Watch this video from the CBS Evening News last Sunday, December 4. At this point it was clear that Herman Cain was ending his run for the presidency and a new Des Moines Register poll had just shown that Newt Gingrich was the new front runner. Iowa is one of the first states to select its convention delegates, and thus it is closely watched by all involved in and interested in politics.
So according to the report, it’s now a three way race between Gingrich and Romney. This in spite of the fact that second place in the Des Moines Register poll went not to Romney, but to Ron Paul. He’s pretty much ignored in this report. I first noticed the phenomenon when it was pointed out on The Daily Show on August 15, 2011 just after the Iowa straw poll and Pawlenty dropped out of the race. In this clip, Jon Stewart notes the media’s reluctance to treat Paul as a serious candidate, even on ultra-conservative Fox News.