Iowa, Iowa Caucuses | featured news

After an embarrassing vote count this year, the Iowa Republican Party is set to review what went wrong in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Mitt Romney faced attacks from both sides after squeaking a record narrow victory in Iowa, with New Hampshire's leading newspaper Thursday urging Republicans to back his rival Newt Gingrich and President Barack Obama's re-election campaign training its sights on him.

In the closest finish in the history of the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were locked in a virtual dead heat in the first battle for the Republican presidential nomination... Ron Paul, nearly doubling his Iowa vote from 2008, was a close third.

After a disappointing finish in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, Rick Perry is suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann tells a small group of supporters that she's staying in the presidential race, saying she's the only true conservative who can beat President Barack Obama in November.

Well, it's official: President Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucuses tonight. "In some ways, I'm actually more optimistic now than when I first ran," Obama told Iowa caucusgoers tonight by video link from Washington. "We've already seen change take place. 2012 is about reminding the American people how far we've traveled."

President Obama's re-election campaign has taken out big ads on the website of the Des Moines Register that dig at Republicans on caucus day... "The Republican candidates are leaving Iowa. But their terrible plans are here to stay," proclaims the ad, which takes you to a page to sign up with the Obama-Biden re-election campaign.

As Iowa Republicans take in the final appeals before tonight’s caucus voting, one major lesson the candidates will take away: Going negative works. An estimated $5.8 million was spent on television advertising in Iowa through Dec. 30, with $3.7 million financing negative ads, according to most recent data available from New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, a company that tracks advertising.

With Iowa deciding on their choice for GOP candidate tomorrow, Google’s timing is much better this election season to roll out their political news and trends trackers at Google Elections. In 2008, they had a similar offering but didn’t release it until just before the conventions.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who led Iowa and national polls in November, said Monday he did not expect to win Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, but will declare victory because he has survived an onslaught of negative advertising.