Tonight's the Night

"Iowans might have the first say in choosing the country’s president, but they don’t always get it right."

Especially if Ron Paul wins.

"All eyes on Iowa today; GOP field makes last caucus push" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff / January 3, 2012

Mitt Romney, buoyed by poll numbers and newfound confidence....

“We can remember a time when things were better; these have been a tough three years. But these years have been a detour, not a destiny,’’ Romney said. “We remember a time when you didn’t have to worry about looking at the gas pump . . . and when you spent your week thinking about what movie you’d take your kids to on the weekend, as opposed to worrying whether you can put food on the table until the weekend.’’ 

It's been a lot longer than three years, and I think I'm going to be sick.  

Related: Nominating Romney Means Return of Bush

Ah, the good old days. 

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Surging rival Rick Santorum dismissed concerns that he lacks the money and organization to emerge as a credible nominee, even if he has a strong finish in Iowa. “It’s a long way between now and November,’’ he said. “We’ll have plenty of organization.’’  

Related: Santorum's Iowa Surge

Adding a bit of media attention to Santorum’s appearance was Jim Bob Duggar, star of the reality TV show “19 Kids and Counting,’’ who came to Iowa to campaign for the former Pennsylvania senator yesterday.   

Who?

Addressing a swarm of reporters, Duggar praised Santorum’s socially conservative views.... 

The voting today could catapult Romney toward the nomination, and to friendly territory in New Hampshire, where much of the focus will shift tomorrow. But it could also launch yet another alternative to Romney in Rick Santorum, or provide Ron Paul supporters with evidence that their candidate is electable....

Paul arrived yesterday to a standing-room-only crowd who jammed a ballroom at the Des Moines Marriott and greeted the 76-year-old congressman with wild applause, a standing ovation, and chants of his name. Media from around the world flanked the stage, peppering Paul’s final-day push with an incessant clicking of camera shutters....

As if he is some sort of celebrity being photoed by the paparazzi.

Three other candidates - Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich - were fighting yesterday to keep their campaigns viable after the results tonight. Gingrich led the field as recently as two weeks ago, but has since faltered and will have to find new ways to keep his candidacy alive....

All done; it's going to be Romney vs. Paul after New Hampshire.

The Iowa caucus tonight will effectively end the first phase of the campaign, where candidates have focused on building their organizations, crafting their campaign message, cutting television ads, and hoping it all sticks with voters.  

Support in the state, mirroring the national polls, has bounced from Bachmann to Perry to Herman Cain to Gingrich. But in recent days, as Gingrich has fended off attack ads, the race has boiled down to Romney, Paul, and Santorum.

Romney is running largely on economic themes and suggesting that he would be the most electable against Obama.

Paul, with his strident brand of libertarianism, has excited Tea Party activists while Santorum has started to mobilize some of the social conservatives in the state.

This after we have been told for weeks that Tea Party likes anybody but Ron.

Romney’s campaign advisers insist they are not threatened by Santorum, who has newfound momentum and who, with a victory tonight, could seize the energy of Republicans who have not rallied behind Romney....

Meaning all the alternatives the media has trotted to stop Ron Paul failed.

In New Hampshire there will be two debates there this weekend - on Saturday and Sunday - and the state’s voters will seek to put their stamp on the race.  

Maybe I'll watch one if I'm not blogging.

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What you would see tonight in Iowa if you were watching TV:

"Negative ads aimed away from Romney" by Brian C. Mooney  |  Globe Staff, January 02, 2012

DES MOINES - Representative Ron Paul of Texas takes a shot at Newt Gingrich (called a “serial hypocrite’’) and Mitt Romney (called a “flip-flopper’’) in an ad with an upbeat finish in which a narrator, in vaguely messianic terms, calls Paul “the one we’ve been looking for.’’

Well, I wouldn't go that far. He's not a saint or a savior; he is just head and shoulders above all the other pathetic pos presidential candidates.

 Muddying matters further, the National Organization for Marriage, in a TV spot, assails Paul as “a radical who would destroy traditional marriage.’’  

Hasn't the divorce rate already accomplished that?

Paul opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, preferring instead to leave it to the states to decide....  

Actually, Paul is RIGHT ABOUT THAT -- and that is coming from a person who generally opposes gay marriage because I see it as a side issue; however, in accordance with the libertarian and democratic viewpoint I ACCEPT IT in my STATE because that is the WILL of the PEOPLE!

And if the situation were reversed I would have to accept that, too.

