to those of Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Thomas Jefferson when he became president worked with Capitol Hill to rework the judges. The difference between Gingrich and Jeffersons plan is very simple; Gingrich is eliminating judges to replace them with judges that have similar beliefs to Gingrichs. He would like to have his cabinet full of conservatives like himself. Gingrich does not like the California based federal system. A writer Matthew Fanck calls Gingrich a cheater, he is trying to get around that fact that you only impeach judges if they fail to serve "during good behavior".




URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-gingrichs-faulty-judgment-about-the-courts/2011/12/19/gIQAzooz7O_story.html?hpid=z2

"Paul Could Lead From Behind"

Wall Street Journal
December 13, 2011
By: Gerald F. Seib

In this Wall Street Journal, the election is taking a turn. Ron Paul may actually have a chance to place second in this Iowa and New Hampshire caucus coming up. Earlier in the election he had about 10% support. Recently , as Iowa polls come out Ron Paul has about 18% in the polls now. This is enough for him to compete for his spot in the number two spot. Paul also has a great advantage because most of his voters are very loyal. They are not just with him because they love him but because they love his ideas and his overall philosophy he believes in as a president.
A great deal of his followers believe in his views on religion. This is a hot button topic, so people who are big conservatives and traditionalist will side with him and try and get the religion back where they believe it should be. Romney and Paul are going to go head to head over the New Hampshire and Iowa caucus because the states they visit after those two are most likely going to be Gingrich's win because already they are backing him. So If Paul wants any chance he will have to go hard for his spot. It also might be benefical for Paul to let Romney and Gingrich air each others dirty laundry until they both eliminate themselves. He is also love for another one of his ideas which is to scale down on government. I wonder what will happen next week.

"Romney Warns of Nominating 'Zany' Gingrich,"

New York Times very own Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker interviewed Mitt Romney this previous Wednesday and he has a lot to say about one of his fellow presidential candidates. Gingrich seems to be the only person on the chopping block in his eye. This is to be expected since Gingrich is the leader according to polls, with only 20 days left until the Iowa caucus.
Mitt Romney say that Gingrich is "Zany" and highly discourages any republican to vote for him. Romney says in the article that “Zany is not what we need in a president. Zany is great in a campaign. It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading,”. Romney was basically coming at Gingrich and how he feels that he is unfit to handle the position of president. He also reassured the people of America that he is not out the election, and that his campaign is going well. He also goes along to say that hes glad that he did not do much press before this because now all eyes are on Gingrich and his wrongs. Romney hopes that he will earn the win of the early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. The couple of articles I have read, including this one has showed me that Gingrich has no choice but to say on top of everything because every candidate is coming for his number one sop so i hope hes ready to take the trouble he has coming for him. We might find out something new about his past we did not know, this is around the time everything comes out.








URL:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45673470/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/t/romney-warns-nominating-zany-gingrich/

Campaign Countdown: 24 Days Till Iowa

Campaign Countdown: 24 Days Till Iowa by Joe Klein in Time Magazine is basically the month kick off article to the New Hampshire and Iowa contests. Joe Klein talks about this being the most important and intense time of the presidential elections. Klein says this is about the time that everybody basically knows wo they are voting for but for the political geeks this is the time everyone gets excited for. This is the time that candidates go back and forth and try and throw any dirt they could conger
up on their opponent this is the time to expose it. According to Klein now that Hermain has dropped out of the election all eyes are on Gingrich because he currently has the number one spot, how is he going to react when the other candidates come for him. Klein says that Gingrich has been very calm and presidential so far, he says that he will continue to be that way he will not let the other candidates see hium sweat. But the insults have already started to roll in from candidates such as Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. These insults have come in forms of television ads and hits during the debates. in this article Klein says that Perry, Paul and Romney have been coming at Gingrich the hardest. Paul says that he is corrupt and Perry and Romney are coming at him about is health insurance beliefs. Klein knows that they will all fight out their sides during this upcoming month. Klein is looking forward to the "Lincoln-Douglas" style debate most with Gingrich and Huntsman. So lets see what happens.



URL: http://www.centralhigh.net/ExtLink.page

G.O.P. Debate Sets All Eyes on Gingrich

Today in the New York Times on page A1, Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg wrote an article on the G.O.P debate which was held in Des Moines. Newt Gingrich is the leader in the Republican polls according too Iowa and ABC polls. Even though Newt Gingrich is the top dog in polls he still has been recieving great criticism from his fellow Republican candidates. Gingrich has been put on under the spot light for numerous reasons. The first reason was about his numerous marriages and marital affairs which was news to me. Gingrich has been married three times and has admitted to affairs. The only thing Gingrich said was "In my case, I said up front openly, I’ve made mistakes at times. I’ve had to go to God for forgiveness. I’ve had to seek reconciliation.” Another heated topic is how Gingrich and Romney both back Obama's health care law saying that every person should have health care. Also, Gingrich was called an inconsistent conservative by Ron Paul saying he recieved 1.8 million dollars for advise for a government sponsered mortgage lender. Gingrich says "I offered strategic advise and I was in a private sector." There were two highlights of the night. The fist highlight was Gingrich and Romney being on stage debating together because  just going back and forth. Romney seemed as thought he was coming for Gingrich, they argued on their very different leadership styles, views and backgrounds. The last hightlight of the night was when Romney put Gingrich on the spot about him calling "Palestinians were an invented people". In his defense he said "I was describing the Palestinian liberation movement as a historian, and that as a “Reaganite,”. Dont get me wrong even thought Gingrich took a lot of hits during this debate, he kept his cool. When his fellow candidates kept firing at him with questions he answered them calmly and with a smile, they never took him out of his character. In three weeks when Iowa caucuses opens we'll see if this debate hurts Gingrich's lead in republican polls.
URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/politics/in-gop-iowa-debate-rivals-target-newt-gingrich.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper