Posted on 09/24/2011 5:24:39 PM PDT by iowamark
From the bottom of the polls to the top of the pack, businessman Herman Cain won the Republican Party of Florida’s nationally watched presidential straw poll Saturday in a sign that frontrunner Rick Perry is in deep trouble.
Cain’s victory with 37 percent of the vote was a major defeat for Perry, the frontrunner in Florida and national polls, who garnered only 15 percent after wooing the nearly 3,000 party faithful with a free breakfast and mailers.
The vote also showed how soft Republican support is for Mitt Romney, who came in third with 14 percent. Unlike Perry, though, he avoided schmoozing the GOP voters, called delegates.
"Folks, this is what you call momentum," Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, said in a video message from his campaign bus. "The Herman Cain train is picking up steam."
That means more national media attention, heightened standing in the race and access to more fundraisers.
The straw poll is a mock election and doesn’t necessarily reflect the sentiment of the voters at large. In past years, it has predicted the party’s national nominee, but that streak could be in jeopardy because even some Cain voters had doubts about whether he was ready to be the party’s nominee.
Still, the vote is a major indication of how badly damaged Perry was by a poor debate performance Thursday when he fumbled answers and failed to give specifics.
Many straw poll voters were especially dissatisfied by the answers Perry gave over his moderate immigration position, the “Ponzi scheme” of Social Security and his plan to inoculate girls from human papillomavirus.
“I came in thinking Rick Perry,” said Tommy Langford,a Gilchrist County commissioner who voted for Cain. “I didn’t like the debate at all. I really thought Perry lost it. Mitt Romney called him on immigration. He said we have to take care of them. Not if they’re illegal, we don’t.”
Another big loser: Michele Bachmann, who came in last place. Once a top-tier candidate who won the Iowa straw poll, she has fallen from sight in the debates where she, too, fails to give specifics, excite delegates here or even reach out to them.
Perry issued a written statement congratulating Cain, saying the vote underscored the fact that the conservative message of job creation, fiscal responsibility and limited government is gaining momentum.
“Floridians and voters nationally want a candidate who is clear on the issues and talks honestly about the future,” Perry said, “not someone who takes multiple sides of an issue and changes views every election season. Today’s vote demonstrates that Floridians are energized and ready to help get America working again.”
Pinellas County delegate Rachelle Warmouth said that, if Perry lost, it wouldn’t be the end of his campaign. But when or lose, the debate performance and the effect it’s having on party loyalists are a call to step up his game.
“He’ll have to have a strong recovery,” she said. “He needs to focus on his message.”
Warmouth’s friend, Eileen Blackmer, agreed: “He needs to work on the three C’s: Be clear, be concise, be complete.”
Lee County delegate Dane Eagle said he’s for Romney. He likes the candidate’s message and polish on stage. And he fears that President Obama would walk all over Perry in debates.
“That’s what Obama does,” Eagle said. “He debates.”
St. Johns County delegate Randy Covington said he arrived in Orlando ready to vote for Perry, but the debate "shattered" that plan. Covington decided to support Cain after the businessman"s rousing speech on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. That event was wedged in between the party’s Presidency 5 Thursday debate and Saturday straw poll.
But Convington said he wasn’t sure if Cain would or should be the nominee. He said the primary shouldn’t be a two-man race.
"We need this process to go on," Covington said.
Gov. Rick Scott, who announced the results from the Orange County Convention Center stage, said the candidates “need to take very seriously whatever the results are.”
"It shows you something. Florida is important," Scott said from the Orange County Convention Center stage. "It pays to be here."
I have been limply for Perry because I don’t see Cain as a national contender.
But, maybe that’s changing. Impressive results.
I really like him and love the FairTax.
“Politicians got us where we are today. How’s that workin’ out for ya’?”
Grand slam.
There was damn little Texas voter public opposition to 1403. What about the democratic process is hard for you to grasp? Does democracy only apply when it verifies your narrow perspective?
Per your exaggerated emphasis on “GED”. Maybe in Virginia (likely not) you can get into the best colleges with a GED, its a mighty hill to climb here in Texas. Just more smoke you think will blind folks to the reality you oppose.
