Perry and Bachmann Take Veiled Swipes At Cain In Iowa

The Lebanon Daily Star ^ | October 24, 2011 01:04 AM | By John Whitesides

[drewh]

DES MOINES, Iowa: Republicans Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann took veiled swipes at surging presidential rival Herman Cain Saturday as six of the party’s White House hopefuls courted social conservatives at an Iowa forum.

Appearing separately before about 1,000 conservative activists, the Republican candidates all pledged to protect the unborn, defend traditional marriage, limit government and bring an end to the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama.

But Cain, the former pizza executive, came under indirect fire for seeming to suggest earlier this week that while he opposed abortion, government should not be trying to tell a woman what to do about it.

“It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life, but government should stay out of that decision,” Texas Governor Rick Perry told the Iowa forum, held in an exhibition hall at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

“If that is your view, you are not pro-life,” he said, without mentioning Cain by name. “You are pro having your cake and eating it too.”

Bachmann also criticized Cain’s abortion comments without naming him, saying she believed government must intervene to protect the unborn and she would support a constitutional amendment on the issue.

Bachmann, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, also said she would never consider negotiating the release of detainees at Guantanamo Bay – a direct rebuttal of Cain’s recent comment that he would consider trading them for a U.S. hostage.

Cain, who has struggled in the past week as his views come under more scrutiny, has tried to backtrack on both of those comments. At the forum he was direct when asked about his stance on abortion. “No abortions, no exceptions,” he said.

The forum was heavy on social issues, and all of the candidates were asked by the forum sponsors what they would do to end abortion on demand. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum questioned the commitment of the other candidates to fight on the issue.

The conservative activists at the forum, sponsored by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, gave all of the candidates similar polite but not wildly enthusiastic responses.

Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich drew some of the biggest cheers of the evening for a speech that forecast economic recovery after Obama’s defeat in November 2012.

“Late that night, the recovery will begin,” Gingrich said, predicting a groundswell of optimism and hiring after Obama’s defeat. “We can have a dramatically better Christmas in 2012 if it is the goodbye Obama Christmas.”

The social and religious conservatives who play a big role in the Iowa nominating contest Jan. 3 have spent much of the Republican campaign seeking a candidate to rally around.

Bachmann surged during the summer but faded shortly after her August straw poll win. Perry took the lead after entering the race in August but sunk after halting debate performances.

Cain is the latest candidate to surge in the race, with recent polls giving him leads in Iowa and in some cases, nationally. His supporters in the crowd said they thought he could have some staying power.

“Look how far he’s come with no budget. He’s charismatic, and when he says something you can believe it,” said Keith Lacy, who owns two Godfather’s Pizza restaurants in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Cain had been chief executive of the pizza chain.

Bachmann told the conservative crowd she was one of them and said they needed to rally around a candidate to kick Obama out of the White House.

“This is the year when social conservatives can have it all,” she said. “This is our year when we don’t compromise, this is our year when we don’t settle.”

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the nominal front-runner in the Republican field who Thursday made just his third visit to Iowa this year, skipped the forum. He has had trouble winning over conservatives because of his past support for abortion rights and an individual health care mandate.

After plunging millions into the Iowa contest in 2008, Romney lost to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won strong support from the state’s religious conservatives. Polls showed big majorities of caucus-goers in 2008 made up their mind in the last month before the contest.

[McGavin999]

If neither Perry nor Bachmann names Cain what makes the MSM so sure they were taking a swipe at him. Sounds to me like the MSM is trying to stir things up.

[07Jack]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2796268/posts

The “Red State” article that was the subject of this thread discussed it and I have heard or saw it discussed in other articles and FR threads as well.

[CynicalBear]

And they all looked really pety doing it too. It wasn’t a debate after all.

[magritte]

I typically like to go to other sources besides FR...here’s a contemporaneous article that contradicts that assertion:

Ms. Griffin said a community meeting is planned for Friday to discuss the ad campaign. The key financial backer of America’s Pac is J. Patrick Rooney, 78, of Indianapolis. Mr. Rooney, a strong proponent of school choice scholarship programs, retired in 1996 as chairman of Golden Rule Insurance. The company was sold to larger insurer, United-Health Group, in 2003 for a reported $893 million.

According to a report filed with the Internal Revenue Service, a company reportedly tied to Mr. Rooney, Woodland Group LLC, gave $900,000 to America’s PAC earlier this year. Other donors chipped in about $32,000.

Mr. Rooney declined to be interviewed yesterday. The group referred calls from The New York Sun to a conservative, African-American talk show host who voiced some of the ads, Herman Cain.

“The main thing that America’s Pac is up to is it basically is challenging the thesis or the belief on the part of the Republican Party that they cannot attract the black vote,” Mr. Cain said. He said similar advertisements run in 2004 helped boost President Bush’s share of the black vote in Ohio to 16%, from 9% in 2000.

“We don’t believe that was an accident,” Mr. Cain said. The IRS filing indicates that the ads are running this year in 10 battleground states, including Ohio, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Mr. Cain, who once managed the Godfather’s Pizza chain and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate from Georgia in 2004, said he was not troubled that Mr. Rooney, who is white, is funding ads using black voices who claim to speak on behalf of the black community.”You don’t have a lot of black billionaires who would want to fund something like this,” he said.

