Bachmann

Michele Bachmann delivered her closing argument Monday, but there were precious few voters around to hear it. The presidential candidate, who isn't expected to be among the top finishers in the Iowa caucuses, kept a light schedule. A day before the caucuses, while Ron Paul rallied a packed ballroom in Des Moines and Rick Santorum played to bigger and bigger crowds, Bachmann toured a series of small storefronts west of the city. Her first stop, a small diner, was so jam-packed with cameras, reporters and a smattering of customers that an aide warned that Bachmann herself wouldn't be able to come in unless some of the media moved behind the lunch counter.

It was tempting to read everything as metaphor Sunday morning in church with Michele Bachmann, struggling toward the finish line in Iowa where voters will cast the first ballots of the 2012 presidential season on Tuesday. Bachmann carried her own Bible as she and her husband, Marcus, walked into Jubilee Family Church, a charismatic evangelical congregation about an hour southeast of Des Moines. Moments after she began a talk billed as a testimony to her faith, a church aide came up to the altar to turn on her microphone.

The Republicans jostling to break into the upper tier of presidential contenders clashed over Iran's nuclear ambitions and their credentials to be commander in chief as they dashed across Iowa on Thursday to lock down support in next week's opening contest of the race. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas congressman who has gained popularity among Iowa Republicans while still marginal in nationwide polls, defended his call for backing away from sanctions to deter Iran from building nuclear weapons.

Republicans battling for their party's presidential nomination scrambled across Iowa lobbing attacks Wednesday in a free-for-all that captured the rapidly shifting dynamics of the race. Six days before Iowans start casting ballots, the rising momentum of Ron Paul led Mitt Romney to take a swipe at the Houston congressman, though not by name, for refusing to advocate a tough policy toward Iran's nuclear program. "The greatest threat that Israel faces, and frankly the greatest threat the world faces, is a nuclear Iran," Romney told Iowans packed into Elly's Tea & Coffee House in Muscatine.

In a surprise move, and a blunt reflection of the shifting fortunes of Republican presidential candidates ahead of the opening vote in the 2012 nominating contest, Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman defected Wednesday night to Ron Paul's campaign. State Sen. Kent Sorenson, a tea party favorite, was hired as a Bachmann staffer in Iowa even before she announced her candidacy. He helped lead her campaign to victory in the Ames straw poll in August. Ever since, however, Bachmann's popularity has been in decline.

Mitt Romney has yet to appear on the Sunday morning political talk shows of three major broadcast networks this fall, but the GOP presidential candidate front-runner has twice found time this year for David Letterman's late-night show, including a turn earlier this week in which he ribbed rival Newt Gingrich in a Top 10 list. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also ran to Letterman's CBS show to poke fun at his famous memory lapse, but has declined invitations to hash out policy questions on the network's "Face the Nation.

In mere days, Iowa voters will turn their attention to the holidays. So for the trio of candidates languishing at the bottom of the presidential polls, this is desperation time. "We still have the chance to send a message," Rick Santorum pleaded to a few dozen voters in a pizza place in rural Carroll, his voice rising as an old woman sitting near him closed her eyes, perhaps to sleep. "If the results of Iowa are inconclusive, we've failed to send a message, and if we've failed to send a message, we've wasted time.

Newt Gingrich emerged the winner in a Sunday night straw poll of tea party voters after he and three other Republican presidential candidates courted more than 23,000 activists during a tele-forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots coalition. Gingrich won with 31% of the vote. Second place went to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won 28%. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 20%, and former Sen. Rick Santorum won 16%. All four participated in a pre-poll call with activists, in which they each spent 10 minutes responding to questions from participants and gave a 90-second closing pitch for support.

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann fired back Monday after rival Ron Paul told late-night TV host Jay Leno that the Minnesota congresswoman “hates Muslims.” “I don't hate Muslims,” Bachmann said Monday. “I love Americans and want to make sure that as commander in chief, I will keep America free, safe and sovereign.” Paul, a Texas congressman whose isolationist views on foreign policy have set him apart from the rest of the GOP contenders, has argued against engaging Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program and has opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michele Bachmann slashed at Newt Gingrich on Sunday, calling on him to return the $1.6 million he was paid by Freddie Mac, and castigated him for his past positions on immigration and his willingness to support Republican candidates who did not oppose partial-birth abortion. "He's trying to sound like a conservative but actually he sounds more like the 30-year establishment Washington insider that he is," Bachmann told reporters after attending church in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Earlier in the day, Gingrich said on "Face the Nation" that his firm was paid the money by Freddie Mac but that he received only a small portion.