Straw Poll

PELLA, Iowa - Mitt Romney, the GOP's fragile presidential front-runner, faces challenges in the next few days that could knock him down a couple of rungs: a debate in which he can expect his rivals to attack him, an attention-drawing straw poll he is bypassing, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry's expected joining the race. If he felt the pressure, Romney didn't let on Wednesday as he made his second trip to Iowa this year, his first since spring. He went after President Obama for not doing more to help the struggling economy, targeting the president's planned trip next week to meet with small-business owners and workers in three states.

INDIANOLA, IOWA - Fresh from his adopted home at an Iowa farm, would-be president Rick Santorum wore cowboy boots and jeans when he walked into a worn-at-the-edges corner store on the square of this small town looking for help. "People in Iowa have a huge say in who's going to be president," the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania told a dozen Republicans sipping coffee. "Iowa doesn't pick the president, but it does pick the field. " Indeed. Starting with a debate tomorrow in Iowa and a make-or-break straw poll in the state Saturday, the coming stretch will test candidates, messages and machinery; elevate some to the top tier of media attention and money, and drive the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination heading into the fall.

AMES, Iowa - The Ames Straw Poll is many things: state fair with carnival rides, political convention, fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party, test of a candidate's organizational strength, and what some might describe as an institutionalized if genteel day of bribery. But the quirky poll, in which only six of the nine declared Republican presidential contenders are participating Saturday, is also testimony to the paradoxical ability of Iowans, who pride themselves on their modesty, to capture the media spotlight.

The 1996 presidential campaign begins unofficially tomorrow in Iowa and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will be there. He and six other possible GOP contenders will speak at the Iowa Republican Party's state convention tomorrow night in Des Moines. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people who paid $25 each to attend will then vote on their choice for president. The straw poll foreshadows Iowa's first-in-the-nation party caucuses, which will be held in January 1996. But Specter insists tomorrow's trip doesn't mean he's running for president - even though this will be his third trip to Iowa.

The state Gaming Control Board does not want to hear what Philadelphia voters think of casinos. Seems the state Supreme Court might not, either. But we do. That's why a straw poll on casinos, asking the same ballot question now tied up in a state Supreme Court challenge, will be a big part of the Great Expectations Deliberation Days events in May. Great Expectations is a joint effort of the University of Pennsylvania and The Inquirer, aimed at encouraging the city to think boldly about its future in an election year.

To see what money can buy in presidential politics, watch the Steve Forbes caravan as it rolls across Iowa in advance of Saturday's Republican straw poll. By the time it hit town Monday evening, 100 residents of this college town had finished the sit-down dinner in the banquet room of the Depot Crossing Restaurant, paid for by the Forbes campaign, and were lining up to have their pictures taken, one by one, with the candidate and his wife. The shots were captured on disk by a state-of-the-art digital camera, and the disks were rushed off to the computer center aboard Victory Express Two (also known as Bus Two)

ORLANDO, Fla. - Georgia businessman Herman Cain scored an upset win in the Florida Republican Party's straw poll Saturday, dealing a setback to national front-runner Rick Perry. The vote is nonbinding, but may signal a rough stretch of road ahead in a tightening race for the GOP nomination. It came after Perry, leading the field in most polls, stumbled in a Thursday debate, dismaying conservatives and changing the minds of some delegates who had planned to back the Texas governor.

Iowa looks like a different state as it prepares for today's presidential delegate caucuses under a blanket of snow - a stunning contrast to the warm, sunny Saturday last August when the Republicans conducted their presidential straw vote in nearby Ames. But it's the same state. And that is the problem. For more years than I care to remember, I have defended the right of Iowa and New Hampshire to lead off the nominating process against the many critics who ask why two such relatively small and arguably untypical states should always have the privilege of taking first crack at the candidates.

Ask most of the Republican presidential candidates about the significance of the big straw poll here and you get an answer something like this: "I hope to do well, but it's not life or death for me. I'm not going to name names, but there are one or two candidates out there who, if they finish in the bottom half, will find it hard to continue. " Well, let's name names. We're talking about Lamar Alexander and Dan Quayle. Neither has had much impact on the race thus far. Both have seen many of their potential donors and supporters siphoned off by George W. Bush.

As you read your Sunday paper, Rick Santorum is scheduled to be crisscrossing New Hampshire. He's headed for a clambake in Rumney, a Greek festival in Manchester, and a meeting at Center Harbor in an old church called Our Lady of Victory. It's a wonder what finishing fourth can do for a man. Not so long ago, the former Pennsylvania senator was being dismissed as an asterisk in the Republican presidential race, a candidate who had to raise his hand and shame moderators into calling on him during a nationally televised debate.

