It was another decisive victory for Mitt Romney as he easily took Nevada this weekend. Things appear to be looking up for the on-again, off-again Republican front-runner. This month's Primary schedule favor the former Massachusetts governor. But with a long road ahead to the Republican National Convention in September, it's still possible that Romney's key GOP antagonist Newt Gingrich could regain his momentum.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won a decisive victory in yesterday’s Florida primary, dealing a major setback to Newt Gingrich’s hopes of a fully-realized insurgent candidacy. With decided forward momentum, it's clear that Romney has recovered from the miscalled Iowa caucus victory and is now leading the GOP pack: Romney won with 46 percent of the vote as compared to Gingrich’s 32 percent. Meanwhile, former Iowa frontrunners Rick Santorum came in third with 13 percent, and Ron Paul only carried seven percent of the vote.

This morning The Takeaway is exploring the importance of the Florida Primary from the perspective of the diversity of a state that has been decisive in presidential elections going back two decades. The diversity of Florida may be the first real test of the strength of the Republican message nationally whoever wins the primary.

As one of the states hardest hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, many Floridians have endured either under-employment or long-term unemployment in addition to losing their homes. Anna Sale, reporter for It’s a Free Country, the politics website of our co-producer WNYC, talks with voters in Florida about how they feel about the candidates going into the final weekend before this crucial primary.

On Saturday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pulled in 40 percent of the 600,000 primary votes in South Carolina in what has been called the largest Republican primary in history. Significantly, nearly two-thirds of these voters were evangelical or born-again Christians. This win comes in the wake of news that Mitt Romney did not in fact win the Iowa caucuses, and means that there has been no consistent candidate across these three key tests of presidential mettle. 

In Iowa it was intense sincerity, in New Hampshire it was sophisticated ambivalence, what's the pulse of South Carolina voters. Anna Sale has been our non-scientific emissary to voters and voter sentiment in each of these GOP contests. Anna tell us about two events in the state yesterday that give us a snapshot of two important voting blocs in this all important conservative, southern, primary contest.

Only four days left until the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. That means only four days for the candidates to derail front-runner Mitt Romney off the path to the GOP nomination. At last night's debate in Myrtle Beach Romney fended off attacks on his business record, his personal wealth, and his moral character.

Despite focusing all of his campaign's attention on New Hampshire instead of Iowa, former U.S. ambassador to China John Huntsman came in third in Tuesday's primary. Independent favorite Ron Paul took second place with 23 percent of the vote while Iowa caucus victor Mitt Romney won a comfortable lead at 39 percent. Todd Zwillich, Takeaway Washington correspondent and Anna Sale, reporter for It’s a Free Country, the politics website for our co-producer WNYC, give their thoughts on what these results mean for the rest of the GOP race.

If Mitt Romney can hold on for a victory in New Hampshire, he will have history on his side: in every contested Republican primary season since 1980, no candidate has won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. And while Romney may not have a hometown advantage, his reputation as former governor of neighboring Massachusetts has in part helped propel him to the top of many pre-primary polls. But polls and actual votes — as evidenced by his eight-vote caucus victory — are very different things.

In Iowa, Mitt Romney just squeaked by, winning the state's caucus with an eight vote margin over former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's late in the game surge from behind. But New Hampshire is a different ballgame. Romney, former Governor of neighboring Massachusetts has had a near hometown advantage in the Granite State. He has been leading in the polls for weeks and is not letting up heading into tomorrow's primary vote. 

In one of the closet presidential contests in history, Mitt Romney was declared winner of Tuesday night's Iowa caucuses by a mere eight votes. Romney took 24.6 percent of the vote, barely edging out rival Rick Santorum, who was carried to the top of the polls with the support of evangelical Christians. Young caucus-goers helped deliver libertarian Congressman Ron Paul a close third place finish, with 21.4 percent of the vote. The night was perhaps most disappointing for one-time front-runners Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Bachmann finished last, with only five percent of the vote. Perry announced he would suspend his campaign after placing just ahead of Bachmann.

Over 100,000 voters will head to the polls on Tuesday evening to select their 2012 presidential nominee. A Des Moines Register poll conducted last week put Mitt Romney in the lead with 24 percent of GOP caucusgoers' votes, followed closely by Ron Paul at 22 percent and Rick Santorum at 15 percent. Yet only 51 percent of those surveyed were decided. 

The Republican presidential hopefuls spent their New Year's weekend trying to differentiate themselves from each other and convince Iowans to caucus for them on Tuesday. Front-runner Mitt Romney tried to fend off a new challenge from Rick Santorum, who has surged in recent days to the top of the polls. Ron Paul, who spent his New Year at home in Texas, also stands to make a strong showing in Tuesday's caucuses. The Democratic Party has stepped up efforts in Iowa as well, targeting Romney for his record of laying off workers while CEO of private equity firm Bain Capital.

The first week of the new year holds a lot of potential change. The widely-hyped Iowa caucuses will be held Tuesday. The same day Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will meet in Jordan to revive peace talks. And four Nigerian states declared a state of emergency.

With less than two weeks until the caucus, many voters are unenthusiastic about the Republican presidential hopefuls. Ron Paul, a libertarian Texas congressman, is in the lead, but many voters don't believe his unconventional politics will get him elected. Tea Party members and evangelical Christians don't feel they are properly represented in any of the candidates. No candidate has a solid core of voters, so aggressive campaigning will continue until January 3rd.

With less than two weeks before the January 3 Iowa caucus, the GOP presidential hopefuls are making their final push in the Hawkeye state. Recent days have seen libertarian candidate Ron Paul surge to the front of the pack, a position most recently held by Newt Gingrich. With his popularity among young voters, his consistency on issues, and populist rhetoric about "ending" the Federal Reserve, Paul has formed a broad coalition that has made him the latest front-runner in Iowa. But will it be enough to sustain a national campaign to beat presumptive nominee Mitt Romney?

Republican presidential candidates held their final debate last night in Sioux City just weeks before the Iowa caucus takes place on January 3. In the Fox News debate candidates attempted to draw distinctions from one another and defend their record to conservative voters. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Newt Gingrich gaining ground on consistent front runner Mitt Romney. But some voters are still undecided.

Newt Gingrich has seen a stunning reversal in his political fortunes in recent weeks. As the Republican base continues to seek an alternative to presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, Gingrich has soared in national polls. Gingrich's public schedule this week began in the battleground primary state of New Hampshire, where he continues to trail behind Romney in the polls by about ten points. The former speaker of the House and sometimes lobbyist pitched himself as an anti-Washington candidate and promised to run a positive campaign at a town hall in Windham. At a friendly Lincoln-Douglas debate with former ambassador and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman on Monday night, Gingrich showed off his foreign policy chops.

He was Mr. Teflon for a long time but now Mitt Romney, the long-time Republican frontrunner, is getting pummeled in last clutch weeks before primary voting starts. Former house speaker Newt Gingrich has big leads in the early voting states including Iowa, South Carolina and Florida. But New Hampshire, though, the presumed frontrunner for most of the last year still has an edge.

President Obama called for a shoring up of the country's middle class and criticized the concentration of wealth in the U.S. during a speech Tuesday in Osawatomie, Kansas. The town was the site of Theodore Roosevelt's famous "New Nationalism" speech, which, a century earlier touched upon many of the same themes as President Obama's address. But Obama's speech comes on the heels of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the GOP Primary, and the inception of his 2012 presidential campaign.