January 2 - The Media Bombardment of Iowans; Iranian War Games; "Biden Gets China"

Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We begin with the last day of campaigning before Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses and speak with Mack Shelley, a professor of Political Science and Statistics at Iowa State University. We discuss the apparent tie between front-runners Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney and get a local perspective on the media bombardment of Iowans and a broader national perspective on a growing sense of alienation and disgust with our broken democracy at the same time that unprecedented media attention is focused on the ritual of our democratic electoral process.
Part 2	Then, with President Obama’s recent signing of a controversial bill imposing sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank, and Iran’s retaliation with missile tests and naval exercises in the Gulf, along with a recent threat by Iran’s Vice-President to shut the Straits of Hormuz, we look into whether the U.S. and Iran are on a collision course. A specialist on Iran, Maziar Behrooz, joins us to assess how much both sides are on a trajectory towards war, having trapped themselves into an escalation of rhetoric and actions where any spark could set off a conflagration in a volatile region that supplies 20% of the world’s oil.
Part 3	Then finally the Washington Editor-at-large for the Atlantic and editor-in-chief of Atlantic LIVE, Steve Clemons joins us to discuss the growing importance of the Vice President’s role in foreign affairs with Joe Biden about to take charge of U.S./China relations that the White House recently announced as its new priority in the coming years. We discuss how someone who has been gaining more power and influence quietly working behind the scenes in a number of critical foreign policy areas, could be the subject of rumors that suggest he will be jettisoned from the 2012 ticket for Hillary Clinton to run as vice-president
	MUSIC: The Strokes - You Talk Way Too Much; Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth; Arcade Fire - Intervention; Bonobo - Kiara