What Texas has been doing, even “In-State Tuition” has been working and adding to our success while most other States are sharing the basement, proves we must be doing something right. That proof is in the pudding.
Cindi, it is good to hear you have some understanding of the situation.
You said “bothers me that since the state now knows where these people are they don’t send them back”. Do you think Texas or ANY State has the Constitutional authority to deport one single person?
Those kids attend Texas public school because the FedGov dictates it. I am not a scholar on the US law regarding this, but obviously it additionally contains provisions to protect them from the State beyond simply school attendance.
As a Texas taxpayer, I would prefer we didn’t have to school illegals, but we have no choice, so next best thing is to make the best of it by giving the best students a good education.
I also think if we didn’t have this US FedGov mandatory public school education for illegal’s children, we would have less of them here. Mexican parents are no different than the rest of us, they want their children to get a good education and improve their lives.
Do you believe the states and localities have the right to set up sanctuary states/cities to protect illegal aliens? What ever happened to equal protection and the supremacy clause?
Per your exaggerated emphasis on “GED”. Maybe in Virginia (likely not) you can get into the best colleges with a GED, its a mighty hill to climb here in Texas. Just more smoke you think will blind folks to the reality you oppose.
Sorry, but that is what the Texas Dream Act stipulates. This is the same kind of flim-flam that the advocates of a Federal Dream Act use. It is all about the children. If you read the actual law, it covers not only children, but any illegal who enters the state and meets the criteria, including adults. The law covers all state institutions of higher learning including community colleges.
What Texas has been doing, even “In-State Tuition” has been working and adding to our success while most other States are sharing the basement, proves we must be doing something right. That proof is in the pudding.
Working? Texas has the second highest number of illegal aliens. They cost the state close to $5 billion a year in just education, health care, and incarceration costs not to mention the thousands killed or injured by them. There is an active court case challenging the Texas in-state tuition law and initiatives in the legislature to repeal the law.
I bet if the law were put on the ballot as a referendum item, it would be defeated. In MD, one of the bluest of blue states, the Dem controlled legislature passed in-state tuition for illegals and it was signed by the governor. It was met with a firestorm of protest. A movement arose that gathered enough signatures, twice that was needed, in record time. The measure will be on the ballot and the law suspended until the results of the referendum. Like gay marriage, when it is put to the voters directly, it is always defeated.
From Mexico’s perspective, a significant share of its population, especially its working-age population, is abroad. One-in-ten (10%) of everyone born in Mexico resides in the U.S. Among Mexican-born men ages 30 to 44, one-in-five (20%) are in the U.S. Among Mexican-born women in the same age group, more than one-in-seven (15%) are in the U.S.
Less than one-tenth of one percent of Florida’s voting population. A potential indicator, and I like that the Tea Party candidates are getting ahead... But naming Cain “electable” simply for getting less than 1000 folks to vote for him might be just a bit premature.
I am more concerned with Romney benefiting from attacking those statements(and taking the Obama position), that would be a disaster.
Republicans have a record of cowardice on that issue, of even talking honesty about it..
Either way a Romney vs Obama race next November would just be another disaster.
Clearly you are not a conservative as your neither stand for the rule of law nor for the sovereignty of our nation. One must wonder why you would care to be on FR?
Currently, 1.6 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year; 350,000 immigrants leave each year, resulting in a net immigration of 1.25 million. Since 1970, the U.S. population has increased from 203 million to 310 million, i.e., over 100 million. In the next 40 years, the population will increase by 130 million to 440 million. Three-quarters of the increase in our population since 1970 and the projected increase will be the result of immigration.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center for 2010, there are 9.5 million Hispanics in Texas, second largest in the nation after CA. It amounts to 37.6% of the total population second only to NM with 46.3%. In 2000, the numbers for Texas were 6.7 million and 32%.
The Hispanic population in Texas for children, i.e., those under 18, is 2.4 million or 48.3% of the children population under 18 up from the 41% in 2000.
According to Pew, there are 1.5 million to 1.9 million illegal aliens in Texas (2010). There are an estimated 1.1 million illegal aliens in the Texas workforce or 9% of the total workforce. By comparison, the estimated number of illegal aliens in Texas in 1990 was 450,000 and in 2000, 1.1 million.
