It’s a New Year! So why is everyone still talking about Iowa? (And Ted Haggard. See below.)
The Iowa fixation figures to end in the next 24 hours, after tonight’s Republican caucuses and tomorrow morning’s post-mortem about who was able to “win” and perhaps change the course of U.S. history by garnering maybe 30,000 votes.
Then it’s on to New Hampshire, and it’ll be “Iowa who?”
Social conservatives who dominate the Iowa GOP may also be enjoying their final moments in the national spotlight, at least until the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21.
“Enjoy” may be the wrong word. Iowa’s rock-ribbed Republican Christians have been divided and undecided all these months, trying to find a political savior they can all support. And the candidates are doing everything they can to appeal to believers.
Rick Santorum seems to be the last, best-of-the-worst alternative to Mitt Romney. But that may simply be timing and a lack of any other option. And as Time’s Amy Sullivan notes, Santorum’s got nuthin’ beyond Iowa. Except Rupert Murdoch seems to like him.
Newt Gingrich says he prays before major decisions, but polls say he hasn’t got a prayer in Iowa.
A string of arson attacks against Muslim targets – including a mosque – in New York have religious leaders upset and politicians and police scrambling.
Islamic leaders were already upset with New York officials for their extensive secret surveillance program of city Muslims, and prominent Muslim leaders on Friday boycotted Mayor Bloomberg’s annual interfaith breakfast.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in parts of the country in the wake of the Christmas Day bombings that targeted Christians and were attributed to a shadowy, radical Islamic sect called Boko Haram.
One expert warns the West against overreacting, and says Boko Haram is not what it claims to be.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel who outraged many of their co-religionists by dressing up as concentration camp prisoners to protest the mingling of the sexes in the Holy Land are not backing down: they have now posted Internet images of Jerusalem’s police chief dressed in an SS uniform and compared him to Hitler.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, tells “60 Minutes” he regularly performed in Christmas pageants at his private school. “I’m sure there were times which I was very aware of not being like others,” he said.
He is also a fan of the rap artist Jay-Z, and he says he cares about the poor. Both claims are being fact-checked as we speak.
Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput is planning on selling the mansion that has been home to the city’s top Catholic official for 76 years. It is one of the largest private homes in the city.
Cee Lo Green‘s New Year’s Eve “tribute” to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” in which he tweaked the lyrics to say “all religion’s true,” united believers and atheists in protest.
Why isn’t everyone protesting disgraced/re-graced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s plan to appear with his wife and their kids on ABC’s “Celebrity Wife Swap”?
And in our Segue-of-the-Day, yes, there are faith-based sex toys. The Daily Beast has more than you want to know.
— David Gibson
