Raising Cain
Could Rick Perry’s stunning loss of the Florida straw poll have been averted? Possibly. The question here is whether the Perry camp was so overconfident that it scheduled him to go to a similar straw poll in Michigan without addressing the delegates in Florida. At the times, Perry and Romney were tied in Florida voting with 25% each. Cain was lagging with 5%. Florida is a much more important state than Michigan. Perry may have erred by foregoing the opportunity to lobby for votes. As it turned out, Cain won by such a large margin–37% to 15% over Perry and 14% over Romney–that Perry’s travels didn’t really affect the outcome. Romney easily won the Michigan straw poll, as expected.
It is hard to imagine Cain as a serious contender for president. Nevertheless, Perry’s success depends to some extent on his ability to reduce the number of major candidates so that he can go head to head with Romney, his major tormentor. So far, not only has he failed to break away from the pack, but one member of the pack has zoomed past him, for the time being. One has to wonder whether Perry’s stumbles have been noticed by Sarah Palin, who can’t seem to make up her mind whether she wants to be in the game or not.
Tagged: Herman Cain, republican presidential primary, rick perry
Robert Morrow says:
“It is hard to imagine Cain as a serious contender for president.”
Compared to who? Rick Perry? Barack Obama?
Sarah Palin is sitting like a vulture on a chimney watching Rick Perry flounder around in the scorching heat.
Ron Paul does very well with independent voters and if he ever breaks free of the Republican prison he could do very well in a general election.
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Red says:
Ron Paul in a general election would be worse for the GOP than nominating Barry Goldwater. He may be principled yadda yadda but his ideas haven’t been a mainstream political issue since 1896.
Perry’s acting like he’s already sewn up the nomination…which is why he’s losing. When you’re as electorally lucky as Perry, you forget how to campaign.
Anecdotally, I have in the past two weeks met two die hard republicans (ie, think Hutchison is a liberal) who said they’d vote for Barack Obama over Rick Perry in a general. I was flabbergasted
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Robert Morrow Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 2:33 am
I would vote for Barack Obama over Rick Perry. I supported Debra Medina for governor.
Ron Paul is sweet music to independent voters and even some Democrats. The delusional GOP base has no idea how much their religious whackjobs and neocon war mongers turn off most of America. Consider those 2 groups a raging herpes infection, gaping blisters all over the GOP body politic.
The trillion dollar, never ending, bloody unconstitutional wars have bankrupted America. But you would never know it at a GOP precinct meeting (thank God for Ron Paulers).
People (voters) are just sick, sick, of the religious whackjobs and religious authoritarism. And to have Rick Perry of all people lead this kooky little parade, is enough to make me vomit at the TV set.
Then there is the corporate cronyism of the GOP and which Perry is the poster child for. Forget free market enterprise; the Perrybots and the GOP just like the Soyndra corporate cronyism business model.
Ron Paul has none of that toxic baggage from above; last month Rasmussen had Obama 39% Paul 38%. Currently Obama would be beating Perry like a red headed step child. Finally, the GOP elites and even the base is figuring out that Perry is the Republican version of hara kiri.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/obama_39_paul_38
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American Spring... 2012 Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 2:58 am
The evangelicals have killed this country. Their crusades have emptied our coffers and their hypocritical morality has enslaved millions of Americans and broken countless homes and families.
Will America rise from her knees and cast these morons aside?
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Anonymous Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 8:34 am
You should have quit after the third six-pack and gone to bed.
Robert Morrow says:
Michigan straw poll results: 681 ballots cast.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110926/POLITICS02/109260343/1024/Romney-wins-straw-poll-by-a-wide-margin
Mitt Romney – 51%
Mount Everest of Hypocrisy – 17%
Herman Cain – 9%
Ron Paul – 8%
Bachmann – 4%
Gingrich – 4%
Santorum – 3%
Huntsman – 2%
Dick Morris is going to be on Sean Hannity Monday night and you can bet he will by hyping Herman Cain and trashing Rick Perry. Count on it.
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Terry Weldon says:
Perry’s plummet is almost as satisfying to watch as Phil Gramm’s was. Both achieved their political careers by cynically manipulating the voters, both attained their wealth by cronyism and both assumed that their swagger alone would get them attention on the national stage.
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Crazy Uncle Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Swagger and cronyism. It worked for Obama until recently
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SSI says:
I just can’t help but wonder if the “ponzi scheme” business hurt Perry in Florida.
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anon-p Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 8:32 am
SSI> I just can’t help but wonder if the “ponzi scheme” business hurt Perry in Florida.
Being critical of Social Security is not the problem. Not having a good answer when you’re fallaciously accused of wanting to send the elderly to the poorhouse is what is hurting Perry.
