The Iowa Republican Party is taking a threat by the computer hacker group known as "Anonymous" seriously, saying that they will beef up security for their vote counting systems ahead of the January 3 election date. A video purported to be from hacktivist group threatening to "peacefully shut down" the caucuses was posted on YouTube. Investigators are unsure, however, of the video's authenticity.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows the Republican presidential candidates trailing President Obama among likely voters. According to the new poll, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul fare the best in a hypothetical matchup against Obama. Both trail the president 52% to 45%. Newt Gingrich, considered the GOP frontrunner along with Romney, doesn't fare nearly as well: he trails Obama 56% to 40%.

Now that polls show him leading in Iowa, Ron Paul is facing controversy for decades-old columns from his political newsletters that contained "racist, anti-gay and anti-Israel passages" in them. The columns were written about 20 years ago. Paul has since disavowed those writings, telling CNN in 2008 that "I absolutely, honestly do not know who wrote those things," adding that he did not vet all the articles that appeared in his newsletters.

Sarah Palin, the woman who said she would not run for president, now says it is "not too late" for a Republican to enter the race. "It's not too late for folks to jump in," Palin told Fox Business News on Monday. "Who knows what will happen in the future." Considering the Iowa caucuses are exactly two weeks away, it probably actually is too late. Nice try, though!

Politifact's 2011 Lie of the Year may not even be a lie! According to Politifact's website, the lie of the year was that "Republicans voted to end Medicare." But as Steve Benen pointed out, that claim is factually true: "Medicare is a single-payer health care system offering guaranteed benefits to seniors. The House Republican budget plan intended to privatize the existing system and replace it with something very different — a voucher scheme. It would still be called 'Medicare,' but it wouldn’t be Medicare."

Football analyst Craig James is leaving ESPN to run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Texas. James is running as a Republican. Sports fans may recall James became a controversial figure after he played a role in the firing of popular Texas Tech coach Mike Leach in 2009. Here's guessing Texas Tech fans probably will not be supporting James' Senate bid.

Gaffe Of The Day: An email from Rick Perry's campaign about the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il referred to him as "Kim Jong the Second." Apparently, this is a Texas governor thing, as George W. Bush made a similar gaffe while he was running for president, calling the North Korean leader, "Kim Jong Two."

Video Of The Day: The most watched political video, according to YouTube's ranking of the top 10 viral political videos, is Zach Wahls' plea for his lesbian parents to have marriage rights. In case you haven't seen the video featuring this remarkable young Iowa man (or even if you have, it's definitely worth another look) here it is: