• Mitt Romney,  Newt Gingrich,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Mitt Romney Responds to Bain Capital Attacks = Weak Sauce

    Mitt Romney is a conservative businessman who helped create and run a company that invested in struggling businesses, started new ones, and rebuilt old ones, creating thousands of jobs.

    A fairly weak ad and really does not answer any questions about Bain.

    We will see shortly if the Perry and Gingrich attacks on Romney and his ties to Bain have ANY effect in South Carolina polling.

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Rick Perry Steps In It Again

    Republican presidential candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry answers a question from the audience at a town hall campaign stop in Nashua, New Hampshire November 16, 2011

    It isn’t a large gaffe, but the timing of explaining his other voting age gaffe was telling.

    But in the same interview, in which Perry appeared from New Hampshire, the Texas governor incorrectly identified the state’s early voting contest as “caucuses” instead of a “primary.”

    “Americans haven’t decided yet at all who they want to lead the Republican nomination and we’re going to be talking about that, we’re going to be talking about it in harsh and strong terms over the course of the next four to five weeks are we get ready for those New Hampshire caucuses,” Perry said.

    New Hampshire will host the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 10, following the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa, where Perry has focused the bulk of his energies, on Jan. 3.

    Perry and Cain are embarrassments to the GOP and should just give it up and withdraw.

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Rick Perry Flubs the Voting Age

    Speaking at Saint Anselm College on Tuesday, Rick Perry appealed to students who will be at least 21 before Election Day to vote for him. It turns out Perry didn’t know or had forgotten that the voting age in America is 18.

    Now, do you understand why Rick Perry has tanked in the polls?

    The Texas Governor really is becoming an embarrassment and should go back to Texas.

    Perry is hurting the Republican brand and one of his donors really should persuade him to withdraw shortly after the Iowa Caucuses.

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Rick Perry Proposes Making Congress Part-Time and Ending Lifetime Tenure for Federal Judges

    Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during the Scott County Republican Party’s Ronald Reagan Dinner, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011, in Bettendorf, Iowa

    Texas Governor Rick Perry has proposed a massive overhaul of the federal government.

    Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced a proposal on Tuesday that ranks among the most radical plans to alter the federal government offered by any major Republican presidential candidate this year — and one that legal analysts say will almost surely never happen: making Congress operate part-time with half pay and ending lifetime tenure of federal judges.

    “I don’t believe that Washington needs a new coat of paint, I think the whole place needs to be overhauled,” Mr. Perry said, speaking to applause from more than 100 people on the floor of the Schebler manufacturing plant. “I’m a true believer that we need to uproot, tear down and rebuild Washington, D.C., and our federal institutions.”

    Mr. Perry proposed cutting the pay of Congress in half (or by three-fourths, under one scenario he sketched out) and halving both its budget and the time members spend in Washington.

    “We have a lot of well-intentioned members of Congress, but they have become creatures of Washington,” Mr. Perry said. “They get paid more than three times the average American family and they have doubled their own budgets in the last decade.”

    Mr. Perry also vowed to “reform” the federal judiciary. “Too many federal judges rule with impunity from the bench,” he said, “and those who legislate from the bench should not be entitled to lifetime abuse of their judicial authority.” He proposed 18-year terms, staggered every two years, for new Supreme Court justices, and suggested similar limits on federal appellate and district court judges.

    It seems Perry is just trying to revive a failing campaign for the Presidency. This nonsense won’t do it.

    Congress will never agree to limiting itself and the federal judiciary change will have to be via a Constitutional amendment.

    This proposal is just “Hot Air.”

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Rick Perry Can’t Remember the Federal Agencies He Wants to Cut

    Texas Governor Rick Perry has a lapse of memory during tonight’s CNBC Presidential Debate

    Rick Perry’s campaign for President imploded tonight with his lapse of memory as to which federal agencies he would cut. The answer he is grasping for  = Department of Energy.

    AllahPundit over at Hot Air has the quotes:

    • To my memory, Perry’s forgetfulness is the most devastating moment of any modern primary debate – Larry Sabato
    • That might be the most uncomfortable moment I’ve ever witnessed in presidential politics – Rich Lowry
    • That was the greatest flame-out I’ve ever witnessed in a debate – Mona Charon
    • WaPo’s Aaron Blake tweets: “Top Perry fundraiser to me: ‘Perry campaign is over. Time for him to go home and refocus on being Gov of TX.’”

    And, Perry’s retort after the debate: 

    “I’m sure glad I had my boots on because I sure stepped in it out there.”

    Put a fork in Rick Perry – He’s Done!

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Can Rick Perry Be the Comeback Kid?

    Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Cornerstone Speech Highlights

    The answer is NO.

    The conventional wisdom has coalesced around the view that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with his sizable bankroll, is the obvious choice to emerge again as Romney’s chief primary challenger. His campaign is now up with ads in New Hampshire and Iowa, reintroducing himself to the voters.  And businessman Herman Cain, with the latest scandal, could find himself falling in the next round of polls.