After all, Herman Cain wants to get rid of Social Security, too. Yet he seems to be straw polling fine in the retiree state.
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Red Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 10:50 am
Not sure it’s fallacious. Prior to the passage of Social Security, the most impoverished age group in the country were senior citizens.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
Herman Cain polls well with conservatives, because he is one. He did well in the Fla poll because he worked for the votes and earned them.
Cain would not poll well with democrats because he is a black republican.
“After all, Herman Cain wants to get rid of Social Security, too”
No republican wants to “get rid” of SS, but most want it “fixed”. Democrats want it left untouched because they use debt to control their voters. A debt free voter scares democrats.
ABM in 2012.
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Anonymous Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 10:26 am
that’s why there was a suplus under Clinton but twig boy pissed it all away and gave us $10 TRILLION deficits. yep, keep living in that fantasy world jbb. The one where women adore you and your right hand isn’t your best friend with benefits.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
“that’s why there was a suplus under Clinton but twig boy pissed it all away and gave us $10 TRILLION deficits”
sadly some really stupis democrats really believe this.
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Anonymous Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
sadly, all reality challenged repiglicans think twig boy was a great conservative president and when he spent money the deficit fairy took care of it.
retrocon says:
Romney has made a campaign decision not to participate in the straw polls, so the straw poll results must be seen in that light.
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Sam Jacinto says:
Cain would not poll well with Democrats not because he is a “black republican”, but because he is a republican.
“Fixing” Social Security by privatizing it is getting rid of it, and it puts everyone at more risk of the greed and criminal schemes of Wall Street.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
““Fixing” Social Security by privatizing it is getting rid of it, and it puts everyone at more risk of the greed and criminal schemes of Wall Street.” and yet the City of Galveston did it….the stupids are out today.
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Anonymous Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Yes, because a single small to medium sized city doing this is EXACTLY the same as the entire country doing it at the same time.
yes they are. If you don’t want to see them, stop looking in the mirror.
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AreYouKiddingMe says:
The epic and sudden collapse of Perry has now begun. The weekend news shows (even Fox) trashed him, he got beat by Cain in Florida’ straw poll, Christie is now said to be “reconsidering” etc. All signs point to Perry plummeting in the polls faster than the satellite did this weekend. Amazing that it only took about a month for the country to figure out what a loon we have been electing for 10 years…
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anita says:
Yes, clearly Perry made a blunder in leaving Florida for Michigan. Dave Carney made a feeble attempt to say the vote was a rejection of Romney, which is a joke because the Mitt didn’t even compete.
So what kind of governor will Perry be when he returns to Texas? Will he be a bitter man, spurned by R primary voters — perhaps finally willing to work to solve some of Texas’ inherent, long term problems? Will he act in a post-partisan fashion, take advantage of the opportunity to create a legacy for himself during his remaining time in office? Or will he give us more of the same blind adherence to ideology, governance-by-pladitude, that we’ve seen since he took the chair?
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Anonymous says:
The only story here is that Perry put so much effort into the straw poll in loss. If straw polls were an indication of who would be successful, then Cain would be in better shape than he is and Ron Paul would be the front runner. Straw poll wins don’t mean jack. They only matter when you fail spectacularly, a la Tim Pawlenty.
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anita says:
“Straw poll wins don’t mean jack.”
The fact that you took time to read and write about a straw poll indicates how wrong you are.
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Anonymous Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 10:36 am
For all the hype they receive, the winners don’t really gain anything. It doesn’t matter how much we talk about them. If you win a straw poll, you haven’t gained anything. Romey played the straw poll game in 08 – won 22 of them – and yet still had to bow out.
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anita Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
It’s all about momentum. It plays into a narrative. No question that it’s goofy, but during a presidential campaign, there going to be X amount of free media dedicated to the campaign — if you’re able to be on top for the cycle or the week due to a hokey straw poll, so be it.
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Anonymous says:
Does anyone think that Perry, or Palin, for that matter, could win the Repub nomination with just the far right vote? I have stated several times that I feel that the moderate Repub’s, independents, and Blue Dog Dem’s make up a voting block much larger than the one made up by Tea Party’ers. Even if Perry hadn’t stumbled, he would have never been the Repub nominee.
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rw says:
For all the criticism about Perry, please note that Romney hasn’t exactly stormed to the lead in the polls.
Why Burka doesn’t think Cain can win is a mystery to me. Is it because he’s never held public office?
You can’t win the Republican nomination or get elected without the conservative voters. Moderates do not win. Obama could not win it unless he had the far-left in his back pocket. A moderate will not fire up the base.
Romney has no chance of winning the general election – Democrats know this and that’s why they want either Romney or Ron Paul to be nominated – they know neither has a chance to win.
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