Tuesday, January 03, 2012

The Iowa Media Frenzy On Caucus Day: LINKAGE

By Susan Duclos

I'll be blogging the results of the Iowa caucuses as they come in later tonight and probably more about those results tomorrow and will link to the results pieces here when they are published.

(Wake up America Live Blogging Iowa Caucuses Link Here, Cover It Platform compliments of Right Pundits)

Other that will be live blogging tonight will be Washington Wire and Right Pundits. (I will add links throughout the day to others live blogging, more headlines and other tidbits.) Legal Insurrection will also be live blogging.

Secondly, a short Wake up America guide to how the caucuses work, what will happen, and precinct locations can be found here.

Thirdly, the schedule for the other primaries and caucuses, dates and such can be found here.

Now to today's massive media frenzy in Iowa on caucus day, via links, links and more links!!!

Topping the headlines over at Memeorandum, right now, seems to be Rick Santorum, who happens to be luckiest enough to get his surge during the week leading up and of the Iowa caucuses.

I'll start with the most ridiculous item I see which is the NYT politics page where the writer seem to think a story on Santorums preference for sweaters is a worthy story to waste ink on....

Yes, seriously.

With all the news, the last minute closing arguments from candidates as they travel the state to make the case of why voters should vote for them to be the GOP nominee, the New York Times decides to waste ink on the fact that Rick Santorum prefers vest sweaters and that there is a Twitter hashtag specifically created about his choice of clothing.

Just wow.

Huffington Post deals with the final polling snapshot in Iowa while FiveThirtyEight deals with predictive outcomes. Dick Morris thinks that Santorum could take Iowa tonight, via Ballot Box. Margin of Error is also predicting a Romney win in Iowa.

Alan Colmes once again shows the class of liberals as he uses the way Santorum and his wife dealt with the loss of their child, as political fodder. (On Hannity, Santorum did say Colmes called and apologized)

Believe it or not, despite the massive ink dedicated to Santorum, there are other candidates in Iowa!!!

CBS News reports that Newt Gingrich calls Mitt Romney a liar and The Hill says Gingrich blasts Romney for attack ads saying "it's sad he had to stoop to that level."

IWatch News reports that SuperPACS have spent $12.9 million in Iowa and that Mitt Romney was the top beneficiary of that money poured into the state with a total of $4.6 million and the majority of that money went to attacking Newt Gingrich.

Kevin Drum over at Political Mojo doesn't seem to appreciate Ron Paul's Democratic support. (Remember the majority of the recent support for Paul, 70 percent, comes from Democrats not Republicans)

Iowa is a closed caucus/primary state, meaning in order for those Democrats to vote for Paul they will have to change registration and Independents would have to register as a Republican.

Michelle Bachmann, who has dipped to single digit poll numbers in recent weeks, is defiant according to CBS News, as she keeps fighting in Iowa to attempt to become relevant again in the GOP race to the nomination.

Rick Perry finished up his Iowa bus tour in the town of Perry, Iowa, telling the crowd there the "only scoreboard that matters’ is winning the Iowa caucuses," and compares the campaign season to a Marathon:

“This is the first, let’s say, mile one of the marathon and I’ve run a marathon before, and I felt great at mile one and, as a matter of fact, I felt pretty great at mile 17 and 18,” Perry said today at a meet and greet at the Stoney Creek Inn here. “At mile 21, you kind of start hitting that wall a little bit, and we’ll see who’s still running at mile 21. I finished my marathon, and I expect to finish this marathon as well.”
More Rick Perry from The Daily Caller who reports Perry is targeting both Romney and Santorum on Caucus day.

ABC'S The Note provides even more linkage to stories on each of the candidates on the morning of the Iowa caucus day.

That is the linkage so far, make sure to join us tonight as we follow the results from Iowa.

(Links and blogs live blogging are being updated all day)