    But I’m not so sure that, even with the Texas governor’s significant resources, his rebranding campaign will work.  Perry’s collapse since entering the race really has been remarkable.  Unlike other recent candidates who entered the race with high expectations only to fall flat (Fred Thompson, Wesley Clark, Rudy Giuliani), Perry boasted executive experience, a largely conservative record, and success in some hotly-contested gubernatorial campaigns.  On paper, he had that resume that translates to a presidential campaign.  That’s why many Republican voters initially viewed him so favorably, thinking he was the most electable conservative in the race.

    But he was utterly unprepared to make the transition to the national stage, alienating the establishment with his weak debate performance and infuriating the base on illegal immigration.  The Republican chattering class now is convinced he doesn’t have what it takes to defeat a vulnerable President Obama, and the base is awfully skeptical that he’s the principled conservative they once thought.  That’s hard to turn around with a bunch of 30-second ads.

    I have to agree. And, I can make a list:

    1. Gardasil
    2. Ponzi Scheme
    3. Illegal Immigration
    4. Debate performance
    5. Weird factor (see above)
    6. Too Bush

    Is that enough?

    Rick Perry won’t make it to Super Tuesday.

  • Paul Ryan,  Pinboard Links,  Polling,  Rick Perry,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 26, 2011

    Flap’s links for October 23rd through October 26th:

    • How Rick Perry’s Tax Plan Would Affect You– Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, today released some details on his flat tax proposal. The plan would give Americans the option of determining their taxes based on an alternate system that has one tax rate and fewer deductions.We asked the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, to help calculate how Mr. Perry’s proposal might affect different kinds of American families. Roberton Williams, a senior fellow there, kindly crunched some numbers using what’s known about the new proposal.

      The chart below shows a few different types of families — single, married with children, head of household with children, and retired — and what kind of tax liabilities they would face under current law and under Mr. Perry’s alternative system:

    • Pizza Magnate Leads GOP Presidential Pack In Ohio, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Romney Stalled As Perry Vanishes– Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain has jumped to the front of the line among GOP presidential contenders with 28 percent support among Ohio Republicans. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is second with 23 percent, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry is almost at the bottom of the pile with 4 percent.Cain leads a three-man race with 40 percent, followed by Romney at 33 percent and Perry at 10 percent.

      President Barack Obama’s job approval rating and re-elect numbers remain underwater among Ohio voters, who disapprove 51 – 43 percent and say 49 – 44 percent the president does not deserve a second term, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

      Despite his negative scores, the president leads potential Republican challengers:

      47 – 39 percent over Cain;
      45 – 41 percent over Romney;
      47 – 36 percent over Perry.

     

     

    By Paul Ryan
    October 26, 2011 — The Heritage Foundation
    Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

    Thank you so much, Ed, for that kind introduction.

    We’re here today to explore the American Idea, and I can’t think of a better venue for this topic. The mission of the Heritage Foundation is to promote the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.

    These are the principles that define the American Idea. And this mission has never been timelier, because these principles are very much under threat from policies here in Washington.

    The American Idea belongs to all of us – inherited from our nation’s Founders, preserved by the countless sacrifices of our veterans, and advanced by visionary leaders, past and present.

    What makes America exceptional — what gives life to the American Idea — is our dedication to the self-evident truth that we are all created equal, giving us equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that means opportunity.

    The perfection of our union, especially our commitment to equality of opportunity, has been a story of constant striving to live up to our Founding principles. This is what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.”

    This commitment to liberty and equality is something we take for granted during times of prosperity, when a growing economic pie gives all Americans the opportunity to pursue their dreams, to provide brighter futures for their kids, or maybe just to meet their families’ needs.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • t.co / Twitter – RT @RasmussenPoll: Obama: Strongly Approve: 18%… Strongly Disapprove 40%… Approval Index: -22… Total Approval: 44%… …

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • SF ballot measures: will courts revisit pensions? – One of two competing pension measures on the San Francisco ballot next month is said by opponents to be an illegal assault on the “vested rights” of public employees, a cost-cutting plan certain to be overturned by the courts.

     

    The measure does not raise the issue that the Little Hoover Commission and others say urgently needs a new look by the courts: whether the pensions of current workers not yet earned by time on the job can be cut.

    But Measure D by Jeff Adachi, the city public defender, does raise the annual payments employees must make toward their pensions without bargaining or providing an offsetting benefit.

    “As written, D raises contribution rates on current employees, but fails to include offsetting reductions in good economic times when the city’s costs are reduced,” said a ballot pamphlet rebuttal written by Mayor Ed Lee and others. “D is not only unfair, legal experts say it’s unlawful and will be invalidated by the courts, leaving taxpayers with zero savings.”

    In a ballot pamphlet reply, Adachi urges voters not to let the opponents “scare” them: “Last year, a San Francisco Superior Court ruled that the city could change the contribution rates of its employees in order to protect the fiscal integrity of the system, which is what Prop D does.”

    Whether voter approval of Measure D on Nov. 8 would result in a court ruling making a significant statewide change in case law is not clear.

