Iowa Straw Poll May Cease to Be Useless, Exist in 2016
In a bucking of primary-season tradition that might just fend off the Michele Bachmann of 2016, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is now floating the idea of killing the Ames Straw Poll.
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During the 2012 Republican primary, several candidates were criticized as unserious hustlers who cared less about America's problems than getting more famous into order to sell books — or get a Fox News contract like the one Herman Cain landed on Friday. Well, it's a year later. How did everyone do?
In a bucking of primary-season tradition that might just fend off the Michele Bachmann of 2016, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is now floating the idea of killing the Ames Straw Poll.
The man who fled the Republican primary race because Michele Bachmann was suddenly winning has left the Romney campaign in the middle of an already bad week: Tim Pawlenty will step down as Mitt Romney's national co-chair to become CEO at one of Wall Street's major lobbying groups.
All the guys who were competing to be Mitt Romney's running mate have gotten a consolation prize, except one: Poor old Tim Pawlenty.
Paul Ryan dominated the conversation on Sunday. McCain called him a 'a bold choice,' and compared him to Palin; David Axelrod called him 'bright,' but 'wrong;' and Tim Pawlenty tried to convince us he's 'not disappointed,' with getting passed over, again.
“If I were picking, I’d pick Pawlenty,” David Axelrod told National Journal. “You shouldn’t write that, because everybody will think I’m trying to bait [Romney] into picking Pawlenty.”
We still don't know who Mitt Romney is going to choose to be his running mate yet, but the one thing we can be pretty sure of is his choice won't inspire the same kind of fundraising spike that Sarah Palin brought the McCain campaign. Bobby Jindal could be the exception, though.
Every time the Mitt Romney Veepstakes Finals gets quasi-officially narrowed down to the couple "boring white guys" the Romney campaign has been reportedly looking at for months, the campaign quickly moves to make the list looks more expansive.
Last week didn't go so well for Mitt Romney, and so he's going to change the subject from Bain Capital and his taxes by revealing his running mate.
Darrell Issa appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous and Fox News Sunday to sell his contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder; Rick Perry called President Obama's use of executive privilege "Nixonian;" and Tim Pawlenty shied away from some of his VP hype.
The comparisons between the 2012 and 2004 presidential elections are so pervasive they've wormed their way into the campaign's collective brain, so much so that John Kerry will play Mitt Romney in President Obama's debate prep, and Romney is considering a very John Edwardsesque running mate, Tim Pawlenty.
Herman Cain really endorsed Mitt Romney Tuesday, though not without saying a number of embarrassing things, like "What Governor Romney did in Massachusetts, I does not care." It made us kinda miss the guy.
Is the time right for Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum to get out of the Republican primary? We looked back at the media coverage of the last three weeks of several doomed campaigns and found Three Signs of Campaign End Times.
A candidate for about one second, Tim Pawlenty is almost done paying back his outstanding campaign debts.
Now that we've had a couple hours to mourn the fact that the most boring Republican candidate will likely be the presidential nominee, it's time to hold all those pundits who tricked us into thinking there'd be someone more fun to write about accountable for their mistakes.
You can't win the Republican presidential nomination without talking to the Fox News chief
Both give Romney and Perry something they sorely needed
T-Paw gave his full support to Mitt during a Fox News interview
He replaces Tim Pawlenty as the guy destined to lose
T-Paw wanted to jazz up his campaign: "I thought about shooting sparks out my butt."
A wee bit of evidence two more fantasy Republican candidates could still jump in
Republicans had hoped to recruit him after he dropped out of the presidential race
Cartoonist Nick Anderson on the Republican road to 2012
As Pawlenty dropped out, Bachmann appeared on five different shows
After placing a distant third at Ames, the former Minnesota Governor drops out
Pawlenty disappoints, but will he stay in the race?
Debbie Wasserman Schultz gets booed at the Iowa State Fair
Expect the claws to come out in Iowa
Meanwhile, Bachmann will have to live up to the high expectations from June
The more we hear from the candidate, the more we need barnyard epithets
Romney, Bachmann, Pawlenty have a chance to change perceptions
Despite the talk in Washington about budgets, in Iowa it's all about religion
Bachmann rep compares Pawlenty to the president
Responding to reports that migraine headaches can keep her from working for days
"Better than sixth or seventh" would be a nice performance, says a spokesman
Meanwhile, he tries to manage expectations about the upcoming straw poll
Poll numbers steadily dropping ahead of must-win poll
Minnesotans will report almost equal fundraising to the FEC
Republicans are pretty close to being all pledged-out
No more "Minnesota nice" for these 2012 candidates
The race to be the first to concede the Republican primary is on
Republican 2012 candidate says he thinks "Bad Romance" is pretty good
The message: "I will not vote to increase the debt ceiling"
Romney didn't raise much money; Pawlenty, Huntsman, and Gingrich are struggling
Today, the Minnesota government shut down a broad range of public services
Romney is expected to raise less than 2008, while Obama is wants to break Bush's record
Plus: the first rule of fireworks safety
Pawlenty attacks "decline, retrenchment, and withdrawal"
The 2012 candidate accuses President Obama of turning his back on the "Arab Spring"
As Chris Wallace learned, Michele Bachmann is not a "flake"; she's a "wacko"
A brief guide to the views of Leith Anderson, the pastor who's close with Pawlenty
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