Michele Bachmann wins Iowa Straw Poll
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., stands with her husband Marcus on the back of a golf cart as she urges people to vote in the last few minutes at the Republican Party's Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011.
/ AP PhotoUpdated 8:26 p.m. ET
AMES, Iowa - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll here Saturday, edging out Rep. Ron Paul and handily defeating Tim Pawlenty, whose third place finish could mark the beginning of the end of his campaign.
"Now, it's on to all 50 states!" Bachmann said immediately after the results were released. Appearing on Fox News, Bachmann said she "just crossed a very important hurdle, but it's the first one." She described herself as "stunned and humbled and thankful and grateful and all the rest."
"Now we turn our attention toward winning the Iowa Caucuses and taking our message of reining in wasteful spending, keeping taxes low, growing our economy and creating jobs to the people of New Hampshire, South Carolina and all 50 states," Bachmann added in a statement.
Bachmann took 4,823 votes out of 16,892 votes cast, just ahead of Paul's 4,671. Pawlenty, who essentially went all in on the straw poll in an attempt to change the narrative of his struggling campaign, got just 2,293 votes, less than half of his fellow Minnesota lawmaker.
"Congratulations to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for her victory in today's straw poll," Pawlenty said in a statement after the announcement. "We made progress in moving from the back of the pack into a competitive position for the caucuses, but we have a lot more work to do. This is a long process to restore America -- we are just beginning and I'm looking forward to a great campaign."
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In fourth place was Rick Santorum with 1,657 votes, followed by Herman Cain with 1,456 votes. Write-in candidate Rick Perry, who formally entered the race today, got 718 votes, good enough for sixth. Despite being a write-in candidate, he beat out Mitt Romney with 567 votes, Newt Gingrich 385, Jon Huntsman with 68 votes and Thaddeus McCotter with 35 votes.
Frontrunner Romney, who won the straw poll in the 2008 campaign cycle, appeared on the straw poll ballot this time around but did not spend significant resources seeking a victory. Candidates spend lavishly on the straw poll in the hope that a strong result will generate positive media coverage that boosts their campaign, in many cases covering the $30 entry fee for their supporters, busing them to the event and plying them with free food and entertainment in exchange for their votes.
Also not seriously contesting the straw poll but on the ballot were Huntsman, whose moderate views are a poor fit with Iowa's socially-conservative GOP electorate; and Gingrich, who spoke here but who lacked the resources to make a serious push for victory.
In a speech shortly before the voting closed, Bachmann, an Iowa native, stressed her social conservatism, hailing Iowans for voting out of office a trio of judges who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. The straw poll was particularly important for the Minnesota representative, who sought to build on her early buzz and prove to a skeptical Washington establishment that she is not an unelectable candidate with narrow appeal. Bachmann's campaign focused aggressively on the straw poll, with the candidate crisscrossing the state imploring supporters to attend with promises of a performance by Randy Travis and others.
"In Iowa," she said, "We are social conservatives and we will never be ashamed of being social conservatives."
The straw poll was even more crucial for Pawlenty, for whom it marked perhaps the last, best chance to turn around what has so far been a disappointing campaign. Pawlenty was initially expected to be perhaps Romney's strongest challenger for the nomination, but his campaign failed to catch fire, with polls showing his support never moving out of the single digits.
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Pawlenty bussed in supporters who signed a pledge to vote for him, offering them free "Famous Dave's" barbecue and green Pawlenty t-shirts with the number 12 on the back. In a speech here, he condemned President Obama as having "no clue" what America needs and saying he needs to "get the government off our backs."
Pawlenty will now likely face growing calls to leave the race -- and, more crucially, will have a hard time raising the funds he needs to keep his campaign moving forward.
Paul spent more than any other candidate for a prime spot at the straw poll, and his young supporters came out in force for the Libertarian-leaning candidate, cheering him wildly as he called for a return to the gold standard and an end to legal abortion and American military intervention abroad. Joined here by his son, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Paul hoped a strong showing would help give him credibility as a serious candidate. When the results were announced, his supporters chanted "Ron Paul" and held up signs supporting the longtime Texas congressman.
Santorum and Cain hoped the event would help convince donors that they had a legitimate chance at the nomination despite seemingly long odds. Cain has largely faded despite early buzz amid a series of gaffes and campaign turmoil, while Santorum has sought victory on a platform of unblinking social conservatism at a time when many voters are more focused on fiscal issues. Santorum said immediately after the results that he had beat expectations in light of how much his rivals had spent to bring in votes, and he vowed to stay in the race.
