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    The Cutline

    Carolyn and Edith: Unlikely stars of CNN’s Iowa caucus coverage

    (CNN)

    If you weren't watching CNN at 3:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, you missed the best moment of the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

    No, not the news that Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes in the first contest of the 2012 Republican presidential race. We're talking about Edith Pfeffer and Carolyn Tallett, two Clinton County, Iowa, women who played a crucial role in figuring out the final tally for CNN.

    When it became clear that the razor-thin vote hinged on getting an accurate vote total from Clinton County, CNN's producers tracked down Pfeffer, chairwoman of Clinton County's Republican Central Committee, who then woke up Tallet, the president of the Clinton County Republican Women's Club. Both appeared on the phone with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and John King to sort the whole thing out.

    The result was late-night television gold.

    "Whaddaya mean the numbers don't match?" Pfeffer stammered at King, who was explaining a discrepancy to viewers using CNN's "Magic Wall."

    It wasn't long before "Edith and Carolyn" were trending topics on Twitter.

    After Romney was declared the winner, the women rejoined CNN to do what very few political reporters were able to do last night: explain how they were able to size up the winner of the hard-fought caucus vote.

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    • Kyle  •  4 mths ago
      geez why does CNN need 7 people standing up at 3am to talk about a tiny state's election?
      • Ryan 4 mths ago
        Not even an election!
      • soupnazi 4 mths ago
        They thought it was about an erection.
      • Robert 4 mths ago
        @Ryan, It IS an election. Idiot.
    • Carolyn Capalbo  •  Los Angeles, California  •  4 mths ago
      Get the greed, corporations and money out of politics. Let the real people take over.
      • Fumanchu Green 4 mths ago
        Don't forget - get the politicians out of politics too.
      • Daniel 4 mths ago
        Until those real people see a cause they support, maybe bend the rules because "hey, it's for a good cause", then they can't all agree on if it really is a good cause, they decide to start hiring some experts to support said cause, maybe they need someone to argue on their behalf so they get some lobbyists and then...well...

        Populism is stupid.
      • A Yahoo! User 4 mths ago
        right..bunch of idealistic fools Let the market reign and the politicians wilt
    • RickT  •  4 mths ago
      What made it "gold" was that it was totally UNSCRIPTED, on the fly reporting, WAY differrent that the slicked up, "pro-fessional", scripted news of today. (for any network!)
    • A L D  •  4 mths ago
      Study finds Carolyn and Edith are healthier
    • mark  •  Wentzville, Missouri  •  4 mths ago
      Both viewers were astonished!!!
      • TJ 4 mths ago
        LOL!
      • Sushi Sushmister 4 mths ago
        CNN has slightly less viewers then Fox, just sayin.
    • LisaM  •  4 mths ago
      I love it! I live in Iowa and I can affirm that it is, in fact, the Ediths and Carolyns of Iowa who run the caucus process. We had a very sweet lady, Carol, run our precinct's caucus. These are good people and they take the process very seriously. Iowans spend a lot of time meeting with candidates, talking with candidates, and listening to political speeches. We debate, discuss and ponder for months before the caucus. We both enjoy it and respect the process. I hope we did a good job this time around!

      I was the secretary for our precinct and the only problem we had at our caucus was my seven year old sitting next to me doing a fist-pump every time her favorite candidate got a vote. I had to tell her to knock it off. :)
    • Sanity Rules  •  4 mths ago
      I happened to be awake and those two dear ladies were the best part of any political coverage I have seen. Total homespun honesty, and they assured us they had indeed sent the results in six hours earlier to the Iowa State officials. Seems like maybe we should be looking for these two to step up into congress - honesty and integrity are a bit rarer on Capitol Hill these days...
      • nsx1 4 mths ago
        Those two ladies are nothing... nothing more than mentally disturbed conservative Republicans who want more tax breaks for the wealthy, more no-bid government contracts for large corporations, more pointless wars for the Military Industrial Complex...
      • Bee 4 mths ago
        I'm from Clinton IA & just want to say that not all of us sound like those cackling hags- most do, but not all...
      • Matt S 4 mths ago
        @ Bee: I'm guess you're much worse.
    • Wendell  •  4 mths ago
      I was watching last night and I thought it was great, cause the lady was like HELLLLLLNO I got right! Pretty good stuff.
    • Laura  •  Norwalk, Ohio  •  4 mths ago
      OMG these women are fantastic!
    • Rhoni  •  Reno, Nevada  •  4 mths ago
      I am FROM Iowa, now living elsewhere. These Ladies ARE Iowa. I Loved that the world got to hear from two REAL American women doing what they do. Though I am a Democrate, I rever these two lovely ladies. I hope they got some sleep after all of that.
      • Dan 4 mths ago
        revere is a better word than rever.
      • Barbara 4 mths ago
        The most boring primary I have ever been subjected to. HGTV anyone???
      • Diana 4 mths ago
        @Dan...picky, picky,picky!!!
    • Covenant  •  Indianapolis, Indiana  •  4 mths ago
      Well done, ladies.
    • john  •  4 mths ago
      I imagine it would be funny at 3 am. Of course, most things are.
    • Dude  •  Washington, District of Columbia  •  4 mths ago
      Who stole the show? What counts as news now is ridiculous.
    • Michael  •  4 mths ago
      Did the clip cut short or was that it? I cant imagine that was the "big story" they ran with.
    • N O  •  Houston, Texas  •  4 mths ago
      it doesn't matter
    • RobertB  •  Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts  •  4 mths ago
      The Iowa Caucus is not anywhere close to being representative of our country. If it were not for the 24 hour news cycle it would not get but a fraction of the attention.
    • Wise King  •  4 mths ago
      And these people decide politics??? Oh God, no wonder we're so screwed.
    • Sick American  •  Washington, District of Columbia  •  4 mths ago
      And I hope CNN management can see how bad they are.
    • Mike D  •  Baltimore, Maryland  •  4 mths ago
      This was great Broadcast Journalism. However as the CNN Reporter was doing his John Madden chalkboard Math and crunching numbers he said the outcome meant Romney won by about 40 some votes. I wake up and find out the result came down to the same four to eight votes that had been discussed throughout the evening prior to this moment. The two ladies definitely did steal the show. When will they be on Letterman?
    • Joe  •  Toledo, Ohio  •  4 mths ago
      Please sell Yahoo to Microsoft so they will stop putting these stupid stories on as news.
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