Free Republic

The Iowa caucuses are now just 72 days away. Once Iowans vote on Jan. 3, the 2012 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination ceases to be about debates and gaffes and spin, and begins to be about actual results. This week’s uproar over Herman Cain’s CNN interview with Piers Morgan will likely be a distant and irrelevant memory by Jan. 3. Despite Cain’s rhetorical difficulty in consistently articulating a pro-life position, his bona fides on the issue have long been established, as demonstrated in 2006 when he led a $1 million effort to encourage black voters to vote pro-life. What...

WASHINGTON - Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the self-proclaimed outsider vowing to make federal government "as inconsequential in your life as I can," huddled privately in the nation's capital Friday with the consummate insiders - lobbyists, trade association executives, foreign policy experts and hefty campaign donors, including veterans of past GOP presidential campaigns and administrations. The campaign declined to disclose the governor's schedule...

The Primary Week That Was: CainÂ’s 9-9-9 Becomes 9.1-9.1-9.1; Vegas Hosted Fight Night; BachmannÂ’s NH Staff Quits This past week was, I think, the most interesting of the campaign so far. If we look back to a week from today, Rick Perry introduced his very solid energy plan as the first of three parts of his overall economic plan. He has also begun laying out his flat tax proposal. That rollout showed a campaign finding some new energy and generating some positive headlines, a change in its fortunes from the previous couple of weeks. But Perry came into the week...

Presidential hopeful Herman Cain isn't just a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and head of the National Restaurant Association. He was also once a prolific writer, who up until January 2011 produced a weekly opinion column published by the conservative website WorldNetDaily. In at least one column, Cain seemed to condemn a proposal that is now a pillar of his highly touted 9-9-9 tax plan. On November 12, 2010, Cain wrote a column about rumors that Democrats would propose a consumption tax called a VAT. "The worst idea is a proposed national sales tax," Cain wrote. A 9% national sales...

Cain's Gruesome (and Supposedly Humorous) Solutions for Illegal Immigration: At campaign stops in Tennessee yesterday, Cain put forward two separate plans for tackling the nation's immigration problem: An electrified fence along the border that would stop short the life of anyone trying to slip into the country illegally, and re-equipping border forces "with real guns and real bullets." This morning on Meet the Press he responded to the (unsurprising and immediate) backlash to his electric fence remarks, saying: "That's a joke. That's not a serious plan. I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor." Cain's Brainstorming Process:...

Herman Cain tested the national spotlight Sunday as the Republican presidential primary’s newest front-runner. Facing tough questions during a 25-minute one-on-one interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press," Cain acknowledged that his plan to simplify the tax code would raise taxes for “some” people and clarified his position that he doesn’t believe abortion should be an option in instances of rape and incest. Scrapping the current federal tax code — which he described as a “10-million-word mess” — would eliminate a host of invisible taxes and eventually reduce prices, Cain said. Some economists have pointed out that Cain’s plan would shift...

Romney has had a big boost from the Republican establishment, which decided a while back he's the serious candidate with a chance of beating President Obama. The establishment also decided that upending Texas Gov. Rick Perry's chances is the best way to ensure a Romney victory, since none of the other candidates in the race are very serious and the establishment utterly failed in coaxing NJ Gov. Chris Christie into the race. Cain and Romney are also buddies. Cain endorsed Romney last time around and Romney finds various ways to praise Cain, even going so far as telling a NH...

Karl Rove doesn’t think Herman Cain stands a chance of being POTUS. Bush’s number one consigliere said as much on Fox Thursday night. But is he right? I sure don’t know, but I certainly have a suspicion why Karl thinks what he does. The Herman Cain candidacy is a direct threat to his occupation. Rove — arguably the reigning monarch of political pros — went on to register his disapproval that Cain was wandering around Godforsaken places like Tennessee flogging his book, when any serious candidate should be pressing the flesh where it counts — to wit, Iowa, New Hampshire,...

The national spokesperson for group that seeking to take the selection of the president out of the hands of the Electoral College says the movement is gaining steam. Tom Golisano of the “National Popular Vote Initiative” was in Des Moines Thursday talking about the effort. The group needs states that have 270 — or half of the electoral college votes — to approve the change to make it happen. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm around our position now, it’s more a feeling of when and no if it’s going to happen,” Golisano. He says 10 or 11 states have signed...

WASHINGTON — Republican White House hopeful Rick Perry tried to revive his campaign Friday but got dragged into a religious row and saw a plea to Christian voters drowned out by fast-rising longshot Herman Cain. Perry, who exploded into the White House race in August but has since fallen back after wobbly debate performances, sought to win over evangelical Christian conservative voters, a crucial bloc in the party nominating contest.