The straw poll results were announced just hours after Texas Governor Perry announced his entry into the race in South Carolina with a broadside against President Obama. Perry is expected to be a strong contender for the nomination, one with the potential to combine establishment support (and the strong fundraising that comes with it) with the backing of social and fiscal conservatives. Perry supporters worked to get him write in votes on the straw poll ballot, and in some cases paid for voters to attend. He travels to Iowa on Sunday.
Also looming over the proceedings was Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor who kicked off the Midwestern swing of her bus tour with an appearance at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Friday. Palin, who said she wasn't trying to steal the spotlight from the straw poll contenders by showing up in Iowa, has yet to decide whether she will enter the presidential race. Palin, who was not on the ballot, was not listed among straw poll finishers, which means she got less than one percent in write-in votes.
Palin in Iowa: I'm not stealing the spotlight
It's important to keep the straw poll in perspective: It reflected the beliefs of less than 17,000 of Iowa's most committed voters, a fraction of the number who will vote in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, let alone in Republican primaries and caucuses around the country. Yet the straw poll can nonetheless make or break campaigns, and Pawlenty will now have to struggle to overcome what is an undeniably disappointing finish.
In an email to supporters seeking donations immediately after the results were released, Pawlenty vowed to stay the course.
"This is a long process to restore America -- we are just beginning, and I'm eager for the campaign," he said.
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Has it never crossed one of their limited minds that when they start telling people how to live their personal lives, they start to sound a lot like the tyranny from which we fled and founded this FREE USA!
The one drop rule is alive and well.
And this supposed "win" by Bachmann really doesn't mean anything.
There are over 3 million people living in Iowa, and Bachmann received a grand total of 4,823 votes. All this really shows is that the food Bachmann was serving at her tent ("roast beef sundaes, consisting of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and a cherry tomato on top") was more popular than the pizza, roasted sweet corn, Dairy Queen ice-cream cups, or hot dogs available at other candidates tents.
And while there are a few hay-seed, borned-again, evangelical, right-wing nut-jobs in Iowa (just as in any other state) that does not describe the typical Iowan. Most of us are capable of rational thought and we can see that so many of the things Michele Bachmann says have NO basis in fact. (Like the "blank check for Obama" when the truth is that no President can spend money; only the congress can. And Bachmann did NOT "have a plan to solve the problem without raising the debt ceiling" because that raise was necessary to cover money already spent by Congress.
It's unclear whether Mrs. Bachmann is ignorant of how US finances work (so actually believes she's telling the truth...in which case that should preclude her from holding ANY elected office) or not (in which case she's just counting on American voters not to know the real story. Either way, her whole campaign is all based on faulty premises, and most Iowans are intelligent enough to be able to see that.
Michele Bachmann may have "won" a totally meaningless fundraiser, but she will not win the Republican nomination, never mind the presidency.
It is interesting that Mrs. Bachmann chose to dispute what Ronald Reagan had said about the debt ceiling. It really does make one think Reagan would not be elected by today's GOP... they would call him a RINO -- oh, except for his lambasting of "liberals" as everything wrong with everything, they love that.
To be a Republican you need to believe
1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Barack Obama
2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority for years was enforcing U.N. resolutions in Iraq.
5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational drug corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools. Evolution is a lie, but get a flu shot every year because the virus evolves.
11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which tens of thousands die and the nation is plunged into debt is solid national policy.
12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
13. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
14. You support "Executive Privilege" for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity.)
15. Support hunters who shoot their friends and blame them for wearing orange vests similar to those worn by the quail.
16. You can vote to raise the debt limit as long as Obama is not President.
17. Officials should allow Christian prayer and Bible studies in schools and government buildings as a matter of Religious Freedom, but Muslims should not be allowed to build mosques or be elected to office because they practice Islam.
18. You have an argument why every one of the above is sensible and not hypocritical, and besides look at all the terrible things the Democrats may have done.
Now what is interesting is if you ask white Americans if President Obama is doing more for the African American community they will tell you YES! Any time they perceive that President Obama is doing ANYTHING that will benefit the African American community people flock to these boards condemning him and whining, bi!ching and moaning. Now Michelle Bachmann seems to think she will be able to use this against President Obama? Good luck with that. African Americans are not that stupid.
@arthanyel
I recession is a normal business cycle. All the stumulus did was increase the debt and delay recovery. That is why we are still stuggling. Whenever the government gets involved with "fixing" things they make the issues worse. Freddie/Fannie are was the reason for the meltdown in 2008. Let Capitalism work!! You have CH11 for Companies that fail.
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dan1511 - you are dead wrong on the results of the stimulus. The numbers are clear - minus 750,000 average jobs per month before the stimulus money started being put to work, plus 100,000 average jobs per month after. You don't like it, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. You could argue that it could have been MORE effective - and you would be right. You could argue that money was appropriated as "stimulus" funds that had nothing to do with stimulating the economy - and you would be right. But you can NOT say it didn't work - that's just conservative propaganda.
