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President Obama will hold a televideo conference with Iowa caucus voters on Tuesday evening. He will hold the event at 8:15 p.m., the White House announced Monday. Obama hasn't campaigned in the early caucus state during the primary process, given he doesn't have any competition, but the state gave his 2008 campaign its start when he won the caucuses that year. Plus, Iowa will be a swing state in the 2012 general election. Obama won the state in the 2008 general election but it went Republican in 2004, voting for then-President George W. Bush. The president and his family arrive...

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) - Rick Santorum's poll numbers aren't the only thing on the rise. The former senator from Pennsylvania's fundraising figures are also skyrocketing. A senior Santorum adviser tells CNN the campaign raised more money in the last week than they raised on-line the past six months, adding that fundraising is between 300% and 400% higher on a daily basis than it was just ten days ago.

Live thread to cover today's GOP caucus. News, predictions, opinions, totals, and the like. Will be heading out about 4 pm or so to get our site ready and do a final review with the precinct chairs. I expect it to be bigger than 2008 with very heavy turnout and we are preparing for that. We are also ready for disruptions. They simply won't be tolerated. The state party sent us a memo saying if there's any trouble call the cops immediately. Anyone trying to cause problems is going to get a rude awakening. My predictions of the outcome are...

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NBC's Andrea Mitchell on New Year's Day made it clear to Nightly News viewers that her Obama-loving network will continue using the race card to assist the current White House resident's reelection. In a brief segment about the upcoming Iowa caucuses, Mitchell said "the rap" on the Hawkeye state is that "it doesn't represent the rest of the country - too white, too evangelical, too rural" Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/01/02/andrea-mitchell-iowa-too-white-too-evangelical-too-rural#ixzz1iMDxZzyc

I will be a "Temp" Iowa Caucus Chairman tomorrow night, so...

The latest polls out of Iowa confirm two things as we head into the caucuses: Ron Paul has peaked, and his support is now on the downswing. And Rick Santorum is surging, going from single-digits to third place in a matter of days.If the Des Moines Register survey holds true, Santorum may just be getting started: The poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday, shows support at 24 percent for Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts; 22 percent for Paul, a Texas congressman; and 15 percent for the surging Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.But the four-day results don’t reflect...

They start @ 1800 Central Time.

It's about time one of the candidates come right out and call the media's bluff. One thing you learn in the real world is that when someone quotes an anonymous source often it is because they don't have the balls to state that it is their own opinion. Not a big Perry fan but he gets my Kudos today. Now if more people in the GOP field in particular would just refuse to answer questions without credible sources I think we would be getting somewhere.

During the January 1, 2012 NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell may have given away the media's presidential election coverage playbook for this fall: racism may cost Barack Obama as white, religious, non-urban voters may be leaning towards the Republican.

Mitt Romney leads the Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus with 22%. Following closely, Ron Paul is in second place at 17%, Rick Santorum is in third place at 16%, and Newt Gingrich is in fourth place at 15%. In a December 19-22, 2011 survey, support for Santorum was at 4%. In a December 26-28 survey, support for Santorum was at 11%. Among registered Republicans, Romney leads with 24%, followed by Santorum at 17%, Gingrich at 16%, and Paul at 14%. In a similar poll conducted December 26-28, Romney was at 23% among Republicans, Gingrich was at 19%, Paul was at 12%,...

Raleigh, N.C. – The Republican caucus in Iowa is headed for a photo finish, with the three leading contenders all within two points of each other. Ron Paul is at 20%, Mitt Romney at 19%, and Rick Santorum at 18%. Rounding out the field are Newt Gingrich at 14%, Rick Perry at 10%, Michele Bachmann at 8%, Jon Huntsman at 4%, and Buddy Roemer at 2%.

One poll is getting the big headlines this morning: NBC poll: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul neck-and-neck in Iowa; Newt Gingrich in 5th The numbers from that poll, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday: Romney 23% Paul 21% Santorum 15% Perry 14% Gingrich 13% Bachmann 6% Similar numbers from a Rasmussen poll conducted Wednesday: Romney 23% Paul 22% Santorum 16% Gingrich 13% Perry 13% Bachmann 5% Thesed results have been enough to move Santorum to third place in the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls, but there’s yet another poll — conducted Thursday by We Are America — which shows Santorum now...

HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama will travel to Cleveland the day after the Iowa caucuses as he seeks to draw a contrast with Republicans running for president. The White House says the president's Jan. 4 trip to Ohio will focus largely on the economy.

With 45 percent of Iowa Republican voters undecided and a roller-coaster ride about to come to a screeching stop next Tuesday with the GOP caucuses, it may be Rick Santorum's turn to take the final ascent and surprise the political class by ... doing better than expected? Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, has been touted as the sleeper candidate by none other than 2008 Iowa caucuses winner Mike Huckabee. He has relentlessly campaigned in the state, hitting all 99 counties and moving his family out there. He has held 350 campaign events in the past year. Read more:

With less than a week to go until Republicans cast the first votes of the 2012 presidential race in Iowa, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas congressman Ron Paul remain atop the field there, even as the fortunes of their closest competitors are quickly changing, according to a new CNN/TIME/ORC poll released Wednesday. Romney now leads the pack with support from 25% of likely Iowa caucus-goers, while Paul boasts 22%, both posting a five-point gain since early December. While Romney’s lead in Iowa is tenuous, his continued strength across the board raises the possibility that the establishment front-runner could...

AMES, Iowa -- A new Iowa State University/Gazette/KCRG poll of 333 likely Iowa Republican caucus goers finds Ron Paul in the top spot among GOP presidential candidates with 27.5 percent, followed closely by Newt Gingrich with 25.3 percent. Paul's lead over Gingrich is within the poll's margin of error at plus or minus 5 percentage points. Mitt Romney is in third place at 17.5 percent, while Rick Perry is the only other candidate to poll in double digits at 11.2. While Paul's lead is just over 2 percentage points and easily within the poll's margin of error, it may actually...

Could the race in Iowa really go to a man who has spent the least amount of time in the state among all of the candidates vying for caucus-goers? Rasmussen’s latest poll of 750 likely caucus-goers show Romney with a small but statistically significant lead, 25% to 20% for new second-place candidate Ron Paul. But the big move may be from the second tier:

Newt Gingrich isn't exactly chasing the gay vote. The Republican presidential candidate told a homosexual Iowa man at a campaign event on Tuesday to vote for President Obama. Scott Arnold, a Democrat and associate professor of writing at William Penn University, approached the ex-House speaker in Oskaloosa wanting to know how Gingrich would represent him as President, according to the Des Moines Register.

The Republican presidential primary has become a bit feisty, but it will get downright ugly if Ron Paul wins the Iowa caucuses. The principled, antiwar, Constitution-obeying, Fed-hating, libertarian Republican congressman from Texas stands firmly outside the bounds of permissible dissent as drawn by either the Republican establishment or the mainstream media. (Disclosure: Paul wrote the foreword to my 2009 book.) But in a crowded GOP field currently led by a collapsing Newt Gingrich and an uninspiring Mitt Romney, Paul could carry the Iowa caucuses, where supporter enthusiasm has so much value. If Paul wins, how will the media and the...