New Leader in Iowa

As you may have heard recently, Michelle Bachmann is the new leader in Iowa, having overtaken Mitt Romney, but what you may not have heard are the numbers, that are really quite surprising.  While Michelle does have real momentum, she currently has just 21 percent of the vote, certainly not an overwhelming lead.  The good news truly begins with Mitt Romney's numbers, which are now down to 18 percent.  Not only is he sinking like a stone, but he's close to being passed by Ron Paul, who has zoomed up himself, to 14 percent, scoring a very strong 3rd place, his best showing ever in any Iowa poll.  Sarah Palin, having not even announced a candidacy, is beating everybody else, with 11 percent.  Some other notable names have seemingly had their campaigns fall apart in Iowa, with Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty each now garnering just 2 percent support, behind even Newt Gingrich's 8 percent and Rick Santorum's 5 percent, and Jon Huntsman's 3 percent, and tied with Rick Perry's 2 percent. 

These numbers are shocking, and are really quite awesome for America when you think about them.  The front-runner stands at just 21 percent, and only 7 points ahead of Ron Paul.  Sarah Palin leads all the other candidates except for Bachmann, Romney, and Paul, without even running a campaign.  If she ran, and she got the Bachmann vote, which one would assume that she would, she would in fact have a very commanding lead.  If she doesn't, then Ron Paul is VERY well positioned to beat Mitt Romney and possibly even win the whole thing!  I was surprised when I read today that Ron Paul wasn't seeking re-election to the House, but having seen these new numbers I now understand why.  He has a far better chance to win the Iowa Caucuses, and the GOP nomination (and thus the Presidency, since the GOP nominee will obviously be a heavy favorite against the failed Presidency of Obama) than most people realize right now.  These numbers are fascinating, we have a new leader in Iowa, Mitt's numbers are tanking, Ron Paul is zooming up, Sarah Palin is still in a strong position, these numbers are great news for Ron, Sarah, and most of all America!

Shocking Straw Poll Results!

In a surprising LANDSLIDE, Texas Congressman Ron Paul scores a HUGE victory in the Louisiana Straw Poll that Mitt Romney won just last year.  This strongly suggests that, despite the name-ID feuled polls the lamestream media likes to produce suggesting Romney is the front-runner, the engaged, rank and file members of the Republican Party are in fact quickly souring on Romney, while they're rapidly warming to Dr. Paul!  Other candidates with strong performances include John Huntsman, who had 382 votes, better than everyone else except for Ron's 612, and Michelle Bachmann, whose 191 votes was less than a third of Ron Paul's overwhelming total, but still better than most of the field so she can take some satisfaction in that.  Other notable totals include Herman Cain at 104, Mitt Romney at 74, which means he sank from first last year to FIFTH this year, as voters got to know him better.  Newt Gengrich scored 69 votes, Sarah Palin only 41, very disappointing indeed for the Governor.  Rick Santorum got 30 votes, and Tim Pawlenty 18.  So a HUGE weekend for Ron Paul, solidifying once again his status as a MAJOR contender for the GOP Nomination in 2012, and a very poor showing for Mitt Romney, a man who won this event last year, but scored a very weak 5th place this year.  It seems the grass roots are more interested in Ron Paul, and to a lesser extent Michelle Bachmann, than they are folks like Mitt Romney and Newt Gengrich, both of whom performed WAY better last year than this.  A huge straw poll event, and a huge win for Ron Paul, no doubt due in part to his stand on Poker, an issue he actually mentioned briefly during his Convention Speech on Friday, before today's vote.  He is the only major candidate who supports our right to play Poker legally, and that will definitely play a significant role in this campaign.  Looking forward to the Iowa Straw Poll in August, as well as many other major events in the 2012 Campaign Season! 

Major Straw Poll This Weekend

For those of you who don't yet know, there's a major straw poll this weekend down in Louisiana.  It's the Republican Leadership Conference, which holds a Straw Poll each year.  Last year Mitt Romney won by ONE VOTE over Ron Paul, I think Sarah Palin came in 3rd.  Can Mitt win again, or will Ron gain some major campaign momentum by winning an event Mitt won last year?  Or will someone else altogether surprise them all, like Michelle Bachmann or Herman Cain?  It's high drama on the Bayou!  Stay tuned to the Gladiator Blog to find out the full results, which from what I understand will be available on Sunday, although actual voting has already begun, so if you want a say in who the next President is but you don't live in Iowa or New Hampshire, you might want to head down to this event and help your favorite candidate score some major Campaign Momentum!

