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'd imagine it would drive the dem/lib/prog/pops and the rino/repubs absolutely crazy!
IMHO...I also think that team would win...despite the attempts by the stain to pander to his liberal constituents and blacks.
It means Fred Thompson is not going to President, and neither will Herman Cain. He will not beat Obama.
I favor Rick Perry but will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is because by definition I am not a RINO. My hope is that Republican activists don't haplessly engineer the reelection of Barack Hussein Obama. I don't have alot of confidence in Republican activists or activists of any stripe.
DAMN! You mean there’s a kookier section than Paulnutz? OMG, we are all so doomed, the Myans were right, where can I sign up for info on storing acorns like the squirrels?
Perry pissed me off with the illegal “no heart” thing as well. I was leaning his way up until that moment. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but....That statement Perry made pissed me off to no end.
Productive Citizens get ZERO breaks, ZERO help, ZERO subsidies - nothing (not that we’d ask, but it would be nice to know it was there).
Yet, we’re going to REWARD these jerkoffs who dance across our border (whenever I hear this issue come up, I think of that photograph that some FReeper posted - the one where there’s a whole gang of Mexicans standing on a corner here in the US, grabbing their crotches and throwing the middle finger at the cameraman). And the La Raza assholes screaming about Reconquista, and the traitors in our own midst who are ready to hand things to them...
And now I’m supposed to feel “compassionate” or “sympathetic” towards the children of THESE criminals? When MY kids, who were born here of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who were ALSO born here and who fought, bled and DIED for this country, can’t get access to help for schooling?
And then he’s going to stand there and tell me I have no heart? Nope. Sorry.
It’s reminiscent of John McCain calling us all racists for defending HIM against the dems back 2008.
In other words: don’t piss down my back and tell me its raining.
Soft on illegals = treason to the country I love. Period.
I loved what Herman Cain had to say; he knocked it out of the park with his personal story of cancer survival versus Obama’s DeathCare. His straight-forward, no-nonsense candor was refreshing. It was THE clearest example of what we’re facing when this disgusting piece of legislative offal gets fully enacted.
I also like Senator Santorum; but I’m biased because he was my State Senator. I think Santorum would make a fine Vice President for Mr. Cain.
We’ll see what happens...
I LOVE Herman Cain. My dream ticket is Palin-Cain, but Cain nonetheless.
I even have a sticker on my car!
Perry, not so much but better than the rest. Romney and rest are just pitiful, pitiful indeed. I will write in someone if they’re the nominees.
ANY one of these 4 will turn this country around and I would be thrilled to vote for any one of them. I do not want any of the others unless that is my only choice.
The muslim invaded Denver today and rammed his arrogance down the throats of hundreds, if not thousands, of gullible STUPID idiots SCREAMING their devotion to this !$#!#$! that believe this ...... I am so ashamed that I might have had to share the same O2 with this $#!@$#@%#! monster. Oh how I hate him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.