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One of the key economists who helped presidential candidate Herman Cain draft his 9-9-9 tax plan is backing away from the most controversial component of it, warning that the criticism Cain endured at Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate shows his proposed 9 percent national sales tax might have to go. "It was such a dart board," economist Stephen Moore said Wednesday of the proposal. Cain weathered a storm of complaints over his tax plan at the Republican debate in Las Vegas. Virtually every candidate took turns accusing the businessman of pushing a scheme that would introduce new streams of revenue...

The Rick Perry campaign recently came out with a campaign ad highlighting the fact that Mitt Romney enacted a state run health care system in Massachusetts. I found the ad particularly powerful, because I feel that nationalized health care should be a litmus test for Republicans. No candidate that has supported a state run single payer health care system is, in my humble opinion, fit to the be the GOP nominee in 2012. Then I found this in Rick Perry’s Wikipedia entry: In 1993, Perry, while serving as Texas agriculture commissioner, expressed support for the Clinton health care reform proposal,...

LAS VEGAS – After months of diversions — sideshow candidates, Hamlet acts and straw polls — Tuesday night’s sizzling Republican presidential showdown boiled the nomination fight down to its essentials: a deeply personal, ideological and smashmouth contest between two rivals with almost nothing in common.

It was Fight Night in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and for arguably the first time this year, Mitt Romney took some body blows. Romney generally acquitted himself well and even got in some jabs of his own at Tuesday’s CNN debate in Nevada, but the totality of the attacks left their mark on a candidate who has been more the Teflon candidate than a punching bag early in the 2012 campaign. Perhaps most notably, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) actually made some headway Tuesday night. After some troubled performances in the last few debates, Perry launched a new attack (new...

Whew. Can you have a debate in which nobody wins? The seven Republican presidential candidates on the stage during the GOP debate in Las Vegas Tuesday slapped, swatted, slashed, jabbed, picked, and poked at each other for two hours. As might be expected, most of the emerged bloodier and more ragged than when they walked in. But then, these things are contests—largely political sporting events. So if a winner must be crowned, make it Rick Perry, who showed some fire in his willingness to go toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney, whose aura of inevitability waxed and waned during the debate. Perry...

And, in the latest exchange over Romneycare, Mitt Romney pushed back on Newt Gingrich's criticisms of the plan as a flawed Big Government venture by saying, "Actually Newt we got the idea of the individual mandate from you." Gingrich replied that that was false, and that it came from the Heritage Foundation. When Romney pushed back asking if it was untrue that Gingrich once supported that, the former House Speaker acknowledged he had, against Hillarycare. Romney, the clear frontrunner now, was ready for the attacks.

Debate Score: Perry For the Win Bryan Preston October 18, 2011 There were two Ricks on debate stage tonight, and both came in loaded up and ready to hunt. Rick Santorum threw a blizzard of punches at Mitt Romney early over his claim that as president, Romney, the author of RomneyCare, would repeal ObamaCare. The punches landed and the damage showed on Romney’s face. Rick Perry came in loaded up to speak aggressively for his energy plan, and spoke with an energy and conviction that has not come through in previous debates. Romney came under the most intense fire he...

BOSTON — On the Republican campaign trail, the health care debate has focused on the mandatory coverage that Mitt Romney signed into law as governor in 2006. But back in Massachusetts the conversation has moved on, and lawmakers are now confronting the problem that Mr. Romney left unaddressed: the state’s spiraling health care costs. After three years of study, the state’s legislative leaders appear close to producing bills that would make Massachusetts the first state — again — to radically revamp the way doctors, hospitals and other health providers are paid. Although important details remain to be negotiated, the legislative...

(snip) ...John McDonough, director of Harvard's Center for Public Health Leadership. McDonough brings a unique perspective to the issue. He served as a top adviser on the national health care overhaul plan, and played a key role in advancing and implementing the Massachusetts law... (snip) Halloran: If you were advising Romney, how would you suggest he defend the Massachusetts plan? McDonough: I would urge him to say: "I am proud that the law I signed did what it was intended to do. It has lowered the number of uninsured in Massachusetts so much that no other state is our peer....

