US Elections Audio & Analysis: Scott Lucas with the BBC "A 4-Point Guide to the Iowa Result"

A Fading Candidate: Newt Gingrich1. The Republican contest is probably already down to two candidates: Mitt Romney v. Anyone Not Named Mitt.

2. Rick Santorum, in a victory of timing, got to be "Anyone Not Named Mitt" yesterday, with previous "Anyones" --- Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich --- fading to the point of departure without a surprise boost in the next few weeks. 

3. Even with a limited share of the vote, this is good news for Romney. Iowa, with its distinction as town-meeting caucuses rather than a primary in the voting booth, usually throws up surprise victors --- anyone remember Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2008? The challenge for a front-runner is to avoid embarrassment, and Romney has accomplished that.

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US Politics Feature: The Election Road Starts in Iowa

The first primary in the 2012 Presidential campaign will be held next Tuesday in New Hampshire. Before that, however, we get today's caucuses --- effectively, town meetings --- in Iowa for activists, primarily on the Republican side, to state their preference for the nominee for November's election.  Republican presidential hopefuls have criss-crossed the state for months, spending millions of dollars and time on states only have 11 of the 538 electoral votes that will determine who is the next President.

So why should we care beyond the razzmatazz of an opening contest?

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US Politics Opinion: Republican Candidate Muddle Their Way Through Foreign Policy

Let's be blunt: if you are inclined to look for disappointments in your life, Saturday night’s Republican debate, held in Spartanburg, South Carolina, met expectations.

The problem was not preparation --- unlike previous encounters, no candidate had failed to set up their position. Each held/his ground vigorously. The problem was that those territories were indistinguishable from one another.  In a debate that was a showcase to make a move on front-runner Mitt Romney, that was good news for the former Governor of Massachusetts, but it did not do much for anyone else.

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US Politics Analysis: GOP Debate --- Romney Wins, Cain Survives, Perry Dies

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Before last night’s Republican debate in Michigan, there were two questions on every viewer’s mind.

Neither of them were answered satisfactorily. Instead, we got a surprise ending: the final nail in the political coffin of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s political coffin, driven home with the force of a Craftsman 12-volt Hammerhead

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US Politics Feature: Is It President Obama by Default in 2012?

If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I would be inclined to put a substantial wager on Barack Obama being re-elected as President next year.

Not that I’m endorsing a memorable presidency. Not hardly. My view is based mostly on the likely opposition.

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US Politics Opinion: Riffing on Rick Perry and the Republican Campaign's Stepford Wives

Evidently, Rick Perry favours teaching intelligent design as a "science". He supports the repeal of the 16^th Amendment, under which Congress imposes income tax. He is opposed to single sex marriage. 

The conversation got me thinking about this year’s class of Republican hopefuls for the Presidency. I’ve lost count, but as Tim Pawlenty ducked out and Rick Perry threw his hat in, I believe there are 16. If Sarah Palin joins in, that will make 17. But, male or female, politically --- and despite all the current furour about Perry's distinctive style --- they look like Stepford Wives to me.

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US Campaign 2012: Minnesota Nice, Minnesota Not-So-Nice

Michele Bachmann & Tim PawlentyWhile Pawlenty and Bachmann have some ideas in common, but I ask myself, "What would America look like two years into a Bachmann presidency, as opposed to a Pawlenty administration? Will Bachmann have plunged America into more recession, will she have engaged in more wars, whilst becoming estranged from historic allies, and will the American middle class be propping up the wealthy again?"

All thse queries may pale, however, before the political reality that Pawlenty is unlikely to get the Republican nomination. He is "charisma lite" in a nation where voters seem to care as much for looks as for thoughts. If he could overcome this hurdle, he would make a worthy opponent for Obama.

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US Campaign 2012: How Michele Bachmann Confused John Wayne with a Killer Clown

Michele Bachmann is the new darling of many Republicans in the Presidential race for 2012. The Congresswoman was once distinguished by flamboyant remarks such as, "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." (The 1976 swine flu scare, which had a sequel in 2009, occurred during the Presidency of Republican Gerald Ford.)

Now, however, Bachmann seems to be been tagged a contender --- she wanted to treated "more seriously than Sarah Palin", according to the BBC --- for the GOP nomination. This appears to have occurred because she trumped six Republican male candidates in the first debate with lines like "As president of the United States, I will not rest until I repeal Obamacare."

Still, the Congresswoman can slip back into her old verbal ways. On Sunday, as she launched her Presidential campaign in front of her childhood home, she told Fox News, "I want [people] to know just like John Wayne is from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the spirit I have too. It's embracing America. It's sacrificing for America."

Only one problem: Marion Mitchell Morrison, later renamed John Wayne, was born 150 miles away in Winterset, Iowa.

Serial murderer John Wayne Gacy, known as the "Killer Clown", lived and worked in Bachmann's native town of Waterloo.

US Opinion: Dumpster-Diving Politics --- Why Do Liberals Hate Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin and Michele BachmannHow are the media going to try and damage the chances of another conservative women at becoming president, especially if Sarah Palin gives her backing to Michele Bachmann? There is little doubt left that a liberal media bias has scuppered a Palin presidency. In that they may have done America, and the world, a favour. But to repeat that treatment on another woman, whose personal life is as far removed from the sleazy conduct of an Anthony Weiner or an Bill Clinton as can be imagined, could raise some disturbing questions not just about the values of American journalism but about American liberalism as well.

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US Politics: The Alternative (i.e., Funniest) Summary of the 1st Republican Debate (Adams)

8.00pm ET: The candidates are introducing themselves. Rick Santorum mentions he has seven children. Then Michele Bachmann beats him with five children – and 23 foster children! Really.

Mitt Romney has five sons and 16 grand-kids. Does that beat Bachmann? Good question!

8.03pm ET: OMG, Ron Paul beats them all by mentioning that he has delivered 4,000 babies! Which is a true fact because he used to be an obstetrician and gynecologist. (Although given his philosophy, wouldn't it be better if babies have to birth themselves?)

Poor Tim Pawlenty, he only has two children.

Herman Cain: "I am not a politician. I am a problem solver." But only two children and three grandchildren. Solve that problem Herman Cain!

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