Ron Paul gets front-runner’s ‘welcome’ from rivals in Iowa

Associated Press

NEWTON, Iowa

Texas Rep. Ron Paul received a welcome befitting a man with a suddenly serious chance to win next week’s Iowa Republican presidential caucuses as he arrived in the state Wednesday for a final burst of campaigning.

His rivals attacked him, one by one.

If the 76-year-old libertarian-leaning conservative was bothered, he didn’t let it show. He unleashed a television commercial that hit Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. In his remarks, he lumped all his rivals into one unappealing category.

“There’s a lot of status- quo politicians out there,” Paul told a crowd of a few dozen potential caucus-goers who turned out to hear him on the grounds of the Iowa Speedway. “If you pick another status-quo politician nothing’s going to change.”

The audience applauded, but by day’s end, it appeared that yet another contender might be rising.

According to public and private polls, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is gaining ground in the final days of the race, yet another unpredictable turn in a fast-changing caucus campaign. “We have the momentum,” he proclaimed.

The politicking was unending.

Two politically active pastors in Iowa’s robust evangelical conservative movement disclosed an effort to persuade either Santorum or Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to quit the race and endorse the other.

“Otherwise, like-minded people will be divided and water down their impact,” said Rev. Cary Gordon, a Sioux City minister and a leader among Iowa’s social conservatives.

There was no sign either contender was interested.

For months, Romney has remained near or at the top of public-opinion surveys in Iowa, as Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, businessman Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rose briefly to challenge him.

Romney has bent without breaking in the face of each challenge, benefitting from his own well-funded campaign, attack advertisements funded by deep-pocketed allies and the missteps of his challengers.

Paul’s surge represents the latest threat, and in some respects, the unlikeliest, coming from a man whose views on abortion, the war in Iraq, Iran and other issues are at odds with those of most Republicans.

At the same time, his anti-government appeal appears to tap into the desire of a frustrated electorate for profound change in an era of high unemployment and an economy that has only slowly recovered from the recession.