At a coffee shop in Muscatine, Iowa, Tuesday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked whether nominating a social conservative might sink the party's chances of winning the White House in November.

Muscatine is in a more moderate part of eastern Iowa, and the man who asked the question told Gingrich there are many business people — fiscal conservatives — who don't agree with the GOP platform positions on abortion, gay rights and other issues. The man asked Gingrich if social conservatives are throwing fiscal conservatives "under the bus."

While Iowa caucusgoers are kicking off the official 2012 Republican presidential nominating contest, in the social media realm among users nationwide, Texas Rep. Ron Paul already is in the lead, according to a data analysis of Facebook use by Socialbakers, which collects social media statistics.

"The amount of interactions are just insane," said Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab. "Ten percent of Paul's Facebook fans are talking about him. The average for brands like Coca-Cola is just 1 percent."

Tonight, all eyes are on Iowa.  Tomorrow, they will shift to New Hampshire.  The presidential candidates never fail to remind Granite State voters of the unique role they play.  Much is made of Yankee independent thinking, but it would be a mistake to overlook how the outcome in Iowa can shape the results in New Hampshire.

Some voters relish the task of picking the next potential president.  Matt McCormack isn’t one of them.

“I actually have not paid much attention to this point.”

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is the only high-profile candidate not fighting it out in Iowa. Campaigning in Pembroke this morning, Huntsman suggested that the Iowa caucus results would prove extremely perishable.

“We’ll remember them for about seven hours and then people will be focused on New Hampshire. And this will be the ballgame here because this is a primary, because this will be a broad-based turnout of Republicans and independents and even some Democrats.”

In the span of one year, a business can achieve record-breaking profits, or suffer staggering financial losses – and despite the size of its product or the confidence with which it’s marketed, the automotive industry has proven to be no exception. You only have to look as far back as March of last year – when a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan took the lives of thousands, set off an international nuclear scare, and sent Toyota’s quarterly profits plummeting as production was delayed, and parts suppliers were wiped out.

Talk of the Nation takes Ken Rudin and the program's signature Political Junkie segment on the road.  And one of their stops is New Hampshire Public Radio in Concord.

Twenty eleven was a big year for personal computing, from the explosion of cloud technology and the tablet computer to the death of Steve Jobs and our introduction to his iphone brainchild, the personal assistant named Siri. Here to tell us what might be coming next is Rob Fleischman. He’s a computer scientist, serial tech entrepreneur, and our favorite explainer of all things technology related.