And while recessions are a normal event in economic cycles, the Great Recession triggered under Bush was hardly normal - it was the worst recession since the Great Depression, and if it wasn't for the stimulus spending (much of which was tax cuts) it is possible we would have entered the second Great Depression.
Fannie and Freddie were NOT the reason for the meltdown at all. That's more propaganda. The meltdown was caused by many factors, and both Democrats and Republicans have a large share of the responsibility for it, but the largest single thing that caused the worldwide collapse was that investment banks were able to package bad mortgage loans and sell them as AAA rated investments - and THAT is because of lack of regulation on those instruments, and for THAT Republicans are responsible. Without that repackaging only the mortgage banks themselves and the industries profiting directly from the housing bubble (and the homeowners) would have been hit
As for Chapter 11, that only staves off your creditors while you put a plan together that can work. If you just can't pay your bills, then Chapter 7 is your only option. And while in the purest capitalist sense allowing companies to file Chapter 7 and liquidate is part of the life cycle of business, if you allow businesses that govern entire industries to collapse (like GM or the banks) the damage isn't contained to just the one business failing - it cascades and brings the house down with them.
I have no problem if you or any other conservative wants to styate something factual and argue that the conservative position is better than the liberal one - I would even agree with many of your arguments. But you have to use real facts, and if you just want to stick your fingers in your ears every time someone shows that you are mistaken, there is no reason to debate.
And the financial collapse as I stated was caused by many factors and everyone shares responsibility. The Democrats are to partly responsible for pushing to lend money to less creditworthy people - although they NEVER asked or intended to lend money to people who couldn't pay at all, that was the deregulated financial industry trying to play a game where they could flip houses and make a profit even if the borrowers never paid a dime. The Republicans are partly responsible for first deregulating, then refusing to regulate, the financial companies and instruments that allowed those bad loans to "get out" into AAA paper. And the financial industry itself is responsible for taking ridiculous risks and fraudulently mis-representing the quality of their financial instruments.
I was in the mortgage business. You are lying about fannie and freddie being the cause of the MBS, CDO, Synthetic CDO, and CDS, meltdown. F & F played a small role, but the goose was cooked before they were heavily involved. All you have to do to discover the cause is find out who made money on on the meltdown, what they did to make money on the meltdown and WHEN they started doing those things.
Repeat: you are lying about Fanny and Freddie. If you want a summation of the cause: By gaming and bribing the credit ratings agencies, Wall St. investment banks removed the natural constraints upon no-doc loans, then told the mortgage lenders that those constraints were gone and that they, the investment banks, would pay huge money to the mortgage lenders for lots of loans, any loans at all. When the volume slowed, Wall St. visited the mortgage brokers/lenders and told them to get more loans, any loans at all. I know you want to blame the government for trying to help poor people after many decades of official and unofficial redlining - but, again, you are lying.
1. Tariffs on countries that don't play fair in Trade. China is one. It is about Jobs.
2. Open up the country for drilling, speed permits.
3. Fix excess regulation.
4. Repeal Obamacare.
5. Cut the Corp tax rate. Repatriate money overseas with a tax holiday
6. Flat tax on everyone with no deductions, loopholes, or exceptions. I should be able to do my taxes on my smartphone in 10min.
7. Privatize as many gov programs as possible...get rid of the czars.
Just a start to restore confidence and have a business friendy climate. Cut Cpa and balance goes a long way to restoring confidence.
1. Tariffs were SOUNDLY REJECTED by the republicans because the Chamber of Commerce demanded that the idea of tariffs be killed.
2. The drilling permit process is exactly the same as it was under Bush, and MORE permits were issued (yearly average) under Obama, than they were under Bush.
3. killing excess regulation is fine, but the republicans want to kill MOST regulations - whether they are beneficial or not.
4. Repealing Obamacare isn't going to do anything for jobs or job creation.
5. Most corporations have so many loopholes, that they don't even pay 15% - and you think it should be lower?!?!?
7. Privatizing government jobs, RADICALLY drives up the cost to complete those jobs. Spending MORE MONEY to accomplish the same task, is generally NOT a good idea.
As for the oil drilling, oil companies already have millions of acres they can drill on they haven't developed yet - adding more land to available exploration will accomplish absolutely nothing.
Private firms CAN operate more efficiently than government, but its not a natural law. Some parts of "government" work very efficiently. Few places, but there are examples. And you do NOT need competition to work effectively - in Oregon, Medicare costs per patient are half the costs in Florida, primarily because the primary health care provider in Oregon is a NON PROFIT with no major competition.