Republican Campaign Wraps up in Iowa, Moves to New Hampshire

Mitt Romney claimed a narrow victory in Iowa - he won by eight votes over Rick Santorum - and immediately headed to New Hampshire to keep campaigning. John McCain, the Republican nominee from 2008, endorsed Romney after his Iowa victory.

Santorum, a former Senator from Pennsylvania, also headed to New Hampshire hoping to ride the wave that earned him near-victory in Iowa. He has polled well with social conservatives and fundamentalist Christians and hopes he can continue to earn their votes in the primaries ahead.

Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Congresswoman who won the Iowa straw poll in August but came in a distant sixth in the caucuses, suspended her campaign. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who did not campaign in Iowa, is gearing up for New Hampshire, where he hopes his politically moderate views will appeal to voters.

The race can change dramatically after the primary voting starts however and the results in Iowa don’t always predict the winner. While then-candidate Obama won Iowa in 2008 and used the media attention as a springboard to challenge front-runner Hillary Clinton, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Republican contest that year. Huckabee dropped out eventually and Sen. John McCain, the third-place finisher in Iowa, went on to win his party’s nomination.

The Democratic Candidate

	Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States. On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website.

The U.S. Constitution says that a president can serve two four-year terms, and that is what President Obama would like to do.

The Democratic Party will hold primaries and caucuses, but there are no real challengers to the president’s nomination. Instead, the Obama team will spend its time reaching out to independent voters, who helped President Obama win in 2008.

President Obama has already started traveling the country giving speeches and outlining why he wants and deserves another four years in office. Key to his success will be whether the economy gets better or worse.

NewsHour conservative analyst David Brooks said his message misses the point. “I think this election  is about national decline. And he's trying to make it an election about [economic] inequality. And I think people agree that inequality is a problem. I don't think they see it as the central problem, which is about growth and really preserving the country as a growing, dynamic country.”

NewsHour liberal analyst Mark Shields adds, “There are going to be two questions that voters ask in 2012. Is it working -- that is, is the Obama economy, economic plan -- and is it fair?”

What Happens After Iowa

	Each party holds a national convention to choose a final presidential nominee.

After the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Republicans in Florida and South Carolina will select their delegates, followed by six states in February.  On March 6, otherwise known as Super Tuesday, 11 states will host primaries or caucuses.

Click here to see the New York Times’ primary calendar: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/calendar

When both parties have chosen a candidate sometime in the spring or possibly early summer, there will be conventions at the end of the summer. Conventions are big celebrations that try to energize the “base” of the party – the folks who will give money, knock on doors and speak out for their candidate. 

Some candidates decide to run in the November presidential election as independents or as representatives of smaller third parties, but they face very tough odds without the money and power networks of the Republican and Democratic Parties.