Washington Examiner Wednesday headlines

David Freddoso - Unions lose big in Wisconsin
An energized Democratic base was supposed to turn out yesterday. It was supposed to pry away from Republicans their total control of Wisconsin's state legislature. Republicans had gone after the state's public employee unions, and this was supposed to be an overreach that would cost them dearly in yesterday's recall elections. If Democrats could pick up three of the six seats under recall, they could win back the state Senate and block Gov. Scott Walker's agenda.

Every Republican I spoke to before the election expressed pessimism. The expectations were clearly in favor of a Democratic takeover -- so much so that Republicans in Wisconsin's legislature took the extraordinary step of passing an early redistricting bill.

Michael Barone: How Iowa's straw poll can make a president
Why Iowa? It was the 29th state to be admitted to the Union, it is the 30th state in population, it has given the nation Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and Meredith Willson's "The Music Man." It has long been the nation's No. 1 corn- and hog-producing state.

But nothing in the Constitution says that Iowa gets to vote for president before any other state. It just does. For years Iowa, like many states, had precinct caucuses that elected delegates to county conventions, which in turn elected delegates to the state convention, which then elected delegates to the national convention.

Michael Barone - Observations on Iowa
On landing in Des Moines late this afternoon it seemed a good idea to make the rounds of some of the presidential candidates’ Iowa headquarters. The level of activity there is not necessarily a good index of how the candidates are doing, since Iowa is still an early-to-bed and early-to-rise state in which you don’t expect to find much political activity after 7pm, when I set out.

Susan Ferrechio - Cain in race 'no matter what' happens in Iowa
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA -- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain isn't the least bit discouraged by the latest round of polls that show him lagging behind nearly every other candidate competing in the Iowa straw poll this Saturday, including a few who are not even on the ballot.

Byron York - Tim Pawlenty and the non-attack attack
DES MOINES - It's often been noted that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty doesn't seem temperamentally suited to attack his rival candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.  But attacking rival candidates is part of politics.  So Pawlenty, with his political ambitions on the line in Iowa, has compiled an uneven record when it comes to negative campaigning.  The best known example was his "Obamneycare" shot at Mitt Romney during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, followed by Pawlenty's decision not to press his case when face-to-face with Romney at a New Hampshire debate the next day.

Brian Hughes - White House goes mum on financial crisis
The White House was tight-lipped Tuesday on the financial calamity gripping the global economy, just a day after President Obama vowed to "stay on it until we get the job done," inciting new criticism of the president for failing to seize the issue that will define his re-election campaign.

Hayley Peterson - Perry shakes up GOP field, Iowa
DES MOINES, IOWA -Like every other Republican presidential candidate before him, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been in constant communication with the Iowa Republican Party for weeks in preparation for a possible presidential run.

That's why Iowa officials were surprised to learn -- second-hand -- that Perry is expected to announce whether he's entering the Republican presidential race at an event in Charleston, S.C., on Saturday, the same day as the Iowa GOP's paramount fundraising event, the Ames straw poll.