Free Republic

The primary’s on Saturday the 21st. He’s promising to endorse on Thursday the 19th at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which happens to be hosting a presidential debate that same day. He’s timing it for maximum impact, in other words, right down to his choice of which primary to target: As a Georgia native, he might have a bit more sway over voters in SC than he would have had over Iowans, assuming he has any sway left over anyone. Question: Who would value his endorsement the most? Perry’s desperate for positive buzz of any kind but Cain’s already ruled...

This is an appeal to all long-time conservatives. Let's start lining up behind Newt Gingrich, as Thomas Sowell, Art Laffer, JC Watts, Jim Robinson (Free Republic honcho) and others have. The hazzard of holding back an endorsement is that the media, pudits and PAC TV commercials will continue to shape negative opinion against Newt and we may lose our best conservative warrior. The result of the media, pundit and PAC TV onslaught may cause the nominee to be Romney or Santorum. Romney is a moderate and Santorum does not have the experience to Push the conservative agenda in the general...

Herman Cain’s not a candidate anymore, but he’s launching a new bus tour anyway. The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO announced plans to tour the country to raise support for the “9-9-9” plan that was the star of his aborted presidential run, hoping to rally congressional sponsors for his plan to replace the federal Tax Code with a 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent personal income tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. The one-time Republican front-runner announced his “Cain’s Solutions Revolution” during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. “I started a new movement. The biggest...

Herman Cain appeared on Fox News Wednesday night to make what was billed as a "very big announcement" on Sean Hannity's show. Very big it was not. The former Republican hopeful and pizza chain CEO did not endorse a current GOP candidate, as some had predicted he might. Nor did he announce he was getting back into the 2012 race, as Hannity teased he could. Instead, Cain announced the launch--or continuation--of his 999 economic plan with another catchy tagline: "Cain's Solutions Revolution." "The biggest comment when I ended my candidacy was, 'Keep 999 alive,'" Cain said. "And that's what this...

Failed GOP White House hopeful Herman Cain, who dropped out after a woman who said she was his mistress went public is staging a comeback of sorts, he announced on Monday--on the eve of the Iowa caucus. "Our mission continues, and we're on fire for 2012 and beyond!," Cain said in an e-mail, highlighting a list of media interviews he has booked. Cain is looking to regain some spotlight in a week heavy with Republican presidential politics--that he is no longer a part of. "....I will soon be announcing a major new initiative. This is a crusade so critical to...

If any Republican presidential candidates are looking for last-minute advice before the Iowa caucuses, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour and Herman Cain have some thoughts. The Washington Post asked the four politicians Palin, the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee; Daniels, the Indiana governor who passed on a presidential run; Barbour, the Mississippi governor who also passed on a White House bid; and Cain, who suspended his campaign last month for tips. Barbour wrote it should be all about President Obama and his policies: "If I were campaigning, I'd talk about how his policies have made economic growth and job creation...

The man who ran Herman Cain’s Iowa campaign, before he dropped out of the presidential race, announced he is now supporting Newt Gingrich. Larry Tuel was Cain’s state campaign director until Dec. 3. Friday he endorsed Gingrich in an email to The Des Moines Register. Tuel said in his email that the former House speaker "is intelligent, positive and has the best grasp of policy and the role of government as it relates to tax, spending and regulatory power. I particularly appreciate his national tax policy, welfare reform, and ideas for reducing and refocusing regulatory authority to solve our deep-rooted...

URBANDALE, IA - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann Thursday announced that Herman Cain political operative Steven Hensler has joined Team Bachmann as Director of Voter Identification and Field Operations. Hensler will help the Bachmann campaign with polling, surveying, and volunteer coordination. “Michele demonstrates, more than any other candidate in the race, the conservative principles Iowans are looking for in a president,” said Hensler. “We are excited about the momentum we are receiving for the caucuses and I couldn’t be more honored to join such an organized and driven team.”

I would not blame Herman Cain if he said, Lloyd, I know you mean well, brother. However, the relentless vitriolic media attacks against me have finally subsided since I dropped out of the presidential race. My family and I are finally having some peace. So why on earth would you bring up my name again? Well, in a nutshell, I just did not like the way the whole "Cain thing" went down. Also, we live in a fast-paced news cycle, "carelessly nuke a person's life and in two days everyone has moved on," disposable world. Herman Cain's courageous bid to...

