The 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign has been the most volatile and least predictable campaign in my lifetime. In spite of this, I see several potential scenarios in the early states, all subject to change at any moment.

Following the opening round in the presidential nomination process in Iowa on Thursday, a couple of the top campaigns sharpened their focus on Arizona’s election on Feb. 5.

DAVENPORT, Iowa - President Bush and Sen. John Kerry clashed at close quarters along the banks of the Mississippi River on Wednesday, the Republican incumbent pledging to "spread ownership and opportunity" if re-elected while his Democratic challenger campaigned as a fiscal conservative able and eager to fix the economy.

In 1994, then-vice president Al Gore cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to authorize ethanol production for motor vehicles. Today, the world’s most famous environmentalist admits that “first generation ethanol I think was a mistake.” He admits his error was partially due to his “certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”

DES MOINES - White House rivals John McCain and Barack Obama combined televised attack ads with statesmanlike appeals for bipartisanship on Tuesday as they vied for political gain in the shadow of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

CONCORD, N.H. - Iowa caucus victories behind them, Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama vowed to stick with their winning principles Friday in an abbreviated dash to the finish in New Hampshire's presidential primary campaign, despite facing a different political alignment and, as Huckabee put it, "only a few days to close the sale."

A black van filled with University of Iowa students pulled away from Mesa’s Iowa Cafe on Friday afternoon.

Throughout 2007, many watchers of national politics bemoaned the maneuvering of various states to push up the dates of their presidential primaries and caucuses to capture more of the media spotlight and to influence which candidates gain momentum toward their party’s nomination.

October 20, 2004

MASON CITY, Iowa - President Bush and Sen. John Kerry both visited Iowa on Wednesday, with Kerry questioning whether Bush is the exemplary leader he claims to be and Bush saying Kerry's views on national security are so misguided that the Democrat would be unable to defeat terrorism.

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's pick to head the Agriculture Department is expected to push the president-elect's pledge to trim wasteful farm subsidies, an elusive goal that has confounded President George W. Bush and scores of lawmakers.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Two experienced GOP operatives have notified presidential candidate John McCain they are abandoning his Iowa campaign, dealing another blow to his bid in the state's leadoff precinct caucuses.

Karl Frisch

I’ve said this before, but I must say it again: We’ve got something good going on here in the East Valley. And I wish the rest of the country had it.

A Republican state lawmaker wants to be sure Arizonans actually have a real voice in deciding who will run for president in 2016.

WASHINGTON -- The White House says President Barack Obama plans to travel to five states critical to his re-election campaign following next week's State of the Union address.

“I have some sad news for Democrats. Karl Marx is dead.”

Free trade scored some laudable victories in the '90s with the passage of the North American Free Trade Act and the granting of normal trade relations to China.

Gov. Jan Brewer is leaning to moving Arizona's presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January in hopes of getting a jump on most other states.

Gov. Jan Brewer is leaning to moving Arizona's presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January in hopes of getting a jump on most other states.

Gov. Jan Brewer is leaning to moving Arizona's presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January in hopes of getting a jump on most other states.

Joe Gandelman

The Census bureau’s mid-decade population estimate shows definitively that the American political center of gravity has shifted to the South and West. Those states are now as politically dominant as the Northeast and Midwest were in 1940.

Peter Funt, guest commentary