Iowa shows support (if not enthusiasm) for Romney

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What is this article? It's a fluff piece. It quotes maybe five people for anecdotal evidence of the mood in Iowa.

Reporters are bored with the Cain bubble and "serious" speculation about new entrants is over. They don't know what else to talk about.

(Of course, they could discuss Romney's recent foreign policy speech, or better yet, they could investigate what members of Iowa's political establishment are saying. And some are. But articles like this, which do crop up at slow points in the campaign, are unfortunately common, and aren't really worthy of much discussion or attention.)

EDIT: Looks like some potential members of "the establishment" are actually quoted in the article. But it's not explained why these individuals are especially important, or representative of any larger trend.

[Averroës Nix]

What is this article? It's a fluff piece. It quotes maybe five people for anecdotal evidence of the mood in Iowa.

Reporters are bored with the Cain bubble and "serious" speculation about new entrants is over. They don't know what else to talk about.

(Of course, they could discuss Romney's recent foreign policy speech, or better yet, they could investigate what members of Iowa's political establishment are saying. And some are. But articles like this, which do crop up at slow points in the campaign, are unfortunately common, and aren't really worthy of much discussion or attention.)

Or they could conduct a poll!

Agreed! Though most reporters aren't pollsters, and know little or nothing about quantitative research methods.

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I wouldn't be surprised to see Romney, Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Paul, or Gingrich reaching the double digits. Even for Santorum it's not implausible.

EDIT: From PPP's Twitter:  “Only 3 candidates in double digits on our IA poll- Cain, Romney, Paul. Romney has real chance there, would be crazy not to try”

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Modern Bourbon, well done (unless you looked in the back of the book).  The Perry collapse is looking quite spectacular.  Are he, Bachmann and Santorum about to all start attacking Cain???

I would love to see the GOP's resident stressed-out nervous guy ripping into the charismatic public speaker.

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Hold on, we don't know the order yet or the difference. For all we know, Paul and Romney are ahead of Cain.

They're not listed alphabetically, so it's probably safe to assume that PPP has the candidates listed in order.