High Ground Underground

Iowa & New Hampshire It was the narrowest of squeakers in Iowa, but Mitt did a bit better than expected. Maybe my calls the Saturday before to get out his supporters to the caucuses actually helped give him those several votes that made the difference. And yes, there was at least one Iowa “carcass” – Bachman. And for all the hoopla we heard 4 years ago about how many dollars per vote Romney spent, it was Perry by far with the dollars per vote this time – no doubt another soon-to-be carcass with a fraction of 1% in New Hampshire. And a historic win for Romney today in New Hampshire – no non-incumbent GOP candidate has ever won both Iowa & New Hampshire! And I think that says a lot, that the people who know him best (New Hampshire) came out so strongly for him. Things will no doubt be tougher, though, in S. Carolina on Jan. 21 and Florida Jan. 31. Most agree that if he wins them, it’s over. But many are screaming about a too-early coronation. If the anti-Romney vote remains divid...

Only 2 days to go until the Iowa caucuses, and the polls show Romney narrowly leading. The other 2 with significant ground presence & organization, Ron Paul and Santorum, have risen somewhat at Gingrich's expense, showing a moderate "flavor-of-the-month" bump. Gingrich did indeed peak and have a precipitous fall, as it was starting to look like two weeks ago. His baggage is showing. I can't imagine extremist Ron Paul rising much more, but we'll see how big Santorum's bump is. Bachman seems to be down in the noise, even in her "home" territory. Yesterday (Saturday) I placed a couple dozen calls for the Romney campaign -- to Iowa. In my small sample, two-thirds of those who answered said they were for Romney, and the rest were undecided (one leaning towards Ron Paul), and the Romney supporters were definitely going to participate in the caucuses. So we'll see after Tuesday who the Iowa "carcases" are -- the field may start to narrow, ...