There are some more details out this morning on that poll from last night showing Newt Gingrich moving into a solid lead in Iowa. The poll is the Des Moines Register poll, conducted by J. Ann Selzer, which is considered the gold standard for Iowa polls. (Another poll out this morning from NBC-Marist shows broadly comparable results.)
The good news for Gingrich is that he’s not only in first place; he’s also the candidate respondents chose most as their second choice. In other words, he’s got room to grow as other candidates fade.
The silver lining for Romney is that respondents see him as most electable (38%), most likable and most presidential. And Mitt is the second choice of most Newt supporters. Read More
And Mitt, bringing up the rear …
9:33 PM: Mitt starts off saying that the EPA is the president’s tool to destroy the free enterprise system and prevent economic growth.
9:35 PM: Romney says federal government does have a role in federal government: attacking teachers’ unions.
And now Bachmann …
Okay, forget about Bachmann. She’s being silly. But the real stand-out here is Ken Cuccinelli, the very right-wing Attorney General of Virginia. With candidate after candidate he’s asking really sharp and probing questions and even more the follow-ups — pretty much in each case pressing candidates when it’s clear they don’t really understand or aren’t paying attention to the basics of constitutional law or really obvious questions about relations between the states and between the states and the federal government.
Like pretty much every Republican candidate, Bachmann says she wants to abolish the EPA. Then Cuccinelli asked, well, what about when states have a dispute between them? What about when Ohio’s plants are sending pollution into Pennsylvania? She vaguely said that this could be handled on a case by case basis. But a special law every time this happened, he shot back? Obviously that didn’t make sense. He didn’t press the point past the point when it was obvious She really hadn’t considered the question. He had a similar exchange with Perry. Maybe Cuccinelli should be nominee.
