Settle. Those headlines are just a few of the places we saw that word come up over the weekend, and we’ve already heard it half a dozen times on “Morning Joe.” After months and months of build-up, we’re less than 24 hours from the first vote for the republican nomination. And Mitt Romney, while leading in the polls, hasn’t shown he can command more than 25% of voter support. Will turnout tomorrow be weak, because, well, no one wants to settle?
And with all this focus on Iowa and the Republican Party, is the attention and long drawn out race actually hurting the GOP instead of helping it? The differences between the candidates and the negative attack-ads just highlight the challenge the Party is having in finding a “balance of libertarianism, pragmatism and social and fiscal conservatism.” It just leaves us looking at a barrel of some very confused and different elephants. What’s the outlook for the Republican Party?
Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, who have all seen their Iowa support collapse, are desperately trying to make up lost ground. Bachmann is working hard campaigning in Iowa, but she’s also waiting on a miracle to help keep her in the race after Tuesday. We’ll talk to Team Bachmann’s Press Secretary, Alice Stewart, today at noon.
Casey Schaeffer