Posts tagged Michele Bachmann
The 2012 Republican Primary Field: January 5, 2012
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From June to December, we gave you a rundown of the Republican field for the 2012 Presidential nomination. These “Stampeding Elephant” features (see image at left) used to come about mid-month. For the next few weeks, or at least until the nominee becomes clear, we plan to update these weekly on Thursdays (weakly stampeding elephants?), as the results from Saturday and Tuesday votes come in and are digested by the punditry.
The Iowa Caucuses didn’t change things much in terms of placement of Republican contenders, though it did whittle the number down by one. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the big beneficiary on Intrade. There is now a 75 point gap between Romney, with an 81 percent chance of winning the nomination, and second-place former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at six percent.
We started the monthly recaps in June with 11 candidates and potential candidates judged by Intrade investors to have better than a one percent chance of securing the Republican nomination. Nine candidates met the one-percent threshold in July and August. In September, the number of maybe-viable candidates dropped to six. October’s rundown had seven candidates at greater than one percent on Intrade. In November, there were still seven candidates, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the first and second positions, Texas Governor Rick Perry fading fast in third, and Representative Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson, TX) and Jon Huntsman tied for fourth. Herman Cain was still in the race last month, but dropping fast in sixth place, and Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater, MN) in seventh.
At the time of our last rundown, 21 days ago in mid-December, the “Not Romney” was Gingrich, but his “Not Romney” surge lasted no longer than a month. Former Senator Rick Santorum had the good sense to mount a “Not Romney” surge in late December, just in time for the Iowa Caucuses. That brought him into a tie with Romney (who presumably is unable to mount a “Not Romney” surge). At last report, Romney led by eight votes, 30,015 to 30,007, so I’m comfortable calling that a tie because it’s a margin of 0.0066%, well within the margin of error of any voting system with over 100,000 votes cast.
This close to the caucus, Real Clear Politics aggregated poll averages aren’t going to help us much. RCP is currently aggregating polls from mid-December to January 3, so there hasn’t been time for the aggregated polls to react to the news of the Santorum Surprise. However, Intrade investor/bettors have had time to digest and act on the Iowa news, so let’s once again focus on those numbers. (more…)
Bachmann Out
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This morning, Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater, MN) announced that she is out of the race for President. While some pundits have called this a blow to the Tea Partiers, it’s clear that the Tea Party abandoned her months ago. Their focus seems to be shifting to former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA). We’ll see how long this new love lasts.
Related articles
- Bachmann Quits Race (pinkbananaworld.com)
- A Fond Farewell To Michele Bachmann (huffingtonpost.com)
- The end of the road for Bachmann (worldviewtonight.wordpress.com)
- Michele Bachmann Leaves Presidential Race (VIDEO) (ibtimes.com)
- Michele Bachmann Drops Out of US Presidential Race (ibtimes.com)

Last Jenga Standing
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They’re Number One!
The Iowa caucuses are over. Turnout was roughly comparable to four years ago, so there doesn’t seem to be any particular enthusiasm surge over 2008. That was a big year for the Iowa caucuses, but it still led to massive Republican defeat nationally the following November.
The latest polls going into the caucuses had been showing a virtual tie between Representative Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson, TX), former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The polls were, for once, pretty accurate.
What do the scores mean for the candidates left in the running? What do they mean for the rest of the primaries and for the general election next November? (more…)
Snowball’s Chances Getting Warmer
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I know why this man is smiling.
A few days ago, in “A Snowball’s Chance in Iowa”, I said that if Representative Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson, TX) were leading in the Iowa polls, then I’d be most inclined to believe he had a real chance of winning, especially compared to then-poll-leader, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. It now looks like the polling has finally caught up with my impressions of the actual situation on the ground. (more…)
The 2012 Republican Primary Field: December, 2011
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And then there were six.
Once a month, we give a rundown of the Republican field for the 2012 Presidential nomination. Since these get posted about mid-month, this will be the last rundown before the primary season begins in earnest. By the time I write next month’s “Stampeding Elephants”, as we’re wont to call it around here, we’ll have some actual voting data from the Iowa Caucuses (January 3) and the New Hampshire Primary (January 10).

Iowa Electronics Market predicted placement of Iowa Republican Caucus candidates. From top to bottom, first three places are: Ron Paul, gold; Newt Gingrich, purple; Mitt Romney, teal.
Speaking of the Iowa Caucuses, the graph at right shows the standings of each candidate as of December 14.
We started this monthly recap in June with 11 candidates and potential candidates judged by Intrade investors to have better than a one percent chance of securing the Republican nomination. Nine candidates met the one-percent threshold in July and August. In September, the number of maybe-viable candidates dropped to six. October’s rundown had seven candidates at greater than one percent on Intrade. In November, there were still seven candidates, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the first and second positions, Texas Governor Rick Perry fading fast in third, and Representative Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson, TX) and Jon Huntsman tied for fourth. Herman Cain was still in the race last month, but dropping fast in sixth place, and Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater, MN) in seventh.
This month, Cain is gone, Perry is still dropping, and Paul has had a bit of a mini-surge.
Today, there are still seven candidates, but Perry and Cain have faded as the “Not Romney” candidates. The “Not Romney” this month is Gingrich.
As with past months, I gathered Real Clear Politics aggregated poll averages and December 14 Intrade probabilities for each candidate, rounded to the nearest whole number. (more…)
The 2012 Republican Primary Field: November, 2011
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Once a month, we give a rundown of the Republican field for the 2012 Presidential nomination.
We started this monthly recap in June with 11 candidates and potential candidates judged by Intrade investors to have better than a one percent chance of securing the Republican nomination. Nine candidates met the one-percent threshold in July and August. In September, the number of maybe-viable candidates dropped to six. Last month’s rundown had seven candidates at greater than one percent on Intrade, with Mitt Romney, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Herman Cain in the win, place, and show slots, respectively, and a three-way tie for fourth among Utah former Governor Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson, TX). Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater, MN) was holding down a weak seventh place in the October field.
Today, there are still seven candidates, but Perry and Cain have faded as the “Not Romney” candidates. The “Not Romney” this month is Gingrich.
As with past months, I gathered Real Clear Politics aggregated poll averages and November 14 Intrade probabilities for each candidate, rounded to the nearest whole number. (more…)




