Absentee candidates lead GOP field
Then there are the retail & rental candidates - politicians who have figured out that huckstering the GOP rubes every four years makes for a great living & lifestyle.
With the Iowa caucuses just over six weeks away, an unexpected question about the early presidential states is beginning to make the rounds: Does retail politicking even matter much anymore?
While no campaign would ever say so publicly, it’s hard to overlook what’s happening on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire. In places where close contact with voters is a time-honored tradition, the usual rules appear to have been turned upside down: the candidates atop the GOP polls have spent the least amount of time meeting with voters and the cellar-dwellers are the ones who have hit the hustings the hardest.
Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain, both of whom ride high in early state polls, have spent more time promoting their own interests and book projects than on the trail in Iowa and New Hampshire. Mitt Romney, another top finisher in early state polls, has barely been in Iowa or South Carolina at all this cycle, concentrating almost solely on New Hampshire, where his brand of Republicanism plays better.
Meanwhile, the two candidates who have spent the most time focused on specific states — Rick Santorum in Iowa and Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire — have yet to experience any measurably large bounce.