Essential Reads

Will the Nominee Shape the GOP, or Will the GOP Shape the Nominee?

As Republicans begin choosing a general-election candidate here Tuesday night, one question could shape the destiny of the eventual winner: Will the nominee define the party, or will the party define the nominee? Successful presidential nominees often have helped redefine their parties. Ronald Reagan’s conservatism changed the Republican Party when he became its nominee in 1980.
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Romney Looks More Confident in Iowa Vote Run-Up

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign has a hint of a swagger about it as a good showing looks more likely next week in the Iowa caucuses, where his 2008 campaign crashed badly. While his staff dampened expectations of winning the caucuses vote this time, large crowds gathered at Romney events in the state and his Iowa poll numbers increased again.
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GOP Candidate Mitt Romney at a recent campaign stop in Iowa (CNN)

Take That!

There is no more perennial, or potentially perilous, reality of the modern presidential campaign than the planned, canned, not-always-grand one-liner—as this year’s Republican primary has reminded the world. Herman Cain’s whole campaign, to be honest, was a string of one-liners, until the punchlines ultimately knocked him out. Michele Bachmann has gotten off more than her share, including her description of her interchangeable, ersatz-conservative rivals as “Newt Romney,” and her one-word-association for Romney, when asked: “Hair.”
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Ron Paul's Fans: Will They Vote GOP in 2012?

Allen Huffman wouldn’t even be a Republican if not for Ron Paul. The Texas congressman’s promise to get rid of the income tax prompted the 42-year-old to register with the GOP and to caucus for Paul in 2008. Huffman has participated in phone banks at Paul’s campaign office about a dozen times in recent weeks, but don’t expect him to volunteer if Paul is not the GOP nominee.
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Odd Notes, Mad-Dash Trips Mark Iowa Closing Sprint

Iowa's GOP presidential contest remains deeply unsettled, if not downright strange, five days before the Jan. 3 caucus. Rep. Ron Paul, drawing big crowds, got a surprise endorsement Wednesday night from Rep. Michele Bachmann's now-former state chairman. Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who has languished for months, suddenly seems to have momentum, just as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may be losing his.
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Iranian Oil Threat is Mostly Bluster, Say Observers

Amid an escalating war of words between the United States and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. and European officials on Wednesday expressed confidence that there was no imminent threat to the passageway through which some 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil travels daily. Instead, they said, the latest Iranian threat to close the route reflected Tehran's anger at the U.S. pledge to impose sanctions on its nuclear program that for the first time directly target Iran's oil exports, the source of some 80 percent of its government revenue.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (CNN)

Obama to Name Two Fed Board Nominees

President Obama plans to nominate a Harvard University finance professor and a former private-equity executive to fill the two vacancies on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board.

Watch Video on Wall Street Journal

Gingrich Fights Back, Aiming at Romney as Iowa Caucuses Heat Up

The Republican presidential candidates opened an intensive week of campaigning in wide-open Iowa on Tuesday with the embattled Newt Gingrich casting rival Mitt Romney as an establishment defender of big government and accusing Romney’s supporters of lying about his record.
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GOP Candidate Newt Gingrich addresses reporters at a recent campaign stop. (CNN)