In the decade from 2000 to 2010, the Mexican-American population grew by 7.2 million as a result of births and 4.2 million as a result of new immigrant arrivals. At 31.8 million in 2010, Mexican-Americans comprise 63% of the U.S. Hispanic population and 10% of the total U.S. population (Ennis, Ríos-Vargas and Albert, 2011).
According to Pew Hispanic Center tabulations from the March 2010 U.S. Current Population Survey, 39% of Mexican-Americans—or 12.4 million—are immigrants. With the exception of Russia, no other country in the world has as many immigrants from all countries as the U.S. has from Mexico alone. Nor does any country in the world have as many citizens living abroad as does Mexico. According to the World Bank (2011), more than 10% of Mexico’s native-born population lives elsewhere, with the vast majority (97%) of these expatriates living in the United States.
The latest data show 22.1 million immigrants holding jobs in the U.S. with an estimated 8 million being illegal aliens. By increasing the supply of labor between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by an estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent. Among natives without a high school education, who roughly correspond to the poorest tenth of the workforce, the estimated impact was even larger, reducing their wages by 7.4 percent. The reduction in earnings occurs regardless of whether the immigrants are legal or illegal, permanent or temporary. It is the presence of additional workers that reduces wages, not their legal status.
The Bureau of Labor statistics for August 2011 show a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, including 16.7 percent for blacks and 11.3 percent for Hispanics. 25 million Americans are seeking full-time employment. Despite the economic downturn, the U.S. continues to bring in 125,000 new, legal foreign workers a month. This includes new permanent residents (Green Cards) and long-term temporary visas and others who are authorized to take a job. This makes no sense.
Which makes me more comfortable voting for Sarah than I would a woman who had not been a state governor. Or a man for that matter.
If I could snap my fingers and get my way, for anyone to declare as a candidate for POTUS that had not spent a term as a governor would be prohibited. The results that we are getting from the current occupant cements my phobia against legislators becoming POTUS.
Another vote by real people and Perrywinkle gets killed.
Vote was not even close to close.
Now that me straighten out the headline:
Herman Cain wins Florida straw poll in stunning victory; Rick Perry Mitt Romney in deep trouble
It’s called faint praise and there was nothing classy about it. All Perrywinkle was saying is that it is a good thing Cain is carrying his message.
I remember a teenager while growing up who saw himself as the next Dion or Frankie Avalon. He badgered his lower middle class parents to buy him a brand new Cadillac. Not just any Cadillac either. Only the El Dorado would do. That cost alot of money back then.
The kid convinced his parents he had to look successful to be successful. That may have helped if he had any real talent. He didn’t and the family had to live with the expensive car until they sold it or paid it off. Lost track of the fool, but he never performed outside of Philly so far as I know.
Not one of the other candidates had the grace to send a note of congratulation. It just shows that Perry was brought up properly by parents who knew that manner count. Discount it if you want, that’s your business.
I’m stil not clear on Cain’s 999 plan. 9% income tax and 9% national sales tax. The 9% national sales tax will effect every consumer...wonder if the state sales tax, city sales tax, etc in combination will force some to relocate...just trying to understand the impact. Now, a national sales tax and personal income tax too....I need a little more clairty on how this would work..
Implementing this plan is Cains first step toward the Fair Tax. Go to his website and read about it.
This will ensure all Americans become federal taxpayers and have skin in the game
McCain supports gun control, supports a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, has a mixed record on environmental issues and affirmative action. Was opposed to President Bush's $350 billion in tax breaks over 11 years, which are also known as the Bush Tax cuts. McCain later switched on the issue by saying he favored the tax cuts. He has a strong pro-life voting record, a strong free trade voting record, wants private social security accounts, is against socialized health care, supports school vouchers, supports the death penalty, supports mandatory sentencing, and supports welfare reform. He would overturn Roe v Wade but keep provision for incest and rape. McCain advocates overthrowing ‘rogue’ governments to keep Americans safe and voted for CAFTA. He supports higher taxes on cigarettes and would negotiate for bulk Medicare drugs
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