I have decided to stand aside. … But make no mistake, I’ll continue to be a strong voice.Michele Bachmann • Announcing that she’s suspending her campaign during a speech Wednesday morning. Her speech focused heavy on history and the Affordable Care Act. “I have no regrets, none whatsoever,” she said. “We have never compromised our principles.”
Perry says he will go back to Texas and reassess his candidacy. That’s big news. But he looks relieved in a way. If you out-spend your opponents by this vast amount and come in fifth, you really need to drop out. And it looks as if he will.Andrew Sullivan’s take on Rick Perry, who plans to head back to Texas to reconsider whether he wants to keep running for president. Bachmann, however, is still in the race.
One thing’s for sure: Jon Huntsman will not win Iowa.
Something tells us this will be a long night.
That feeling in the pit of your stomach is the knowledge that Rick Santorum could actually win the Iowa Caucus, and you just remembered the Santorum Salad post from yesterday. Sorry.
It’s like you can literally see people in a control room scrambling to pull out some feed wires the moment he starts criticizing foreign policy on live tv.. - via
Viral video of the night: CNN pulls the plug on a soldier making an unauthorized comment on foreign policy/ Iran/ Israel. Way to go CNN.
For the record: It’s entirely unclear from this video whether CNN intentionally cut the feed as the soldier was talking, or if there was a legitimate technical glitch that caused them to lose the connection. Let’s not jump to any conclusions one way or the other just yet. Also, it’s a little presumptuous to call something the “viral video of the night” before it’s had the chance to go viral (Edit: Matthew Keys, who works in TV broadcast, suggests that it was most likely a signal issue, not intentional censoring).
(Source: diarrefpuckhookyplay-em-offs)
Our two cents: Rick Perry’s advisors should consider having the same conversation with their boss. It’s inexcusable for Perry—a trusted social conservative with tons of money—to be placing 13% behind Mitt Romney, who isn’t trusted and isn’t socially conservative, in a state like Iowa.
Sadder vote tally: The fact that Huntsman is behind Broken Image or the fact that Roemer is behind Herman Cain, despite the fact that Cain’s out of the race entirely? (30 percent of the votes so far, BTW)
About today’s cover: “Iowa’s Ideal”
A Frankenstein of a GOP candidate: A while back, you might have seen The Washington Post’s week of profiles on the major GOP candidates, complete with portraits for each. What you might not have realized is how well they’d mash together into a single beast — as many Iowa caucus voters like some elements of each of the candidates, but not everything in any one of them. As Lila Reyonlds, an undecided Iowa voter puts it: “There is no Prince Charming.” (From top: Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann. Missing: Jon Huntsman, who is focusing on New Hampshire. Photos by Melina Mara/TWP; photo illustration by Express)
Paul’s hair + Mitt’s forehead + Newt’s eyes + Perry’s nose + Santorum’s chin + Bachmann’s neck = A mashup that you might want to avert your eyes from.
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Wait, there’s something happening in Iowa today? Spend five minutes reading the explainer from It’s A Free Country on how the Iowa Caucus works (for one, it’s different for the Dems and the GOP) - then you’ll be able to explain it to your friends later.
-Jody, BL Show-
Because, let’s face it, you probably don’t know how the Iowa caucus system works.
- Forty-one percent of Iowa voters still haven’t picked a candidate
- Democrats set up “war room” in Iowa
- Democrats attack Romney with Bain lay-off stories
- President Obama to address caucus-goers
- Mitt Romney campaign confident on caucus day
- Perry to skip New Hampshire, head to South Carolina after Iowa
- All the candidates will be holding final events throughout Iowa before settling in at their respective watch parties in the evening.
- How do the Republican Iowa caucuses work anyway?: TPM has a rundown of how voting takes place on caucus night.
- Candidates make closing arguments in Iowa
That first one is exactly why, polls be damned, anything could happen today. Well, except the late-stage return of Herman Cain. Cain, by the way, says he hasn’t endorsed anyone yet, despite rumors that Newt Gingrich was atop his list.
As you might have noticed, we’ve been somewhat light on the Iowa caucus coverage today in part because it’s gotten so overwhelming. (We’re leaving the good stuff for tomorrow, when it ACTUALLY HAPPENS.) But Scott Siepker, this guy … This guy. He offers a progressive defense to the perception that Iowa is full of conservatives that don’t represent the country at large. And wow, it just makes you like you’ve been translated to Iowa for three minutes. You get it, with lines like: “Next time you ‘fly over’? Give us a wave. We’ll wave back. We’re nice. That’s right. We’re nice. @(&!%!^.” It’s profane, but there’s a PG-rated version over here. Must watch. (h/t Buzzfeed)
Instead of seizing the moment and making an aggressive case for why the contest was now a two-man race between a movement conservative and flip-flopping moderate — a unique opportunity afforded by the endorsement’s implicit-but-unmistakable critique of Mitt Romney in his firewall state — Gingrich fell back to his familiar habits, a routine marked by too much self-assurance and not enough discipline.
Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves with the “how –––—- blew it” stories yet. We have no clue how these voters are going to handle Iowa, nor what’s going to happen in the rest of the country.
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