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| IOWA Caucus |
Congressman Ron Paul and former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney are favorites for victory among Republican activists' fears that the deep division of opinion on candidates could lead to the victory of a moderate option unable to run against President Barack Obama .
The caucuses in Iowa is developed in 800 schools, libraries, churches and even private homes especially designed for the occasion. There he developed an informal dialogue among voters, who may refer any questions you may have with representatives of the candidates or even the candidates in person. After the discussion, voters cast their ballots individually and privately.
Democrats also held their own caucus, even though Barack Obama is the only candidate presented by the party. The president, who rose victorious in the caucus of 2008, voters will go through a video on Tuesday night. Upon issuance of the piece, the Democrats begin their voting process, unlike the Republicans, is performed publicly in groups.
Although Romney and Paul are favorites, there is a high degree of unpredictability as the voters are very hesitant about the high number of options, including - by order of the vote in recent polls - the former senator Rick Santorum, the former chairman of the House Newt Gingrich, the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, Michelle and Congresswoman Bachmann.
However, the campaign of Barack Obama is almost convinced that Romney will be the candidate to beat in the upcoming presidential elections. It follows from messages as transmitted by the presidential adviser David Axelrod on his Twitter account. Romney "is wrong in principle and in its policies" in response to the intention of the former governor to veto the economic reform program if it reaches the Obama White House.
Conservative analyst Greg Mueller anticipates that after Iowa will be a tendency to concentrate around the figure of a single candidate. "The conservative movement close ranks around the strongest candidate out of Iowa," Mueller said in comments to the Web 'politics'. "Support for the only candidate they think has a real chance of winning," he added.
The most conservative Republicans fear a repeat of the scenario of 2008 when the Christian right split their votes between Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, which led to the victory of the centrist option represented by John McCain. He did know the influential Christian conservative David Lane in an email to his supporters, who fear that Santorum fulfill the same role as Thompson and finish closing off better-funded opponents.
The caucus
The caucuses will begin at 19:00 hours (2:00 am on Wednesday, Spanish time) and it is expected that the first results begin to appear within a few hours of onset of the vote.
Iowa was the first state to vote on the nomination of candidates to the White House since 1972 and usually has often serve to reduce the number of candidates for indicating the future winner. So while Huckabee won in this state in 2008, finally the Republican candidate was McCain.
About 120,000 people participated in the caucus of 2008, but party officials are not clear that this figure is repeated on this occasion.
"It's the first opportunity for Republicans to cast a vote for Barack Obama relieve", stressed the Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn, so "there is potential for a high turnout Republican."
Although only six candidates have actively campaigned in the state - Romney, Paul, Santorum, Bachmann, Gingrich and Perry - the party also report the votes they receive Jon Huntsman, who has skipped this state to focus New Hampshire, Herman Cain, who has left the presidential race, and Buddy Roemer, who are given few options.
Also inform the party votes for "no preference", which includes papers on rejecting all candidates or simply note the presence of the voter, and you receive the "other".
