Romney wins big in NH

This was a somewhat historic day for the Romney campaign.  Never has a non-incumbent Republican candidate won both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary.  Romney is hoping to take this momentum into South Carolina, where it will prove to be a much tougher battle.  Here are some links to related stories.  CNN story FOXNews story

The battle for the Republican nomination continues in SC and NH

In South Carolina, Rick Santorum seems to be gaining support, while in NH the prevailing sentiment favors independents like Ron Paul.

New unemployment numbers out - 8.5%

Here is a link to the article.

Eye of the tiger...

According to CNN, "Rick Santorum feels like Rocky Balboa"

Breaking News!

Bachmann is suspending her campaign.  News conference scheduled.  Article here.

Romney victorious in Iowa

Mitt Romney has won the Iowa caucus by a very slim margin of 8 votes.  Rick Santorum came in second with Ron Paul placing third.  This means a lot for the Santorum campaign, which was considered an afterthought just a week ago because of weak polling numbers.  The strong showing for Paul will assuredly energize his support, which is considerably smaller, but has always been enthusiastic and vocal.  Perry went to Texas to 'reassess' his campaign, but decided to continue on to South Carolina.  An upsurge of negative ads targeted at Gingrich hurt his momentum of the last couple weeks, but he is still committed to pushing forward to New Hampshire.  Bachmann placed last among the candidates who participated in Iowa, but vows to continue her campaign and "let the voters decide."  Huntsman did not participate in Iowa and placed last, but instead is continuing to focus on New Hampshire.

Here is a CNN article and FoxNews article explaining the results.

In an interesting twist, John McCain has officially endorsed Romney for the Republican nomination.  This will provide easy fodder for negative attacks against Romney and we are likely to see many 2008 McCain campaign clips lambasting Romney's liberal/moderate record.

Recommendations for materials

Do any students have recommendations/suggestions for books, movies, or any other multimedia materials that you think could help supplement the course material?  Please make only legitimate suggestions and thank you!!

The Iowa caucus is upon us!!

Here is the link to a very simple and informative article about the primary/caucus system and American Presidential campaigns.  It is meant for British readers so it is a good background review.

Here is another link to an article that is more recent and explains the current standing of each candidate in Iowa and how it will affect the future of this race.