“Let the pandering begin!” Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson joked in the event’s opening speech, for Steve King's Iowa 'cattle call'.
Pander 1)
“I think that sends a powerful message to Republicans in Washington and around the country -- if you’re not afraid to go big and go bold, you can actually get results,” [Scott] Walker said to applause. “And if you get the job done the voters will actually stand up with you.”
Pander 2)
“Every candidate is going to come to you and say they are the most conservative person that ever lived,” [Ted] Cruz said. “Talk is cheap. One of the most important roles that men and women will play here in Iowa is to say ‘don’t talk, show me.’”
Pander 3)
“The notion that our party must abandon our belief in the sanctity of life to be competitive in blue states is simply not true and I am living proof,” he said [Chris Christie].
It's called the Iowa Freedom Summit -- I guess, that means anyone is "free" to throw their hat into the ring.
Pander 4)
"It can't be Mitt because Mitt ran and failed," [Donald] Trump said of the 2012 GOP nominee. And of Bush, a former Florida governor and brother and son of former presidents he added: "The last thing we need is another Bush."
Pander 5)
The conservative neurosurgeon [Ben Carson] electrified the Iowa crowd, mixing moving personal anecdotes with sharp criticism of President Barack Obama's policies and getting specific on illegal immigration and border security.
Pander 6) played the Benghazi card ...
"Unlike Hillary Clinton, I know what difference it makes that our American ambassador and three other brave Americans were killed in a deliberate terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 in Libya," [Carly] Fiorina said to rising applause, "and apparently unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama I know our response must be more forceful than the arrest of a single individual one year later."
And from the 'Word Salad' Dept,
Pander 7 was not to be left out in the cold
GOP World:
Sarah Palin, standing before a packed room of Republicans in Iowa, cast herself Saturday as the judge of who's a real conservative and who can beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
"Things must change for our government," Palin said. "Look at it -- it isn't too big to fail; it's too big to succeed. So we can afford no retreads or nothing will change."
"We're not in a mood to give politicians a pass just because they happen to have a certain party initial next to their name," she said.
With 'honking' competition like this,
John Kerry could run again, and probably get elected.
Even Dean, looks sane compared to these clowns.
Good thing for Dems -- Iowa, does not a nation make.
Nonetheless, we better 'have game' ... before the GOP uses up all the Oxygen in the room.