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Two weeks ago, an Iowa poll showed Palin trailing Huckabee by just two points, 70% to 68%, in favorability ratings among Iowa Republicans. She easily outdistanced Mitt Romney, who garnered only 58 percent. Despite a media onslaught attempting to spin the Clemmons story, Huckabee's credibility has taken a serious hit. Even those who boosted him to victory in the 2008 Iowa Caucus are questioning the former Arkansas governor's judgment.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate greeted hundreds of admirers in Sioux City on Sunday. Iowa's caucuses traditionally kick off the presidential nominating season, and Republican strategists saw the stop in Mrs Palin's national book-signing tour as a signal not to be missed. Palin says US should find God "No politician comes to Iowa by accident,"said Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist. "Every politician knows the implications when they set foot here." As with other stops on Mrs Palin's book tour, the event was tightly controlled with photographers allowed in briefly and reporters banned. She arrived about 90 minutes late and then...

A new poll shows 68 percent of Republicans in Iowa hold a favorable view of Sarah Palin. That is only two percent lower than 2008 Iowa Caucus winner Mike Huckabee. The Des Moines Register poll proves that Palin would be the decisive factor in the 2012 Caucus, if she runs.

Obama’s overall job approval slipped to 49 percent from 53percent in September. Iowans’ approval is down 19 percentage points since an Iowa Poll in January, about the time he was inaugurated. A majority of Iowans now say the Democrat’s performance in key economic areas is inadequate, including health care, his top domestic priority… Fifty-five percent of Iowans disapprove of how Obama is handling health care, up from not quite half in September.

Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul built a nationwide army of fiercely loyal, enthusiastic, young supporters during his 2008 Presidential run. It appears Paul is hoping to expand upon that base and possibly gear up for another run in 2012. Paul visits Ames tonight for speech at Iowa State University....

Pawlenty hit Obama on the porkulus bill, ever-rising unemployment, broken promises of bipartisanship, and the enormous federal deficit. "We've got a Democrat-controlled Congress messing around with a miserable healthcare bill. They should be focused like a laser on jobs, not acting like a manure spreader in a wind storm," Pawlenty said to laughter and applause.

DES MOINES – Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty used his Iowa debut as a potential presidential candidate Saturday to excoriate President Obama and congressional Democrats for not doing more to address the still-wheezing economy. “They should be focused like a laser on jobs, not acting like a manure-spreader in a wind storm,” Pawlenty told Iowa Republicans gathered in an exhibition hall at the state fairgrounds, criticizing Democrats for their efforts on healthcare and energy.

Minnesota Governor and 2012 Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty needed to make an impressive showing in his first major speech in front of Iowa's most influential Republicans. He accomplished that goal. Pawlenty's speech at the Iowa GOP's fall fundraiser was peppered with humor, stiff jabs at Barack Obama, and well-placed, straight right wing points

For conservative political junkies in the Hawkeye State, Saturday is a great opportunity to get your fix. Three major events take place throughout the day and they are spread out enough that you can check out all them. The first is the Iowa Tea Party Statewide Convention...

Palin says 'not now' to Iowa invite

She’s not coming, but would like to in the future. She’d also come for free. Bryan English at the Iowa Family Policy Center just sent the following press release: "10/30/09 Pleasant Hill, IA – Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION received word this morning that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to accept our speaking invitation due to her book tour contractual commitments, which cannot be changed. We extended our invitation knowing she would be in the middle of her book tour and the chances of her being able to accept any invitations were extremely slim. She has asked if she could...

The Iowa Family Policy Center makes official what Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton suggested to me earlier this week: that the former Alaska governor won't be appearing before the social conservative group later this month. Apparently, issuing a statement before she commits suggesting she may be coming and dangling $100,000 at her isn't the way to coax Palin into an appearance. "Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION received word this morning that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to accept our speaking invitation due to her book tour contractual commitments, which cannot be changed. We extended our invitation knowing she would be in...

Nice catch by The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey. During an interview with the Sioux City [Iowa] Journal published Tuesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she was not weighing a run for president — despite recent suggestions that she may hold ambitions for higher office — but she did offer an endorsement of her own: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). From The Minnesota Independent: “Steve King is mentioned as a potential nominee,” Bachmann said. “I have a very high opinion of Steve King and his ability, so I would encourage him to consider any position for higher office.” Like Bachmann, King is...

The Sioux City Journal’s Bret Hayworth sat down with Minnesota’s controversial Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann Tuesday, and when talk turned to the 2012 presidential campaign she offered up a name that hasn’t surfaced as a potential contender: Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron. From Hayworth’s blog: Additionally, I asked Bachmann if she is being prodded to seek the 2012 presidency, given her growing national profile. She said she has no doubts the GOP will produce a good crop of presidential candidates, and threw out King as a name of interest. “Steve King is mentioned as a potential nominee. I have a very...

