Candidates seek final Iowa edge in unpredictable race

(CNN)Donald Trump called Ted Cruz a liar on Tuesday, charging that the Texas senator repeatedly misrepresents the Republican front-runner’s views.

Trump posted 11-point leads in the latest CNN/ORC and Fox News polls in Iowa, a gap Cruz could close if he can steal away support from the remaining candidates in the race.

Jim Roddey, the Allegheny County GOP chairman, contended that neither Trump nor Cruz will inspire voters exhausted of acrimony and divisiveness in politics, and that will trickle down to hurt Toomey and every other Republican candidate down the ballot. “The mean and personal attacks on Cruz are at odds with Trump’s praise of Cruz as a “a special guy” and ‘very, very popular.’ Will voters be bullied into believing the bluster, or stick with a brilliant man who won’t betray them?”

“I think the establishment actually is against me, but really coming on line”, Trump said. I keep Christie on the list because his persona and the attention he has paid to the state could lead to another mini-surge in the days leading up to the first-in-the-nation primary. Donald has changed how he has approached me. “I saw him the other day”. That is his prerogative.

“I will not respond in kind because the people of Iowa… and the people of this country deserve something better”.

On the slide, “Republican Must Do’s for 2016”, Neugebauer wrote that the party must “perform better with Latino voters in Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada” – and that Cruz, as a Hispanic presidential contender, could.

FiveThirtyEight, which takes more than polls into account for its “polls-plus” forecast, shows Cruz dropping to a 48 percent chance of taking Iowa, still the favorite but no longer odds-on.

Cruz’s reluctance to bash his opponent too directly reflects the delicate balance both he and Trump are trying to strike. “So that is hardly about even support”. “Because they’re drug companies, folks”, Trump said.

Clinton and Bernie Sanders, locked in an unexpectedly tight race, planned to deliver their final-stretch pitches Monday evening in a televised town hall forum.

Clinton has stepped up her attacks on Sanders in recent weeks, questioning his experience on foreign policy and accusing him of flip-flopping on the issue of gun control.

The narrator continues, “It made him rich, like when Trump colluded with Atlantic City insiders to bulldoze the home of an elderly widow for a limousine parking lot at his casino”.

“We used to be friends”. It’s been reported previously on the Inquisitr that Beck endorses Ted Cruz for the primaries.

From left, Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio speaks at the Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Jan, 23, 2016; Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton poses for a selfie with a supporter after speaking in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Facing potential upsets in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton can look to the next contests in Nevada and SC, where she still enjoys strong support among Latinos and blacks who make up a large segment of the Democratic base in those states.