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 Related: Ron Paul Revolution Excerpts, Continued

Now on to New Hampshire! 

"The most recent Suffolk University/7 News tracking poll puts Romney at 43 percent, with his closest competitor, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, at 17 percent."

"Huntsman campaigns solo in N.H.; Sees state as more crucial than Iowa" by Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent / January 3, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is in fourth place in New Hampshire behind Romney, Gingrich, and Paul, according to polling data compiled by Real Clear Politics. But Gingrich has been falling in the polls, while Paul has been hurt by revelations of extremist statements in newsletters published under his name in the 1980s and 1990s. Huntsman has attacked Paul with videos featuring the newsletters.

Is that the lame excuse they are going to use to sabotage Ron Paul's share of the vote?

Related: Boston Globe Lowers Its Standards

Turns out no one gives a s*** about the MSM smear.

Huntsman said he believes a strong showing in New Hampshire will give him momentum going into South Carolina and Florida and the other early states — though he has little organization anywhere else....  

I guess Huntsman will be the next Cain, Gingrich, or Santorum, 'eh?

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"Paul lets his supporters do the talking in latest TV ad

Ron Paul is featuring his supporters in a new ad airing in New Hampshire, which will be his final ad of the Granite State GOP campaign.

The minute-long ad, which airs on broadcast and cable television, features pro-Paul activists - including New Hampshire state Senators Andy Sanborn and Ray White - criticizing the federal government and praising Paul, a Texas representative, for his consistency.

“Government has become too big,’’ Sanborn says. “It’s overtaxing. Overspending.’’

“He tells the truth about what he believes, whether you like it or not,’’ a supporter says of Paul.

The ad also criticizes Paul’s top opponents in New Hampshire - Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. It accuses Romney of flip-flopping and Gingrich of “serial hypocrisy’’ relating to his work as a paid consultant.

According to recent polling, Paul is battling for second place with Gingrich. However, Paul is facing a spate of negative stories stemming from newsletters he published in the 1980s and 1990s that included racist and antigay comments, which Paul has said he did not know about before they were published. 

There they go again with the vague obfuscation.

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For tonight's official results: OFFICIAL GOP IOWA CAUCUS RESULTS PAGE

For commentary and coverage, go HERE

Update: Ron Paul finished in third. I'm done covering politics in the paper.   

"Face it, the election was stolen" by Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist January 4, 2012

Well the chips are in, and the election is stolen.

It took a lot to kill Ron Paul, with my estimated margin of preference for Paul running over 30 percent absent statistical rigging, and others such as Drudge having him at 30 percent, Iowa WAS a slam dunk.

We have all been convinced over the years that people often change their minds the moment before they enter the polls, and THAT is why election results can be so unpredictable, but even if you believe people flop about in their beliefs and preferences like fish out of water, it does not wash in the case of Ron Paul.

We all know, - at least anyone who hits this site should know, that the type of people who support Ron Paul are firm in their convictions and will not flip flop on issues and between candidates. If Ron Paul lost in Iowa, this election was stolen, pure and simple.

Even despite the media smears and excessive voter turnout thanks to the many who voted a lot more than once via the open ID program, Ron Paul was at 30 percent in most exit polls. To drive the final nail, that secret vote count was essential; - so many people supported Ron Paul that the establishment could not get enough repeat voters to push back the wave.

For as long as we sit around and let the establishment steal our power from us, there will be no revolution. So many people are too flouridated, Zolofted and food poisoned to ever see the light of day, and in a democratic Republic that can kill a society. With the present condition of so many people, there is not likely to be an American future.

When we have a media so rigged that we can't get ANY truth through "official" news channels about issues like 911, Osama Bin Laden, the Federal Reserve, JFK, and a host of other subjects, you can forget about the 50+ percent of the people who don't have enough brains to read anything beyond the ingredients on a Gerber jar. It is beyond their capacity to seek out anything other than whatever is baby fed them by Fox and CNN. They are useless dead weight that will drown us all.

And we are not likely to do anything about it, because the establishment has firmly and conveniently rooted in all of us an attitude of non violence, while in turn that same establishment uses violence modus operandi. It's a lose lose for us.

Americans are so often now a bunch of skinless boneless chicken breasts just waiting to be eaten. And absent a violent revolution, we will be digested and flushed.

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More: Establishment GOP Insider Admitted to Plan to Subvert Iowa Caucus In Order to Prevent Ron Pauls Win