Major Campaign 2012 News!

There's so much news I don't know where to begin!  First, the bad news.  In the wake of his announcement, it seems that Mitt Romney is opening up a bit of lead on the other contenders, actually getting to 30 percent of the vote in one poll if Sarah Palin doesn't run.  But speaking of Sarah Palin, it seems that she's been on the receiving end of an attack from Michelle Bachmann's new Campaign head, Ed Rollins!  Why was Ed Rollins first act as chief of her campaign, to go out and attack Sarah Palin in an interview?  That of course has led to a bit of a feud between the two camps.  Of course ultimately Michelle Bachmann is another Gary Johnson.  Gary would've done well if Ron Paul hadn't run, but since Ron is running there's just no reason for anybody to support Gary.  So it is with Michelle Bachmann, she no doubt could do well if Sarah Palin doesn't run, but if Palin does run then there's no reason for anybdoy to support Bachmann, and she will do extremely poorly.  Granted there was a poll on Bill O'Reilly last night showing her ahead of Palin 60-40 in a head to head contest, but that's an online poll taken before Sarah Palin got in.  If she gets in, those numbers would change DRAMATICLY. 

On a happier 2012 front, it seems the Ron Paul campaign keeps picking up steam!  He recently got another major endorsement in Iowa, another State Representative has endorsed Ron's candidacy, this time Freshman State Rep Kim Pearson!  A fellow Tea Partier, she won a VERY tough race last go-round, and now she's supporting Ron Paul for President!  For all of you Iowa readers, watch that name, Kim Pearson, you might be seeing it for Senator or Governor one day, and if so, please remember to give her your full support!  That's not all the Ron Paul news though, because he also picked up a major endorsement in New Hampshire as well!  State Senator Jim Forsythe has not only endorsed Ron Paul for President, he's actually agreed to be the Chairman of Ron's New Hampshire Campaign!  Of course New Hampshire's legislature is a citizen-legislature, so they have lots and lots of free time, State Senators from other states might be too busy to do something like that, but not in New Hampshire!  This is a HUGE plus for Doctor Paul, so now his Iowa and New Hampshire campaigns are really starting to take off!  Stay tuned for more 2012 updates!

Massive Ron Paul Fundraising

For the second time in this election cycle alone, Ron Paul scored big with a 'Money Bomb'.  A money bomb is a 1 day fundraising event in which people 'bomb' the campaign with money, you may recall recently Congressman Bachmann raised around 200K on her money bomb day, by contrast Ron Paul raised 1.1 Million dollars yesterday.  During the previous campaign, late in 2007 the Ron Paul campaign held the first ever 'money bomb', in which it raised over 6 million dollars in a single day, setting a record for fundraising in one day.  Since then, other campaigns have begun employing money bombs also, to varying degrees of success.  Earlier this year, on the day of the SC Debate, the Ron Paul campaign held a money bomb and raised over a million dollars then also.  There are many more money bombs planned throughout the year, the next one being July 4th.  Despite news reports of Mitt Romney being the big moeny candidate, and that he raised 10 million dollars in one day, the reality is he didn't actually raise 10 million dollars in cash, he raised 10 million dollars in Pledges.  A money bomb, on the other hand, brings in actual campaign cash, money in the bank that can be used immediately for the campaign.  Which is more valuable, a million dollars in the bank, or 10 million dollars in pledges?  You can judge that for yourself, but I'm sure that Ron Paul is quite a bit happier to have his moeny in the bank than Mitt Romney is with having 'pledged' money. 

Today's money bomb money will be a huge help as Ron prepares go toe to toe with Mitt and the others in the crucial Iowa Straw Poll, which is held in August.  That straw poll will go a long ways in separating the Pretenders from the Contenders.  In 2007 Ron Paul was polling at about 1 percent in Iowa, but got 10 percent in the Iowa Straw Poll, good enough for 4th place.  That year the Fox News Channel reported, and I promise you I'm not making this up as insane as it sounds, the results for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th place.  So despite unprecented media bias against his campaign, he greatly overperformed his current standing in the polls at the time, and in fact went on to score another 10 percent showing during the Iowa Caucuses themselves.  This year Ron is at 8 percent in the most recent Iowa poll, with Romney at 21, and Sarah Palin and Herman Cain tied with 15 each.  So the field is wide open, and there's no reason why Ron can't finish either first or a strong second.  Between now and the Straw Poll Ron's campaign has to keep building support, and building infrastructure.  Iowa, being a Caucus state, simply cannot be won by a campaign without boots on the ground.  Ron's campaign is strong and growing in Iowa, he and Romney will likely be the two best organized candidates in Iowa come Straw Poll time, and its definitely possible that Ron's campaign will be the very best of the bunch.  So the bottom line for now is, another bigtime fundraising day for the Paul campaign, a day that will help his already strong Iowa campaign organization get even stronger!  