    Many legal experts, but not all, believe that a series of past court rulings mean that pensions promised state and local government employees on the date of hire cannot be cut without providing other benefits of equal value.

     

     

     

    • Poll: In North Carolina, Obama Beats Cain by 80 With Black Voters – Oh, he’s losing overall, and I’m not trying to hide that with the headline, but the racial crosstab is what really jumps out to me from the new Civitas poll in North Carolina. Civitas polled 600 voters, of whom 126 were black. That’s a decent-sizes sample. Obama easily crushes Cain with those voters, carrying blacks 86 percent to 6 percent. (Only 8 black voters in this sample said they’d vote for Cain.) John McCain only got 5 percent of the black vote here in 2008 — Cain barely improves on it!
      What explains this? When I was writing this piece about Cain and Tea Partiers, I spent some time on black news sites, seeing what was being written about the surprise Republican frontrunner. It was overwhelmingly negative. If you were to get all of your info on Cain from black news sites, you’d mostly learn that the guy didn’t participate in the Civil Rights movement, wasn’t immediately offended by Rick Perry’s “Niggerhead” rock, and wanted the Secret Service to call him “cornbread.” Just yesterday, Toure spat out a remarkable amount of bile in a piece explaining why, as a black voter, he despises Cain.
      Cain is a clown. You see it in the way he constantly mollifies white audiences with self-effacing, racialized comedy that borders on minstrelsy (referring to himself as “black-walnut ice cream” or suggesting that the Secret Service call him “Cornbread”)… Cain is what I long imagined the first Black President would be like: a Republican who many Blacks find unctuous.
      Toure could have continued on with the central liberal complaint about black conservatives — that they are used to appeal to guilty-feeling whites, not to do anything for blacks.

     

     

    • Will Steve Jobs’ final vendetta haunt Google? – The depths of Jobs’ antipathy toward Google leaps out of Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Apple’s co-founder. The book goes on sale Monday, less than three weeks after Jobs’ long battle with pancreatic cancer culminated in his Oct. 5 death. The Associated Press obtained a copy Thursday.
      The biography drips with Jobs’ vitriol as he discusses his belief that Google stole from Apple’s iPhone to build many of the features in Google’s Android software for rival phones.
      It’s clear that the perceived theft represented an unforgiveable act of betrayal to Jobs, who had been a mentor to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and had welcomed Google’s CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt, to be on Apple’s board.
      Jobs retaliated with a profane manifesto during a 2010 conversation with his chosen biographer. Isaacson wrote that he never saw Jobs angrier in any of their conversations, which covered a wide variety of emotional topics during a two-year period.
      After equating Android to “grand theft” of the iPhone, Jobs lobbed a series of grenades that may blow a hole in Google’s image as an innovative company on a crusade to make the world a better place.
      “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs told Isaacson. “I’m going to destroy Android because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. They are scared to death because they know they are guilty.”
      Jobs then used a crude word for defecation to describe Android and other products outside of search.
      Android now represents one of the chief threats to the iPhone. Although iPhones had a head start and still draw huge lines when new models go on sale, Android devices sold twice as well in the second quarter. According to Gartner, Android’s market share grew 2 1/2 times to 43 percent, compared with 17 percent a year earlier. The iPhone’s grew as well, but by a smaller margin — to 18 percent, from 14 percent.
      Both Google and Apple declined comment to The Associated Press when asked about Jobs’ remarks.
      Jobs’ attack is troubling for Google on several levels.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Rick Perry Proposes 20 Percent Flat Tax



    A little too little and a little too late to help Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign for the Presidency.

    Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry unveiled a sweeping economic agenda Monday, highlighted by a plan to level a voluntary 20 percent “flat tax” on all taxpayers who will accept it in place of what they’re paying now.

    The plan, outlined in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column a day before the Texas governor was set to announce it in South Carolina, also calls for capping federal spending at 18 percent of the country’s GDP while allowing younger earners to privatize their Social Security accounts — a controversial proposal that echoes President George W. Bush’s failed 2005 attempt to overhaul the retirement program.

    But the most significant feature of Perry’s plan is his call for a flat tax rate of 20 percent. Taxpayers who don’t want to pay a 20 percent flat income tax, he said, can keep their current rate.Current marginal income tax rates range from 10 percent to 35 percent, depending on taxpayers’ income.

    Perry offers several proposals that appear designed to sweeten the offer — and to counter criticism that the flat tax is regressive, taking a proportionally bigger bite from smaller incomes. His plan would preserve popular deductions for mortgage interest and donations to charity for households earning less than $500,000 a year. It would increase the standard deduction to $12,500.

    But Perry would eliminate other tax breaks. He argues that a streamed-down tax code (so simple, he says taxpayers can file on a postcard), along with spending cuts and entitlement changes, will stimulate the economy.

    Perry’s proposal really won’t matter since he is carrying so much other baggage. Down in the polls, I really do not see how Perry can regain any type of momentum in the race for 2012 – even a Steve Forbes-like flat tax proposal.