Rick Perry rebound in Iowa: Assisted by veterans?
| Washington
Lots of news stories today about how the race to win Iowa is still wide open. The New York Times鈥� Nate Silver through the polling data and says any of five candidates could plausibly win. And Politico鈥檚 Maggie Haberman reports that from the Mitt Romney and Rick Perry camps show Newt Gingrich鈥檚 lead in Iowa is indeed slipping.
Interestingly, she also quotes a 鈥渧eteran GOP caucus-watcher鈥� as saying:
鈥淲atch Rick Perry. He鈥檚 going for a top three finish, and that could be to Romney鈥檚 expense.鈥�
We鈥檝e found ourselves wondering about Perry, who鈥檚 kicking off a 42-city Iowa bus tour today. Notably, two recent Iowa polls have shown a slight uptick in Perry鈥檚 support. In particular, an American Research Group (ARG) poll released yesterday (Tuesday)聽 showed him gaining 8 points (though he鈥檚 still in fourth place).聽
What鈥檚 behind this movement? Clearly, some of it is Gingrich starting to come back to Earth. In the ARG poll, Gingrich was down 5 percentage points from the previous poll - and Perry seemed to be the clear beneficiary.聽
And despite some , Perry鈥檚 鈥淪trong鈥� ad - where he criticizes the fact that gay soldiers can serve openly in the military while children can鈥檛 celebrate Christmas in school - may be generating some traction in the state.
In particular, Decoder is now wondering if the ad鈥檚 appeal was actually two-fold - going beyond 海角大神 conservatives to another potentially powerful voting bloc: veterans.聽
Remember, aside from Ron Paul, Perry is the only candidate who actually served in the US military. And in 2004, veterans were absolutely key to Sen. John Kerry鈥檚 come-from-behind win in Iowa.
Decoder just watched a live stream of an Iowa town hall event, where Perry was introduced by a聽veteran with who鈥檇 suffered serious third degree burns on 50 percent of his body. He gave a powerful introduction on behalf of Perry, hammering the issue of American exceptionalism.
If Perry can marshall the veteran community behind him, a campaign that not so long ago was universally seen as dead could conceivably come back to life.聽
Want more?聽
- Join the Rick Perry bus tour ().
- Check out in Iowa, courtesy of the Des Moines register.
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