Shocking New Iowa Poll

A new poll from the First Caucus State of Iowa was just released today, and it has some very shocking numbers.  First, the not-shocking part is that Establishment favorite Mitt Romney continues to hold a narrow lead, with 21 percent of the vote.  However while it also isn't surprising that Sarah Palin is in second with 15 percent, what is absolutely shocking is that she is tied for second with Herman Cain!  The former head of Godfather's Pizza has zoomed up to 15 percent in Iowa, totally shocking.  Newt Gingrich is in 4th, still with 12 percent of the vote despite his scandals and huge sleaze factor, Michelle Bachmann has climbed into the double digits, scoring a 5th place showing with 11 percent of the vote, Tim Pawlenty also has double digits now in 6th place with 10 percent, Ron Paul sadly is all the way back in 7th place in this poll with just 8 percent of the vote, ahead of only John Huntsman, who has 0 percent (he literally only got 1 vote in the entire polling sample). 

This poll tells us a lot of things, first of course that name recognition and being the Establishment's Man is still good for first place in Iowa, at least right now, and it also shows that Governor Palin is still a major force in Iowa politics, despite having done virtually nothing to boost her standing there.  However what's much more interesting about this poll is how the lesser known Conservatives are doing, particularly Mr Herman Cain.  As a successful Businessman and cancer survivor, Herman Cain brings powerful leadership skills to the table.  He seems to have a strong Conservative resume as well, no doubt that especially helps in a state like Iowa.  The fact is that Cain has very little money, and is zooming up pretty much entirely due to the strength of his South Carolina Debate performance, and subsequent interviews.  I don't know much about the man, but from what little I do know he seems like a very genuine and likable fellow, somebody who is extremely qualified and very trustworthy.  I look forward to seeing and hearing more from this excellent candidate.

Another part of the poll that might be a bit surprising is that Newt Gingrich still somehow has 12 percent of the vote, I guess thats entirely due to name recognition, because he's alienated so many people at this point its a wonder he's even still in the race.  Michelle Bachmann continues to climb in the poll, she's up to 11 percent, and she's one of those candidates who would probably benefit most should Newt continue to sink.  Tim Pawlenty is somehow at 10 percent despite basicly being a bland, boring nobody.  And Ron Paul does surprisingly poorly in this poll, the only major candidate to not be in the double digits, albeit he's close at 8 percent.  Certainly you could say that he's within the margin of error for 4th place, so many candidates are packed so close together, and of course if you looked at Ron Paul this time in 2007 he was at about 1 percent in Iowa, and still managed to get 10 percent of the vote in both the Ames Straw Poll and on Caucus Night.  His starting point this time around is thus eight times stronger, and by that logic he will finish on Caucus night with 80 percent of the vote....OK maybe not :) .  But this much stronger starting point definitely gives him a much better shot at winning the Caucuses, and he's also much stronger on the ground this time around in advance of the critical Ames Straw Poll in August , which could go a very long way toward making Ron the man to beat come Caucus night. 

So some major developments in the 2012 Presidential Race, stay tuned to the Gladiator Blog for more coverage of Election 2012!

New Gallup Poll

The latest Gallup Poll, just released today, shows some truly fascinating, and I might add awesome, numbers.  Even the bad news isn't so bad, as while the leader is still Establishment Flip-Flopper Mitt Romney, his support is only 17 percent.  He's just two points ahead of Conservative Hero, Governor Sarah Palin, who has 15 percent.  More excellent news is that in Strong Third is Congressman Ron Paul!  Governor Palin and Congressman Paul are by far the best candidates, Pro-Freedom, Pro-Constitution, these are people who don't just talk about being Conservative and Pro-Freedom, they live it.  Champions of Small Government, Palin and Paul would make an awesome Ticket, in either order, come 2012. 

It's also important to note that in the event that Sarah Palin does not run, Gallup polled for that too, and in fact Ron Paul moves up to second!  So even if one of these great Americans doesn't run, the other will be even stronger, so no matter what happens we'll have at least one awesome candidate in this race!  It's good news for Constitutional Conservatives, Freedom Loving Americans like myself, and it's awesome news for America!