Posted on 12/31/2011 5:47:06 PM PST by lbryce
The Des Moines Register poll the final one before the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday has Mitt Romney and Ron Paul virtually tied in the lead going into the final 72 hours before voting.
In the survey, Mr. Romney has 24 percent and Mr. Paul has 22 percent.
The new poll, which was released online by the newspaper at 7 p.m. local time, shows the candidates closely bunched up behind the two leaders.
Mr. Santorum has 15 percent in the poll while Mr. Gingrich gets 12 percent. Mr. Perry has 11 percent and Mrs. Bachmann gets 7 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percent, the paper said.
The paper said that Mr. Santorums support boosts himself into second place when only the final two days of the poll were counted.
The survey reflects a reordering of the field in the last several weeks. The previous poll by the Register, released on Dec. 3, showed Mr. Gingrich with the lead, at 25 percent, Mr. Paul in second and Mr. Romney in third, with 16 percent support.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Cross your fingers!Yes, crossed, and I want Romney to rise rise rise into the ignominy of complete obscurity following defeat after humiliating defeat. But that's just me. Go Mitt! And by "go" I mean "go away".
If this primary has shown one thing at all, it shows the GOP isnt what it used to be. It’s in a state of flux.
Part of it is because the Democrats are moving further and further left. Which means we are picking up moderates and libertarians which is diluting the social conservatives. You also have the generation X’ers and Y’ers that are starting to get more involved with politics. And many of them are as whacky as Ron Paul.
The majority of youth in this country are either liberal or libertarians. Not very many people are 100% conservative when they graduate college.
Newt continues to fade away, Perry shows no bounce at all, and Iowan native Bachmann is deader than dead. I don’t see how she can continue at all after this. And once again, we see from the Ron Paul numbers that the mentally ill amongst us are far larger than we ever imagined. And all of this - by design - keeps one man on top...the nightmare candidate Mittens. What a mess. Obama must be thrilled.
Hardcore Branstaders, I think.
I certainly hope you are wrong. If my pastor encourages our parishoners to vote for anyone special, I will be very unhappy.
Church is no place to do that when we have this many social conservatives all bunched up together.
Any pastor who goes out on a limb and tries to influence his parishoners, is in for a whole lot of trouble.
Congrats to Bulldog Santorum. I cant wait for the NEXT debate when Rick tears into Willard.
Hopefully, our final four going into SC:
1. Conservative Gingrich
2. Conservative Santorum
3. Liberal Romney
4. Crackhead Paul
..which means, that’s the order they should finish in SC, imho. : )
Did you ever go to a Evangelical church in Iowa on the Sunday before a Republican caucus? ; )
“This stuff makes me think that the GOP is fatally flawed.”
The gop has been fatally flawed for conservatives for years. Yet conservatives continue to vote for whatever big government centrist the gop nominates. The threads about 8 months from now will be hilarious as “conservatives” attempt to rationalize why they plan to vote for mittens. The guy doesn’t have a conservative bone in his body, yet he’ll still get the bulk of the conservative vote. See tagline.
Who do these pastors think they are, anyway? God?
I have no problem with them being involved politically but they certainly should not get involved in a primary.
Paul would be a better choice than Mitt??? Come on. Either you are one of those Paulbots or one of those with RDS (or both).
What is RDS?
Why, is God into politics? I know, He will be busy helping out Tebow in Denver Sunday : )
I was going to ask the same thing about “RDS”. What the heck is it?
Santorum has a shot at winning this thing, which is amazing. A strong 3rd is great for him, a 2nd place finish over Paul sets up a Romney vs Santorum narrative, and a win blows this thing wide open.
The race begins in South Carolina. Iowa is an anomaly, and NH is bagged for The Socialist. SC is coalesce time for the non-Romney who can beat Romney. Looks to be Newt if national polls mean anything.
after watching (again) the fiasco that is Iowa politics, I have lost all respect for thier so called caucus method...it is, at best, pathetic
Every four or five months I check back in to FreeRepublic to take a gander at the obsessed Romney-hatred. I see it has risen to the unhealthy level of fanaticism.
Well, if you’ve got a candidiate with the utter pomposity, temerity to call himself a “Republican” and yet is politiclally nearly indistinguishable from one of the most liberal, left-wing candidates in presidential history there’s going to be legitimate animus from those who seek to support a genuine candidate.
I wanted either Bachmann, Santorum, or Gingrich, whichever one had the best shot at winning. That appears to be Santorum. If Romney or Paul wins Slick Willard will likely be the nominee *barfs*
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