Last Call For Iowa

++The best poll I saw had four candidates tied with 17%. The Republican race has so turned me off that I hope they all tie.

++Newt Gingrich cried yesterday when talking about his mother. This did in Ed Muskie and then was seen as a liability for Hillary Clinton. But there has been no pushback on Newt for this. But hearing the remarks,you have to wonder if Newt was forced to consider long-term care, bipolar disorder, and alzheimer's as he said, then why does he not have any policies that address these things? Presumably, one's personal experience shapes your policy choices. For instance, the issue of why Barack Obama pressed his healthcare reform had less to do with ideology than the memory of his terminally ill mother filling out insurance forms. Why don't we see this type of response among the Republicans?

++Doug Bandow of the CATO Institute finally stood up for Ron Paul's foreign policy statements at www.huffingtonpost.com and criticized the other candidates for simply following down the GOP line of the last decade, which led to the reckless loss of life, national bankruptcy and the militarization of our society.

++Mitt's son thought he would be cute and say that his father would release his tax returns when President Obama would release his birth certificate and his grades. Nice try, punk. President Obama tweeted that Mitt's son probably didn't buy the Obama 2012 mug with the birth certificate printed on the back. The Obama campaign fund-raised all day long on this idiocy. Mitt's son then tweeted,"My bad." He was just making a bad joke.

++But Mitt's tax returns are no joke. He actually told Andrea Mitchell that he might release his tax returns after he became President. Is it just me or does anyone else find Romney a condescending little rich guy who believes he doesn't have to play by the rules? The DNC released an internet ad on "What is Mitt hiding?" about the tax forms. The ad showed that every Republican president starting with Gerald Ford had released their tax returns. The kicker in my mind was the note that George Romney released his in 1968 when he was running against Nixon. I guess the son has alot more to hide.

++Josh Marshall at www.talkingpointsmemo.com picked up the theme of the tax returns today and suggested not only will it show Mitt pays around 14% but that the returns will show perfectly legal but complex tax shelters, which will not go over in the time of Occupy Wall Street.

++Speaking of which, Romney claims he is not a "Wall Street guy in the classical sense." Since Romney is running as a "successful businessman", this statement really needs some investigation. Reporters are beginning to sense there is more here than just Bain Capital and leveraging businesses and forcing some to move overseas. Instead, we are beginning to hear that his first successful gig was managing the money for the Mormons and their institutions. Expect to hear ore of this as we move along through the year.

++For my friends who claim that Romney is not so bad because he really is a moderate,check out the articles on how Romney "became" pro-choice when he ran in Massachusetts because he consulted polls that showed a pro-lifer could not win. Only Jon Huntsman seems relentless in going after Romney on his say anything to get elected posture.

++Expect to see Romney's Super Pac use the same techniques they did against Newt against President Obama. So far, the contributors to this Super Pac are anonymous but their attack ads against Newt plunged him down in the polls while Mitt acted above the fray.

++With all the pundits saying that Romney will go for a knock out blow with Iowa and New Hampshire, it's useful to point out that he only gets to 25%--although leading with that--nationwide. It really is true that people don't like him but Republicans are being conditioned to accept him. 39% of Iowa Republicans now believe he will be the nominee.

++Beltway pundits are beginning to see Romney's bald-faced attacks on his opponents as simply reflecting his own weaknesses.Whether Romney can continue to use these attacks to deflect people from aking about his own dubious positions is up for grabs.

++The Save Social Security organization put out their report card on the GOP candidates and found all failed to support Social Security. For me, this raises the mystery why senior citizens favor the Republicans and ,in fact. Mitt Romney. It doesn't make any sense.

++It looks like we will see Michelle Bachmann leave the contest after Iowa. She has lost her key campaign organizers to Ron Paul and "nativist" Steve King of Iowa appeared at a function yesterday with her, which had more reporters than citizens. And the guy didn't even endorse her. Her old campaign manager Ed Rollins said the reason she never attacked Romney was that she wants to be his vice-president. Get it--the attack woman like Sarah Palin.