<p>Our purpose and goal on FR is to restore, defend, preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity!!</p> <p>The goal of the domestic enemy (the left), i.e., the statist liberals, Marxists and progressives is just the opposite.</p>

After watching the GOP presidential debate the other night, it was hard to avoid this conclusion: Mitt Romney looks more and more like the GOP presidential nominee. He's the best debater. He's got his issues and his rejoinders down pat. He brushes away his opponents like lint on his lapel. And all with such ease. That said, there's a teensy problem he just can't seem to beat: Conservatives don't like him. Or trust him. Or really want him to be the GOP nominee. Sure, you say, Republicans never like their nominees, and they still manage to vote for them. There...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney raised $14.2 million in the third fundraising quarter, bringing his total amount raised for his 2012 presidential race to $32 million. “We are proud of the $32 million we have raised for the campaign so far. This is just the start of the effort to help fuel Mitt Romney’s message that will defeat President Obama next November,” said Spencer Zwick, Romney’s national finance director. Romney ended September with $14.65 million in the bank. He has raised only primary money and has yet to make any personal donations to the campaign. In 2008, Romney gave more...

R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee says former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney is “a completely different person” as a presidential candidate than the man who was once a fellow member of the Republican Party’s moderate wing in the Northeast.“It’s the same thing I saw with John McCain, and I saw with George Pataki and with Rudy Giuliani,” Chafee told WPRI.com during an interview at his office Wednesday. Referencing a speech on foreign policy Romney gave last week at The Citadel, Chafee said: “The appeal you have to make to the Republican primary audience – that’s just alien to what’s in our best...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Make no mistake, Mitt Romney is competing in Iowa. It’s not the $10 million campaign he waged for the state’s presidential caucuses four years ago. But the former Massachusetts governor, who has kept a low public profile here since his 2008 loss, is quietly ramping up his efforts in hopes that a surprise top-three finish will give him a boost heading into the follow-up New Hampshire primary. ....The hope is that Romney’s emphasis on jobs will resonate in a state where the economy tops voters’ concerns and Republicans showed a willingness to embrace a more business-focused...

Romney vs. Cain: Which frontrunner should win the Republican presidential nomination? - Currently Cain: 45.4% and Romney 54.6% http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/election-day-684/topics/romney-vs-cain-frontrunner-would?mod=WSJ_Comments_Bottom

Rick Perry’s six-foot frame seemed to slump in his chair during Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary debate, at a time when he should have been rising to the challenge. The Texas governor sorely needed to notch a solid debate performance to arrest his freefall in the polls and reclaim his status as the biggest threat to the Republican to beat, Mitt Romney. He didn’t, reviving questions about his readiness for the national stage and raising new ones about his ability to sustain an initial, $17 million fundraising blitz. Unlike previous debates, the eight Republican candidates on the stage in Hanover, N.H....

At the Values Voter Summit, Republican primary candidate Rick Perry was introduced by a megachurch pastor, named Robert Jeffress, who offered the audience an extraordinary false choice: "Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Answer: We want a candidate who will cut capital gains taxes. Now, Jeffress would go on to explain that Perry is a "genuine follower of Jesus Christ," which is widely understood to mean that his opponent Mitt Romney is a member of a satanic sect. When one considers that Romney...

How does the liberal media turn a positive for a Republican front-runner into a negative? Ask Mike Allen of Politico. Instead of focusing on the political pluses of Chris Christie's endorsement of Mitt Romney, Allen has twisted the event into a negative that revealed the "very ruthless" efficiency of the Romney campaign. Moreover, if there's a politician around today who thinks for himself, it's Christie. Yet Allen insinuated that rather than making a reasoned decision, Christie was "roped" into endorsing Romney. Allen made his sour-grape remarks on today's Morning Joe. View the video here.

ANN COULTER, AUTHOR: It's a good ad. It's probably Romney's biggest problem, and that was a very strong ad, though I must say there are differences between doing it just in a state and doing it nationally. You can leave a state. You can't leave the country, or at least not quite as easy. And the other thing is, I mean, the country has spoken. They do not want national health care. Romney himself has said, whatever he says about -- about what he did in Massachusetts, he says his first day in office, he will issue 50 state waivers...

After Palin, I've been leaning towards Cain. My only problem with him is that he's much more comfortable attacking Perry than Romney. I'm no fan of the bumbling debator from Texas who says his base has no heart, but this cozying up to Romney by Cain is concerning. Herman Cain remains my favorite, but he needs to show he's not running for VP. He needs to go after Romney on Romneycare tonight. If he doesn't, it may be time to look elsewhere. The one thing Rick Perry has going for him is that he's shown he's not afraid to take...