Michele Backmann Out of it?

In an article written by Karen Tumulty on December 29, she discusses the highs and now the potential exit of Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign. Michele Bachmann, going into the Iowa caucuses, needs a strong performance or else she will ensure the demise of her campaign. In an poll released by CNN, it revealed that she was last among the six serious contenders in Iowa. One huge blow for Bachmann was when her own Iowa chairman, State Senator Kent Sorenson, who just a very short time before appeared to be a supporter, turned up onstage for Ron Paul's rally and announced that he was leaving the campaign for Bachmann. On Bachmann's side of the story, she said that Ron Paul offered him a large sum of money to be on the Paul campaign. A little while after, Bachmann's own political director stated that Sorenson's switch was in no way influenced by money. It is only a matter of time before her campaign is no more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michele-bachmanns-campaign-flameout/2011/12/29/gIQAuydIPP_story.html

Romney Recieves More Support

 In an article written by Ashley Parker on December 29, 2011, she discusses how Mitt Romney was in Iowa campaigning before the caucus and while he was answering question, it revealed some of his possible supporters. When a young boy asked Romney if it was tough to run for president, Romney replied with a very politician-like answer saying "Yes and no." He then continued on about how troubling it is to travel across the country in his bus but then says how he received some support by truck drivers while they were on the road which made it difficult for him to sleep. Romney continues on saying that there is more good in this than bad. He said one of the good things about this is being able to travel around the country and meeting new people. Romney only received one tough question during that time. He was asked by a young supporter, why was it that some people believed he was not giving a hard enough push for Iowa. Romney replied by saying how he has visited Iowa eight times so far and that of course he wants to win Iowa. Of course, we are going to see how much he wants it in the next few days.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/truck-drivers-for-romney/?ref=politics

Home Stretch Before Iowa

In an article written by Brian Montopoli in December 23, 2011, he discusses the candidates that are participating in the Iowa caucus and what he or she needs to do to ensure they are not booted from this race. For candidate Michele Bachmann, it was not long ago that we all believed she was the front-runner for this after she won the Iowa straw polls over the summer. Rick Santorum, just like Michele Bachman is trying to stay in this race with a strong performance that could possibly put him back on track. Newt Gingrich was also seen to be a front-runner for this as well until ads that portrayed him as a bad candidate dropped his momentum. Ron Paul is a long shot to win this nomination despite the fact that he 25 percent support, which is quite a lot if you look at how fractured the support is amongst the group. Rick Perry is looking to climb back to the top by using his decorated background as some support after some terrible debate performances. Mitt Romney is looking pretty good going into this debate knowing that even if he finishes second to Paul he will still be well in this race. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57347468-503544/gop-field-enters-home-stretch-before-iowa/?tag=cbsnewsSectionsArea;cbsnewsSectionsArea.0

Santorum on Obama

In an article written by Chris Welch on December 22, 2011, he discusses about how Rick Santorum is attacking President Barack Obama by stating that he is trying to divide up the country so that he will win the upcoming election. He continues to talk about how Obama is trying to make it the rich vs the poor and because the poor, or not really the poor but middle class as well will vote for him, and since they are the majority he will win if they vote for him. Santorum then goes on saying how disgusted he is at the the fact that the president would use such a tactic to try to win the election. Santorum says "It's pathetic. It is beneath the dignity of the president." Santorum continues to attack Obama by saying that the country needs a leader who can rise above the blame game and who does not  resort to calling people out by name. On thing he brought up that surprised me would have to be that he said he admired George W. Bush for his ability to take the high road in instances such as these. Santorum's main points continued on about Obama. Santorum is out to make his case for president by saying how much better he is than Obama. We'll see how the people react to such comments.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/22/santorum-obama-dividing-country-to-win-election/

Don't Sleep on Ron Paul

In an article written by a Joel Achenbach on December 14, 2011, he discusses how as of right now people look past Ron Paul but it will change sometime soon. Although he lacks in the overall appearance, like Mitt Romney or Rick Perry, and does not look very much like a force to be reckoned with, candidates better watch their backs because in a split second he can jump to the front of the pack. He is not the type of person to just sit back and relax while other people are doing their business, he would much rather talk about the matter at hand and make sure his ideas are heard. One of his bigger ideas would have to be that he would cut down the federal government so that there are very few skeletal functions. He would also end the welfare state, stop foreign aid, end overseas military action and bring home all the troops. Ron Paul's big idea is to bring back the gold standard. I have learned that sooner or later Ron Paul will be the leading candidate in this race. It will happen because so many people do not take him that serious but things always change pretty fast.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ron-paul-the-alternative-candidate-is-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with/2011/12/01/gIQAKDYouO_story.html

No One Likes Mitt

 In an article written by Joe Klein on December 1, 2011, he discusses about how bad of a week Mitt Romney was having due to the fact that his opponents are surging while he is on a slow decline. Although he is a much better candidate than he was in 2008, with his discussions on Barack Obama's weakness, which is the economy. Although he has those good things going for him his support is still on the decline. This is not a very good thing because of the fact that Gingrich is gaining plenty of ground on him. He has many things going for and against him. Something that is not helping his case what so ever is the fact that he is constantly changing his views on many topics. What I have learned from this article is that the race can change in the blink of an eye. One little thing that catches the supporters eyes can change the campaign completely.



In http://swampland.time.com/2011/12/01/mitt-romney-why-dont-they-like-him/?iid=sl-main-feature

Candidates and False Information

In an article written by Brooks Jackson, Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Robert Farely and D'angelo Gore, on December 11, 2011, they discussed on candidates for presidency and either false or misleading information that they had presented to the people. The clear problem in this article is that presidential candidates are feeding us people information that is either not true or is completely misleading which could affect their position in the race. I have learned that people need to look deeper in to each candidates words and not just fall for the big statistics. An example of this can come straight from the article when they discuss about Rick Perry and how he brings up a statistic that he has made over a million jobs in the last 11 years. The side that Mr.Perry is not telling us about is how in that same span of time the country has lost only 879,000 jobs which is less than half the jobs he created. This just shows that he is trying to use big numbers to make people seem like he is so great when he is just trying to make things seem worse then they actually are to make himself look good. If each candidate would bring up the good and the bad of themselves, the people would have a much easier time deciding who to vote for.http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-12-11/iowa-republican-debate-fact-check/51810372/1

Romney Criticizes Mutely

Mitt Romney refuses to criticize his opponent, Mr.Gingrich, verbally but in more of a mute approach. In an article written on December 10,2011 by Sara Murray and Patrick O'Connor, they discuss about how things between Mr.Romney and Mr.Gingrich are slowly but surely becoming heated in a way that could affect how people think of them. Mr.Gingrich criticizes Mr.Romney to the point where he refuses to respond verbally but takes the better option and shows his persona physically to his supporters. The problem in this article is the simple fact that Mr.Romney and Mr.Gingrich are criticizing each other in different ways which causes them to respond with action. The action is coming from their political supporters. By looking through this article I can see that it is not entirely the candidates who start the problem but the supporters. The supporters use millions of dollars just for one television ad so that they can make another candidate look terrible. The author is more on the side of discussing about politics and less about each other. This article just shows that people should take a different approach on how then deal with their campaigns and start thinking more about what they can contribute to this country.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204319004577088823016416322.html?mod=WSJ__MIDDLESecondStories