Good morning.
With just one full day of campaigning left before Tuesday evening's — the first truly important contest of the 2012 presidential election season — the stories and headlines are all about who's up, who's down and who needs to do what to survive and do battle again next week in New Hampshire.
The Des Moines Register, which got its quadrennial burst of attention over the weekend (showing "a surprise three-way match-up in contention to win [between] Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum") the "keys to success" and things "to avoid" for each contender.
Some of the advice experts have for the candidates, according to the Register:
-- Rep. Paul (R-Texas) should "stress the message that he has got a legitimate chance at the nomination and the presidency," but not look "defensive" as rivals attack.
-- Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, "should continue to look and act presidential, remain positive and hopeful, and push a message that he's the best GOP candidate to take on [President] Obama" while not "going overly negative."
-- Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, "needs to spend his final hours" emphasizing how hard he's campaigned in the state while also not "going too aggressively on the offensive."
Meanwhile:
-- (as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has slipped in recent polls).
-- The Washington Post's of a Romney win at 1-1, Santorum at 4-1 and Paul at 5-1.
-- On Morning Edition, NPR's Ted Robbins in the Iowa polls. Also, NPR's Don Gonyea followed " and NPR's David Schaper reported about
This all comes to a climax Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Iowa (8 p.m. ET) when Republicans . We'll have coverage throughout today and Tuesday, and starting in the evening tomorrow we'll be live-blogging as Iowa Republicans caucus and as results start to come in.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNDQ2NDAxMDEyNzU2NzM2ODA3ZGI1ZA001))