*Despite being ousted from the GOP presidential race, Herman Cain believes that his opinion matters to somebody. So the former candidate plans to broadcast his ideas on TV soon. “The doors to radio or TV, those doors are open,” Cain said in an interview with Fox News, considered by media watchers to be the most likely place the conservative former pizza magnate would go. “I’m considering all of these options because I want to create the biggest platform for me to be talking about the trifecta: replacing the tax code with 9-9-9, energy independence and national security,” Cain said.

Sharon Bialek, the north suburban woman who publicly accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment, leading to the end of his presidential campaign, appeared in court Friday morning for a hearing on her landlord’s attempt to kick her out of her townhome. Appearing in Cook County Circuit Court in Skokie, Bialek told Judge Jeffrey L. Warnick she needed a few more weeks to find an attorney to represent her in the case, in which her landlord is suing her for about $7,500 in back rent on the Glenview townhome. She also said she was not properly served with the eviction notice...

New independent circulation numbers show a sharp decline in readership of Politico and other left-leaning news websites, an ominous trend for the suburban Virginia-based news outlet and its peers as Americans head into an election year. Recently published and publicly available Web traffic data indicates that “unique visitor” traffic to politico.com in November 2011 was 15 percent lower than in the previous month, and 31 percent lower than in November 2010. The data, from Compete, Inc., also show an overall two-year decline. Political websites gain and lose readers throughout election cycles, with presidential election years trending higher in unique Web...

Herman Cain tells National Review Online that he will launch a new political-action committee in January. The outfit, whose final name remains under wraps, will be Cain’s main project next year. Its mission will be to enact his “9-9-9” economic plan. “We continue the campaign without a candidate,” says Cain, who hinted at the endeavor during his departure speech. “There are a lot of people who are willing to support the campaign for solutions without the end objective being my election as president of the United States.” As Cain transitions to private life, “Friends of Herman Cain,” the financial force...

As he watches his former competitors begin a two-week sprint to the Iowa caucuses, Herman Cain is not ready to endorse a candidate. But he is inching closer to a decision, telling NRO that he has ruled out two contenders. “I would definitely not endorse Ron Paul or Rick Perry,” he says. “It’s nothing personal, we’re just too far apart in terms of our ideas.” “At this point, there are only two people I would consider endorsing, and only two,” Cain says. “I’m hesitant, however, to endorse because if I endorse one, that may disappoint half of my supporters, and...

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told a conference call of tea party activists on Sunday night that it was the liberal media that forced him out of the 2012 presidential race. "I am as broken hearted as others about having to pull out," Cain said, "but I couldn't continue to try and run a race when you have a liberal media and others who did not want to see me succeed and to see us succeed — constantly fighting false accusations." . . .

Like so many Conservative Americans, I put my hopes into Herman Cain. I thought: "Here's a Conservative Black man who really could defeat Obama." Then, the gales became a "perfect storm". I was devastated but still "believed" in him. "Hang in there Herman; fight this thing and come out stronger than ever." Well.... Herman gave up the fight and threw in the towel, which tells me one of two things: #1. The guy was not the gutsy fighter I thought he was and let Gloria Allred and some old broads send him running like a scared rabbit. Or....... #2. The...

Republican Presidential candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry makes a campaign stop at the La Chiesa Italian Restaurant in Spencer, Iowa, which is located in northeast part of the state in Clay County. The Governor criticized Newt Gingrich & Ron Paul for their support of congressional earmarks and said he’d consider Herman Cain as Defense Secretary in his cabinet if elected president. “He has all the characteristics of the type of person I would bring forward,” Perry told patrons at the restaurant.

Herman Cain weighs in

Herman Cain is no longer running for president. He doesn't think he's likely to be picked as the eventual nominee's running mate, either. But he does have a Cabinet post in mind should the GOP win the White House next fall: secretary of Defense. [....] Cain shared the idea with ABC's Barbara Walters during her annual special on the "10 Most Fascinating People." And the veteran journalist was just a bit surprised. Cain said he thought he'd be a good pick because he wants to "influence rebuilding our military the way it should be." Walters, still stunned, reminded Cain of...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that we do not know who the GOP presidential nominee will be: It could be Mitt Romney—though our warnings in this space a couple of weeks ago that his victory is by no means inevitable seem increasingly justified by the dynamics of the race. The nominee could be Newt Gingrich—whose rise in the polls has been spectacular, and whose skills and appeal are still widely underestimated by many elites, including conservative elites [....] It could be someone not yet in the race. If the Gingrich surge turns into a Newt bubble, and if...