George Pataki will be in Iowa next month to raise money for local Republicans. The former New York governor will be the headline speaker at a fundraising event on November 10th, according to Brian Kennedy, finance director for the Scott County Republican Party. The visit could boost speculation that Pataki is planning to run for the Republican party nomination in the 2012 election. Other potential GOP candidates, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, will be at an event in Des Moines three days prior. Pataki spent time in Iowa during the 2008 presidential election; however, he did not seek the...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) tells NRO that he looks forward to reading former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s upcoming memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, once it is published on November 17. “Sarah has jumped onto the scene and has been hammered by the mainstream media,” says Santorum. “This is an opportunity for her to show a more thoughtful side. She has a gift for prose. Hopefully that comes across.” Santorum says he knows how it feels to be a conservative author dealing with unfriendly critics. In 2005, he published It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good....

Former Sen. Rick Santorum is making a trip to Iowa that screams “I’m running for President.” In the state with the crucial first presidential primary competition, Santorum will attend a smattering of events on October 1, with a stop at America’s Future Fund PAC and Iowa’s Right to life group. He’ll do a hit on a Des Moines radio show and cap it off with a speech about the future of the GOP in front of a live audience. John Brabender, a longtime advisor to the Senator, was moderate in his characterization of the Senator’s visit. “This is not necessarily...

http://www.dmcityview.com/cover.shtml What made Palin popular with Iowans was not her resume of experience in Alaska. Those who cheered her in Sioux City last fall, with the most vocal applause for a Republican I saw in Iowa in the 2008 presidential cycle, knew little about it. "There is little doubt that she still carries with her enormous admiration from the GOP grassroots," says Iowa Republican strategist Tim Albrecht, Mitt Romney's communications director in Iowa for the 2008 cycle and the founder of TheBeanWalker.com, a conservative Web site The Washington Post ranks as one of the top conservative online venues in the...

Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before the sort of conservative activists who dominate the state GOP’s key presidential caucuses. The Pennsylvanian, who lost his 2006 re-election bid, will visit Iowa on October 1st, appearing on a Des Moines radio talk show and speaking to a luncheon and workshop of Iowa’s Right to Life group before heading east to Dubuque, where he’ll headline a fundraiser for the conservative America’s Future Fund PAC and then speak about the...

Despite announcing her resignation as Alaskan governor with 18 months to spare, Sarah Palin is still a sought-after asset in the Republican Party. The Des Moines Register is reporting that Iowan Republicans have extended a hand to Palin to headline the annual Reagan Day Dinner, set for this fall. Iowa GOP Executive Director Jeff Boeyink told the Register that the party had been pursuing Palin since January and that her resignation has increased the effort to secure her at the fundraising event. Boeyink's confirmation came after Senator Chuck Grassley told the The Des Moines Register Wednesday that he believes Palin...

Officials of the Iowa Republican Party say they are trying to attract Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the state GOP's premier annual fundraising event. After she announced she was stepping down as Alaska's governor later this month, aides said the decision was driven in part by her wish to help Republican candidates around the nation.

Ramping up the 2012 speculation this week is Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence, who will visit the Hawkeye State later his month to headline two events. The first, held July 24 in Linn County, will be a picnic and fundraiser for the Republican Party of Iowa. Prior to the event, Pence will tour flood-damaged areas of Cedar Rapids. The next day, Pence will be featured at Iowa Rep. Steve King’s “Conservative Family Picnic” in Sioux City. The event is a fundraiser for King’s 2010 re-election campaign.

JACKSON, Miss. | If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white-male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour - the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor - the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes as the 61-year-old Mr. Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Both states have...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

I'm not sure about posting Fox/AP, so I'll leave this blank.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign predicted Monday that President Barack Obama will be vulnerable in the next election, but only if "fresh voices and fresh faces" emerge to make the case for core Republican values. In a one-day visit to Iowa, where precinct caucuses launch the presidential nominating process, Ensign made the case that Republicans have gone astray and that's led to two consecutive electoral disasters. "Our party got away from its basic principles," Ensign said in an interview with The Associated Press. The trip marked his first visit to Iowa, and at times it looked like the presidential campaign swings...

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will headline a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser in late June, fueling speculation the wildly-popular two-term governor may indeed have ambitions for higher officer. Barbour, 61, will be ineligible to seek another term as governor in 2012, but refuses to speak to his political future, saying only that “You can look for me not to run for re-election.” He will undoubtedly dismiss the candidate-type activity as inconsequential, as spreading the Republican Gospel, but no politician finds themselves in Iowa — the launch pad of every dark horse candidacy — by pure coincidence. Considered a highly effective...

2012 Watch: Barbour to N.H. @ 1:46 pm by Jeremy P. Jacobs A day after we learned the Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) is heading to Iowa at the end of June, we find out that he also plans to head to New Hampshire. Barbour will headline an event for the New Hampshire Republican Party on June 24, one day before he's in Iowa. There shouldn't be any doubt that Barbour is at least considering a run in 2012.

Nevada Senator's June Trip Is Raising Talk Of 2012 Sen. John Ensign's June 1 trip to Iowa is looking more and more like a day straight out of a White House hopeful's itinerary, a sign that the 2012 campaign is already under way in the Hawkeye State, which hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. The Nevada Republican is flying into Sioux Falls on the last day of the Memorial Day recess before a four-week work period in Congress. He has three stops scheduled before he heads back to the nation's capital: an address on behalf of the American Future Fund's conservative...

The decision today by the Iowa Supreme Court that ruled a ban on same-sex marriage in the Hawkeye State unconstitutional is certain to have an impact on the state's critical Republican presidential caucuses in 2012. . . . . . Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who ran unsuccessfully for the nomination in 2008 and is an almost-certain candidate in 2012, did offer a comment on the decision when asked by the Fix. "I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman and the definition of marriage should be left to the people and not to activist courts,"...

Iowa voters are already getting phone calls about Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee who became a household name during last year’s election, reports the Alaska blog The Mudflats. The blog posted an approximate transcript of the calls, in which an automated voice asked listeners poll questions:

“THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that General Petraeus is planning on delivering the commencement address at the University of Iowa in 2010.” So reports Michael Goldfarb, late of the McCain campaign, on the magazine’s blog. Petraeus going to Iowa, a state he doesn’t have previous ties to, is going to create a huge amount of buzz about his presidential ambitions because the Iowa Caucuses kick off the whole presidential nomination process. If he does, deliver the address—and Petraeus must know this—it will be seen as a sign that he is thinking about running in 2012. Previously, it has been thought...

Des Moines Tea Party

"We've gone so far to the social right, particularly in caucus attendees, that unless you meet certain litmus tests you have a very difficult time competing in Iowa," said Doug Gross, the party's 2002 gubernatorial nominee. "I think you'll have some candidates who won't compete here unless they perceive that's somehow changed." David Roederer, who headed John McCain's Iowa campaign, agreed. "I would not encourage a moderate to come right now and participate in the caucuses," Roederer said. "It is a danger for the party, and it is a danger for the future of the caucuses." Or as conservative state...

Just saying.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned Saturday of "the coarsening of our culture" as he focused on social and religious conservatives during a trip through Iowa. The first-term Republican governor told a church-based group Saturday morning in Cedar Rapids that the GOP must combine its core beliefs with a focus on issues such as health care and the economy that motivate most voters. "Voters want authenticity," he said. "They're not going to agree with any candidate 100 percent of the time, or any political party 100 percent of the time. They want leaders who are offering...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled Friday to Iowa, a state that is pivotal to a presidential campaign, in a trip that has heightened speculation that Jindal is planning a presidential bid in 2012. But Jindal said the speculation is misplaced. He said he's running for re-election and has no plans to seek the White House. "The most important thing for me is to be the best governor for the state of Louisiana," the governor said in an interview. "If the people of Louisiana will allow me, I'm going to serve for two terms. "I'm not running for...

Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled Friday to Iowa, a state that is pivotal to a presidential campaign, in a trip that has heightened speculation that Jindal is planning a presidential bid in 2012. But Jindal said the speculation is misplaced. He said he's running for re-election and has no plans to seek the White House. "The most important thing for me is to be the best governor for the state of Louisiana," the governor said in an interview. "If the people of Louisiana will allow me, I'm going to serve for two terms. "I'm not running for president." But political watchers...

La. - Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled Friday to Iowa, a state that is pivotal to a presidential campaign, in a trip that has heightened speculation that Jindal is planning a presidential bid in 2012. But Jindal said the speculation is misplaced. He said he's running for re-election and has no plans to seek the White House. "The most important thing for me is to be the best governor for the state of Louisiana," the governor said in an interview. "If the people of Louisiana will allow me, I'm going to serve for two terms. "I'm not running for president." But...

<p>Iowa Here We Come!</p> <p>And so it begins.</p> <p>Mike Huckabee will be stumping in Iowa later this month — for his new book. But the inevitable speculation will connect the dots to whether he’s laying the groundwork for another presidential run in 2012.</p>