Posted on 09/24/2011 5:24:39 PM PDT by iowamark
From the bottom of the polls to the top of the pack, businessman Herman Cain won the Republican Party of Florida’s nationally watched presidential straw poll Saturday in a sign that frontrunner Rick Perry is in deep trouble.
Cain’s victory with 37 percent of the vote was a major defeat for Perry, the frontrunner in Florida and national polls, who garnered only 15 percent after wooing the nearly 3,000 party faithful with a free breakfast and mailers.
The vote also showed how soft Republican support is for Mitt Romney, who came in third with 14 percent. Unlike Perry, though, he avoided schmoozing the GOP voters, called delegates.
"Folks, this is what you call momentum," Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, said in a video message from his campaign bus. "The Herman Cain train is picking up steam."
That means more national media attention, heightened standing in the race and access to more fundraisers.
The straw poll is a mock election and doesn’t necessarily reflect the sentiment of the voters at large. In past years, it has predicted the party’s national nominee, but that streak could be in jeopardy because even some Cain voters had doubts about whether he was ready to be the party’s nominee.
Still, the vote is a major indication of how badly damaged Perry was by a poor debate performance Thursday when he fumbled answers and failed to give specifics.
Many straw poll voters were especially dissatisfied by the answers Perry gave over his moderate immigration position, the “Ponzi scheme” of Social Security and his plan to inoculate girls from human papillomavirus.
“I came in thinking Rick Perry,” said Tommy Langford,a Gilchrist County commissioner who voted for Cain. “I didn’t like the debate at all. I really thought Perry lost it. Mitt Romney called him on immigration. He said we have to take care of them. Not if they’re illegal, we don’t.”
Another big loser: Michele Bachmann, who came in last place. Once a top-tier candidate who won the Iowa straw poll, she has fallen from sight in the debates where she, too, fails to give specifics, excite delegates here or even reach out to them.
Perry issued a written statement congratulating Cain, saying the vote underscored the fact that the conservative message of job creation, fiscal responsibility and limited government is gaining momentum.
“Floridians and voters nationally want a candidate who is clear on the issues and talks honestly about the future,” Perry said, “not someone who takes multiple sides of an issue and changes views every election season. Today’s vote demonstrates that Floridians are energized and ready to help get America working again.”
Pinellas County delegate Rachelle Warmouth said that, if Perry lost, it wouldn’t be the end of his campaign. But when or lose, the debate performance and the effect it’s having on party loyalists are a call to step up his game.
“He’ll have to have a strong recovery,” she said. “He needs to focus on his message.”
Warmouth’s friend, Eileen Blackmer, agreed: “He needs to work on the three C’s: Be clear, be concise, be complete.”
Lee County delegate Dane Eagle said he’s for Romney. He likes the candidate’s message and polish on stage. And he fears that President Obama would walk all over Perry in debates.
“That’s what Obama does,” Eagle said. “He debates.”
St. Johns County delegate Randy Covington said he arrived in Orlando ready to vote for Perry, but the debate "shattered" that plan. Covington decided to support Cain after the businessman"s rousing speech on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. That event was wedged in between the party’s Presidency 5 Thursday debate and Saturday straw poll.
But Convington said he wasn’t sure if Cain would or should be the nominee. He said the primary shouldn’t be a two-man race.
"We need this process to go on," Covington said.
Gov. Rick Scott, who announced the results from the Orange County Convention Center stage, said the candidates “need to take very seriously whatever the results are.”
"It shows you something. Florida is important," Scott said from the Orange County Convention Center stage. "It pays to be here."
That reality does present itself in his case. I myself have a phobia about non-State Governors being elected POTUS, because you end up with the kind of results we are getting now. Having said that, here is what I find compelling about him:
1) He is a genuine Washington outsider, and not one who just claims to be. He, like Sarah, really is one of us and is a reminder of what is still great about America.
2) He seems to be a man of integrity, and is not ashamed of it.
3) He fits what I call the Principle of the Second. If you spend any time in Scripture you'll see repeatedly how it's not the first guy who gets it right, it's the second. Issac as opposed to Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, David instead of Saul became Israel's great king. And , of course, Jesus, the second Adam. It wasn't too long into O's term that I said that he was the first Black man elected President and he was working on being the last. I may have to reassess that sentiment.
