Free Republic

Steve Forbes: Perry’s flat tax ‘most exciting tax plan since Reagan’s’ Zachary Roth October 20, 2011Steve Forbes, whose flat tax plan helped make him an unlikely contender for the Republican presidential nomination 15 years ago, is praising a new version of the idea from Rick Perry. And Forbes, who says he helped devise Perry's plan, left little doubt that he'll formally back the Texas governor before long.In an interview with Yahoo News, Forbes called Perry's proposal, announced in a speech Wednesday, "the most exciting tax plan since Reagan's," in 1980.Asked whether that included his own 1996 plan, Forbes said it...

Undoubtedly a team of scientists already has been dispatched to Las Vegas to study the phenomenon that tens of thousands of startled CNN viewers saw firsthand Tuesday night. For the first time in the five years since he launched his methodical, by-the-numbers, always placid, PowerPoint-inspired campaign for the presidency of the United States, an emoticon crossed Mitt Rombot's faceplate. In layman's terms, the former governor short-circuited. Even more surprising, the first person ever to dent that metallic exterior was the same one politicos had confidently written off only a few weeks ago. Yes, Rick Perry - who in two months...

In previous debates, the adviser explained, Perry had tried to abide by time limits, leading some observers to say he seemed passive and withdrawn. Perry intended to make sure that didn't happen in Las Vegas. It didn't. The Las Vegas debate was Perry's fifth, but the first one in which Perry really showed up to play. That doesn't mean he won, doesn't mean he was particularly likable, doesn't mean he always had cogent answers. But it does mean that Perry, on the verge of being completely written off as a candidate, gave himself a chance to get back in the...