++Newt said he would consider having Sarah Palin on the ticket or make her secretary of energy. Consider that for a moment. We currently have Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as our Energy Secretary. Despite the Solyandra mess, Chu has been probably the most distinguished energy secretary in my lifetime. He has pushed alternative energies, he has been making technological breakthroughs on actually creating "Clean Coal" and he will be the one responsible for making America energy independent by next term, if allowed to work. And you replace him with Sarah Palin? That is exactly what this election is about. Competence and excellence over incompetent ideologues.

++I can't really get into all the MSM criticism about Ron Paul's racism, homophobia and other eccentric views. Nobody wants to take on his position on the Fed, when recent articles indicate the reason we don't have a European crisis of our own is the fact we have a Fed. Instead, let's go after a 76-year oold man, who has no chance to become President. Why? To support Romney?

++Don't count Rick Perry out yet.He still is hitting double digits. Perry got some zingers in yesterday when he pointed out that Rick Santorum voted for the Bridge to Nowhere. Santorum backed his own record for ear-marking. Personally, I am for earmarking appropriations. What else is a congressperson to do?

++The Los Angeles Times reports that Iowa Democrats will cross lines to vote in the Republican Caucus and vote for Ron Paul. The other Democratic story there is that the Obama campaign is treating Iowa as a trial run for the general election and mobilizing people in force. It will be interesting to see how we will know how successful they will be.

++The Obama campaign still values organization over media. We saw the mixed results in 2010. In races, Organizing for America mobilized voters Democrats did not do badly. But last election it seemed to me the flood of corporate money changed the results. That is clearly what Republicans are thinking. Why else would you have the majority of GOP candidates fail to make the Virginia ballot and now the primary in Tennessee? There has been no emphasis on organization except among the Ron Paul and Romney campaigns. In a general election, I think this would be a major flaw.

++Does Iowa mean anything? If Romney wins, it gives him momentum and serves to condition Republican voters to accept him. If Paul wins, no it doesn't mean anything. What it may mean is that the evangelical vote--the religious Right, which has been the most vociferous critics of President Obama may find themselves with no champion of their own. This would not be the first time. For decades, the religious Right have been used by the republican establishment but then tossed aside when they are no longer useful. I am surprised that their religious leaders haven't caught wind of this and warned voters not to be used.

++Iowa was supposed to be the social conservative state. But polls show that the Iowa voter is concerned about: the national debt; the economy; and jobs in that order. Very few social issues even make it in the top ten.

++One of the funny things I've noticed about the Iowa Caucus is that Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish has been musings about the positive aspects of the Ron Paul candidacy as an antidote to the never-ending war, torture and greed policies of other candidates. I don't know whether Andrew was serious in endorsing Paul in Iowa but Forbes magazine took his writing seriously to report "Andrew Sullivan endorses Ron Paul".

++Conservatives are miffed about what they see is the Romney-Ann Coulter-Drudge nexus. It has been clear from the beginning that the Drudge website has been in the bag for Romney from the beginning because of Matt Drudge's relationship with a key Romney campaign manager. With Ann Coulter coming out for Romney, conservatives and the extreme right have gone nuts. And to make matters worse, Rep. Steven King of Iowa said the evangelical Christians will just have to learn to live with Mitt Romney.

++Beltway pundits have spend the year trying to say this or that constituency for President Obama is not supporting him or being less enthusiastic. For Republicans,this is not a problem apparently. 92% of Republican voters are white; but only 76% of the general electorate is. Apparently, this is not a problem. But when the Hispanic community was polled to measure the latest dissatisfaction with Obama,an amazing 72% said they were going to vote for him again and only 28% were considering the Republican. This is for a man who has deported over 900,000 mostly Hispanic illegals in his short-term. The 28% for the GOP would be the lowest in more than 4 elections. Generally, this would be the news-maker.

++The above is why I can not comprehend Willard Romney's persistent insistence on massive deportation of over 10 million undocumented immigrants. It is one of the few positions he has been consistent on. Rumors have him considering Marco Rubio and Governor Martinez of New Mexico as running mates. But even polling in the Hispanic community with these two added doesn't help him any.

++The comic touch this week was added by Chris Christie, who flew from New Jersey to Iowa on behalf of the Romney campaign, and basically threatened Iowa voters to vote for Romney or he would come back for them. Classy.

++Something is up when George Will is saying that 2012 will be a good year for conservatives, even if they don't beat President Obama. I like the pessimism.