That reality does present itself in his case. I myself have a phobia about non-State Governors being elected POTUS, because you end up with the kind of results we are getting now. Having said that, here is what I find compelling about him:
1) He is a genuine Washington outsider, and not one who just claims to be. He, like Sarah, really is one of us and is a reminder of what is still great about America.
2) He seems to be a man of integrity, and is not ashamed of it.
3) He fits what I call the Principle of the Second. If you spend any time in Scripture you'll see repeatedly how it's not the first guy who gets it right, it's the second. Issac as opposed to Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, David instead of Saul became Israel's great king. And , of course, Jesus, the second Adam. It wasn't too long into O's term that I said that he was the first Black man elected President and he was working on being the last. I may have to reassess that sentiment.
Romney just "won" a straw poll in Michigan - the pundits will consider Perry's two losses more important than Mitten's drubbing in Florida.
Will do...but can you answer a question? if a widow is living off a small pension of 1,500 a month...her personal income tax would be 1,620 a year?
Well I sure don’t want to be a conservative if we have to use you as the template.
I think you are grossly and intentionally trying to confuse libertarian with conservative. Conservatives know right from wrong and are willing to make some common sense compromises to acheive a good and prosperous America. You on the otherhand seem to think the sky is falling and anyone outside your little tinfoil hat group is against you. NO, we just think you are silly and ignore you.
Now go on back to ratholing candlewax, getting ready for 2012. I will continue to fight distortions and smear merchants here on FR and work toward building and righting America in my small way.
I believe the same rules vis a vis taxation of social security benefits would apply but the rate would be cut.
The 9% flat income tax also eliminates FICA and Medicaid taxes so that 7.65% is gone, replaced by 9%.
Newt is brilliant, an adult no question however, he is admittedly a Moderate, neither left or right just blows in the wind on many issue. I do like him and love his brain but the man can’t lead...VP? Yes.
Looky here “copy and paste”, in Texas there is nothing called Dream Act, that’s just a figment in Perry Derangement paulnutz imagination. This subject is just “today’s” talking point in some demented effort to tear down one candidate thinking it builds up another, whether or not you’re a paulnut does not prevent you from soundling like a paulnut.
What goes on in Maryland has zero to do with Texas.
TEXAS House Bill 1403 was not a Perry Bill, it was a TEXAS Bill.
The Texas Constitution set up the Governor to have significantly less power that the legislature. Texas Governors have less power than in most states. Even with less power, Perry has presided over building and maintaining the best economy in the entire USA. For us Texans we call that good.
I am betting millions of Texans will be happy to compare Texas, line by line, law for law, or fiscal balance sheets with ANY state, including Virginia. And millions of Texans will continue to prefer TEXAS over any other State, even with the illegals.
You have a different candidate you prefer, fine. But don’t try to tell me shi’te about Texas from your perch in Virginia.
You’re bad.
Bwahahaa!
Perry is against E-Verify. Kind of blows your strategy out of the water.
I have no candidate of choice. I live in Israel and American politics are quite remote from me these days. But until New Hampshire, nothing means anything, imho, except maybe Iowa, but big stress on maybe.
So Cain supporters should not rejoice prematurely, and Perry supporters should buck up and try harder.
May the best man win, and personally I would get a big kick out of The One facing a brutha who’s an eloquent advocate of conservatism in November 2012.
Perry defends it by saying if you don't agree with him you don't have a heart.
To be sure I will continue to be hear to fight those like you who wish to surrender the rule of law and our sovereignty. No country is served by open borders and uncontrolled immigration. You may wish to see American become Atzlan, but I do not. Everything I said can be confirm just by going out and talking to people. Look at the immigration rallies they carried exclusively Mexican flags until the it was making political problems for them and then then handed out American flags at their rallies because no one brought them. Why don’t you do us a favor and move to Mexico since that seem the kind of country you prefer and take some of these ILLEGALS back with you.
ABO = Anyone But Obama.
Excellent chart. There was a magazine cover from the 1980s, maybe the National Review, in which Reagan had a tear in his eye, with this same theme. Prophetic.
I could say that we can still slow down family-sponsored and illegal immigration from the 3rd world, and save Texas, but it’s really difficult to reverse such trends. That’s why the Indians lost North America; they were overwhelmed by Europeans. I can argue that North America has done well in the 19th and 20th centuries (the USA was 50% of the world economy after WWII), but imagine being under the thumb of Obama/Reid/Pelosi/Sotomayor clones forever.
Hispanics and Leftists don’t know it yet, but the world will be a worse place for them too. I think it will work out well for China though.
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