WASHINGTON - At last year's Conservative Political Action Conference, activists were chasing the idea that some dreamboat Republican they could fall for - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, perhaps, or maybe New Jersey Gov. Christie or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or that dashing young Rep. Paul Ryan - would make quick work of President Obama. Flash forward to 2012. Their wish never materialized. Instead, the GOP primary is increasingly bitter, with candidates whom many conservative activists consider flawed - a surprisingly muddled picture just nine months till Election Day. There is quiet, persistent talk of a brokered convention in Tampa, Fla. Mitt Romney, the only candidate with the money and organization to run a topflight national campaign, leads in the delegate count, but enthusiasm for him seems muted in the GOP base.

WASHINGTON - At last year's Conservative Political Action Conference, activists were chasing the idea that some dreamboat Republican they could fall for - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, perhaps, or maybe New Jersey Gov. Christie or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or that dashing young Rep. Paul Ryan - would make quick work of President Obama. Flash forward to 2012. Their wish never materialized. Instead, the GOP primary is increasingly bitter, with candidates whom many conservative activists consider flawed - a surprisingly muddled picture just nine months till Election Day. There is quiet, persistent talk of a brokered convention in Tampa, Fla. Mitt Romney, the only candidate with the money and organization to run a topflight national campaign, leads in the delegate count, but enthusiasm for him seems muted in the GOP base.

The 3-year-old daughter of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was admitted to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Saturday and the candidate canceled his Sunday-morning campaign events to be at her side. Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Saturday night the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife, Karen, were with Bella at the hospital. Gidley said Santorum planned to return to campaigning as soon as possible in Florida, where the Republican primary is Tuesday.

If Tuesday's Iowa caucus results are any indication, choosing a presidential candidate comes much easier to the likes of Delaware County GOP veteran Wallace Nunn than to Republicans in the Hawkeye State. "Nobody's going to give you everything you want, but you make a decision," the former County Council chairman said. "My wife's not everything I'd want, but she's a pretty good woman. We've been together 37 years, and that's worked out fine. " Apologies to Mrs. Nunn, but her husband's certitude echoed a sentiment heard from GOP heavyweights across Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Tuesday night as Iowa Republicans struggled to choose among Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum in a nail-biter of a race for first place in the caucuses, the first step in the GOP's nominating process.

DES MOINES, Iowa - An Iowa caucus campaign that has cycled through several Republican presidential front-runners entered its final week Monday as unpredictable as the day that conservatives began competing to emerge as Mitt Romney's chief rival. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, released a new television commercial for the state in which he cited a "moral imperative for America to stop spending more money than we take in. " "It's killing jobs," he said. Texas Gov. Rick Perry countered with an ad that said four of his rivals combined - none of them Romney - have served 63 years in Congress, "leaving us with debt, earmarks, and bailouts.

CONCORD, N.H. - Rep. Michele Bachmann's paid staff in New Hampshire has quit the presidential campaign, which is increasingly focusing all of its resources on a victory in the Iowa caucuses. WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., first reported the departure of the six officials, who left "over deep frustration with the campaign's lack of commitment" to the state. Bachmann (R., Minn.) had already been heavily focused on Iowa, and the loss of what little New Hampshire operation she had only clarified her strategy.

HANOVER, N.H. - The candidate in shirtsleeves cut across South Main Street in the middle of the block, his entourage struggling to keep up as a police officer in a Smokey Bear hat warned the onlookers to stay back. On the sidewalk, a cluster of fans started a chant: "9-9-9! 9-9-9!" Herman Cain turned, grinned, and waved. Just a few hours before Cain was applauded on the streets of Hanover, his proposal to replace the U.S. tax system with a flat 9 percent personal income and corporate tax and a 9 percent sales tax dominated the latest Republican presidential debate, at Dartmouth College.

Romney wins Mich. straw poll MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. - Mitt Romney, returning to his home state this weekend, won a straw poll of Michigan Republicans at a conference, picking up more than half the 681 votes cast in the test of political muscle in this early nominating state. Romney took 51 percent of the vote in the National Journal Hotline/National Association of Home Builders straw poll, whose results were released early Sunday, far surpassing Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who finished second with 17 percent.

WATCHING Republicans stagger through their candidate-selection process is like watching kids at a birthday party play Pin the Tail on the Donkey. They're blindfolded, so you never know where the pin gets stuck. How else to explain Saturday's surprise win of pizza king Herman Cain in Florida's straw poll? It extends a GOP pattern that says: Look, we have no idea what we want, except we want anybody but that socialist Muslim tax-and-spend usurper in the White House. Oh, and we don't care what our candidate knows, says or thinks as long as he or she is patriotic, loud, angry or maybe a little crazy.

ORLANDO - Georgia businessman Herman Cain scored an upset win in the Florida Republican Party's straw poll Saturday, dealing a setback to national front-runner Rick Perry. The vote is nonbinding, but may signal a rough stretch of road ahead in a tightening race for the GOP nomination. It came after Perry, leading the field in most polls, stumbled in a Thursday debate, dismaying conservatives and changing the minds of some delegates who had planned to back the Texas governor. Cain received 37 percent of the 2,657 votes cast, more than twice as many as Perry, who made the most concerted effort here and captured 15 percent.