Finally! Tomorrow's gaggle of primaries should clear up any lingering questions about who's gonna win the Republican party's presidential nomination. On the Democratic side, things are a lot less clear.
One thing we do know is that the contenders have been criss-crossing the country like true jet setters. We're so jealous. They've been rocking the private jets for months now, but today's just been over the top.
Barack Obama showed up in East Rutherford, New Jersey--home of the Super Bowl-winning Giants--where Robert DeNiro introduced him and Ted Kennedy endured a joke about his defeated Patriots. Hillary Clinton visited an old pal--and teared up--during a stop at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut.
John McCain, who's surged into the lead in polls, showed up at Faneuil Hall in Boston while his biggest opponent Mitt Romney cracked jokes about Star Wars droids on his flight between Salt Lake City and Minneapolis. Meanwhile Mike Huckabee called Romney arrogant as he stumped in Macon, Georgia.
Check out our Candidates Travel Map to chase down those last undecided primary votes.
Today's the first primary in the nation in warmer-than-usual New Hampshire. The seventeen voters who showed up to the polls in Dixville Notch, the city which began voting after midnight, picked Barack Obama and John McCain. McCain is the big surprise of that pairing after a less than stellar showing in Iowa.
Much has been made of the fact that Hillary Clinton received none of those 17 votes, but maybe a town of 74 isn't a super sample.
Since 1952, the winner of the New Hampshire primary for his party has gone on to be president 85 percent of the time. (McCain is one of those exceptions, having taken the state in the 2000 primary.) Mitt Romney may have had that stat in mind when he stood outside a Manchester polling place trying to catch some of the 45 percent of registered independents, who are free to vote in either primary.
Current polls indicate that Romney's running second, ahead of Iowa champion Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani. Next week, it's off to Michigan, where the candidates of both parties will genuflect to Big Auto on Michael Moore territory. You can bet we'll be following them west.
It's almost here! The Iowa caucus is tomorrow, officially kicking off the 2008 Presidential primary season. Do you know who you're voting for? Neither do we!
If you're in Iowa right now, you're probably within a stone's throw of a major candidate. Barack Obama'sStand for Change tour takes him to Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Des Moines tonight, while Hillary Clinton can be spotted in Indianola, Mason City and Burlington. John Edwards threw a midnight caucus party in Atlantic, Iowa today, but he's hitting Iowa City and Cedar Rapids as well, with a caucus learning event in Grinnell tonight and a free rally with Bruce Springsteen concert afterwards.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has been attending house parties and has scheduled an Election Night party in West Des Moines. Both John McCain and Mike Huckabee are splitting their time in Iowa with other destinations; McCain's coming to Dubuque from Derry, New Hampshire where he's been stumping with Sen. Joe Lieberman, while Huckabee's off to Southern California tonight to be the first post-strike guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The New Hampshire primary is next Tuesday, so don't let down your guard yet! Ready or not, the race is on for real.
So John McCain called the retinue of reporters following with him in South Carolina "you little jerks," and we weren't even there! Despite his slide in the polls this year, the Senator from Arizona is not only chipper but appears not to be worried about the Iowa caucus on January 3rd. "If I don't finish in the top 50 in Iowa, I'll still stay in the race," he told the press, which is pretty bold in the face of what looks like a three-way race. (We hear McCain is cool with Mike Huckabee, but not so much with Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani.)
On the other hand, the Senator has more national experience than most of the other candidates in either party, and he just got endorsed by 2000 vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman and the classically conservative Wall Street Journal. Today he'll be in Boston at a lunch in Faneuil Hall Market Place with Henry Kissinger. Tomorrow he stops in Louisiana before returning home to Arizona on Friday.
Visit our Candidates Travel Map to know who to believe--by which we mean us, of course!
Earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney conducted a tour of Iowa under the slogan "Ask Mitt Anything". But the question he'll address in his speech tomorrow is one people have been asking since Romney threw his hat in the ring: How would his Mormon beliefs affect a Romney presidency?
Mitt hasn't exactly hidden his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; he served his Mormon mission in France, graduated from BYU and lived in Utah while he was running the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. And to be fair, many of the same questions which are being asked of Romney were brought up in 2000 when Senator Joe Lieberman became the first Jewish vice-presidential candidate for President--and, heck, in 1960, when John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic candidate for President.
Still, we're interested to see what Romney says when he speaks on "Faith in America" at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas tomorrow. After that, it's off to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (where Romney grew up) and the Republican presidential debate at the University of Miami this weekend.
Let's hope Romney supporters in Iowa still believe in his campaign, as he's currently neck and neck with Arkansas former governor Mike Huckabee. According to the guy behind us at New York's Atlantic Theater Company last week, though, Romney has it in the bag. Thanks for the tip, random prognosticator!
With all the talk about Cuba among the candidates for President, maybe CNN should consider holding a debate at Guantanamo Bay. First Obamatalks travel in Miami, then Chris Doddbrought it up. Now almost-a-libertarian candidate Ron Paul, an obstetrician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from East Texas, has made his pro-friendship Cuba policy the subject of his weekly newsletter.
While Paul is not a front runner--he recently nabbed 5% of the vote and 6th place in a CNN poll of Republican candidates--his campaign has drawn a fair share of attention due to its grassroots Internet efforts and for the $4.2 million he raised in one day last week, breaking Mitt Romney's one-day fundraising record. Paul will be in Cedar Rapids before heading to a college football tailgate in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday. Next week, he'll take a page from the Democrats and travel Nevada.
"Law and Order" fans rejoice! The series has now spawned three spinoffs and a presidential candidate. Former senator and fictional district attorney Fred Thompson officially announced his candidacy on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show," aspiring to a role he has played in twodifferent made-for-TV movies.
While the rest of the Republican field convened in Durham, New Hampshire for the fifth presidential debate, Thompson was hanging in California, a state he probably won't carry even if he wins the SAG member bloc. The other candidates took advantage of his absence to crack some lame jokes, according to Newsweek, while Rudy Giuliani complimented Senator John McCain and they both went after Mitt Romney.
Track all the travel on our Candidates Travel Map, which will not ask you for money after you check it out.
Just because he refuses to field questions from a talking snowman doesn't mean Mitt Romney and his fellow republican candidates aren't serious about fighting to keep a white guy in the top spot. Romney stormed through Iowa last week with a fervor aimed at showing the country he honestly thinks our country should elect a guy named "Mitt."
He toured the state with his son Josh's family, hosting "Ask Mitt Anything" Q&As in Denison, Ida Grove, Storm Lake, Spencer, and Okoboji. He also took a tour of the state's hydrogen energy center.
After promising Iowans he will clean up the "cesspool" of drugs, sex, and violence that surrounds America's children, the former Massachusetts governor jetted back to Washington, D.C. for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly Convention's prayer breakfast, then up to a campaign tour through another battleground state -- New Hampshire, and back down to Virginia Beach for a fund raiser.
His campaign strategists are hoping the intensity of his travel schedule will help him pull ahead of the fellas still beating him in the polls: Rudy Guliani, Fred Thompson, and John McCain.
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