America’s Pac is the brainchild of a Kansas-based Republican consultant, Richard Nadler.He said Sunday that he is no longer affiliated with the group.

http://www.nysun.com/national/republican-group-chides-democrats-with-abortion/41648/

[magritte]

I typically like to go to other sources besides FR...here’s a contemporaneous article that contradicts that assertion:

Ms. Griffin said a community meeting is planned for Friday to discuss the ad campaign. The key financial backer of America’s Pac is J. Patrick Rooney, 78, of Indianapolis. Mr. Rooney, a strong proponent of school choice scholarship programs, retired in 1996 as chairman of Golden Rule Insurance. The company was sold to larger insurer, United-Health Group, in 2003 for a reported $893 million.

According to a report filed with the Internal Revenue Service, a company reportedly tied to Mr. Rooney, Woodland Group LLC, gave $900,000 to America’s PAC earlier this year. Other donors chipped in about $32,000.

Mr. Rooney declined to be interviewed yesterday. The group referred calls from The New York Sun to a conservative, African-American talk show host who voiced some of the ads, Herman Cain.

“The main thing that America’s Pac is up to is it basically is challenging the thesis or the belief on the part of the Republican Party that they cannot attract the black vote,” Mr. Cain said. He said similar advertisements run in 2004 helped boost President Bush’s share of the black vote in Ohio to 16%, from 9% in 2000.

“We don’t believe that was an accident,” Mr. Cain said. The IRS filing indicates that the ads are running this year in 10 battleground states, including Ohio, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Mr. Cain, who once managed the Godfather’s Pizza chain and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate from Georgia in 2004, said he was not troubled that Mr. Rooney, who is white, is funding ads using black voices who claim to speak on behalf of the black community.”You don’t have a lot of black billionaires who would want to fund something like this,” he said.

America’s Pac is the brainchild of a Kansas-based Republican consultant, Richard Nadler.He said Sunday that he is no longer affiliated with the group.

http://www.nysun.com/national/republican-group-chides-democrats-with-abortion/41648/

[montag813]

It is SO painful to listen to Bachmann lately. She sounds so desperate and tired. I wish she would just get out already.

[07Jack]

“I typically like to go to other sources besides FR”

For your convenience I will provide a direct link to the article instead of the FR thread that was based on the article.

http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2011/10/21/a-mea-culpa-on-herman-cain-and-abortion/

[FreeReign]

If neither Perry nor Bachmann names Cain what makes the MSM so sure they were taking a swipe at him. Sounds to me like the MSM is trying to stir things up.

The media creates a lie about Cain.

A day latter, without using Cain's name, Perry criticizes the senario in that lie.

“It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life, but government should stay out of that decision. If that is your view, you are not pro-life,”

Perry is slime.

[rintense]

Exactly.

[rintense]

brilliant!

[UnwashedPeasant]

"I typically like to go to other sources besides FR...here’s a contemporaneous article that contradicts that assertion:"

I do not see anything remotely close to a contradiction from that article. If there is anything there suggesting Cain is not 1000 times more Pro-Life than Perry, please bold or highlight it for the rest of us.

[Cato in PA]

Yep, Michele has completely lost my respect. There was a story about her running out of money in late September, and as far as I’m concerned, she can’t hit rock bottom soon enough. I’m really starting to dislike her.

The only things keeping me from saying the same about Perry and Santorum are the flat tax and family values respectively, but I’m rapidly losing my patience. They shouldn’t be joining hands with the media to perpetuate a known lie.

If you know you’re on your way out, do what you can for the cause and take Romney with you.

[magritte]

Of course, Cain is NOT 1000 times more pro-life than Perry. That’s an unsupportable assertion. However, I have been told a number of times that Cain has spent $1,000,000 of his own money for pro-life. There is only sourcing to lifesite.news, which itself doesn’t not source it.

Do you have a source to that’s where and how Cain spent or contributed his $1,000,000 ?

[McGavin999]

Seems to me you are the one who is accusing Cain since neither Bachmann nor Perry named him, what makes you so sure they are talking about Cain unless YOU think that about him yourself. Otherwise there is no connection to Cain other then you mind making that connection.

[Pan_Yan]

Did you know that Michele Bachmann had five kids of her own and raised TWENTY THREE foster kids?? I heard that somewhere.

[FreeReign]

Your post is utter nonsense.

[rwfromkansas]

Cain isn’t perfect...he has had gaffes himself.

That said, he seems to at least learn from them. Bachmann, not so much.

I am Cain all the way.

I originally was for Perry, but the way he has attacked Cain....frankly, it would be hard to support him if he wins the nomination. I would because I don’t want Obama; it would not be easy the way he is so horrible to the other candidates.

[Diogenesis]

Romney is NOT the front runner, so this is Romney PROP.
Just another Team Romney DIRTY TRICK.

Backstabbing cowardly leper:
"Do your duty for me. Attack the woman and the black man.
You surrogates will embrace these attacks through the media,
as when you threw elections 2008 and 2010
to the DNC ….. for ME. FOR ME.
Create, then support, the most vicious anti-GOP attacks from our northern lands,
our bought media, and our plants within the Obama team.
I will gain GOP favor by condemning the very same attacks and
ordering them opposed from our lands in the south.
Whichever way the tide runs, we will arise and only I will be left standing.”

[MindBender26]

All this is meaningless. Like them as conservatives or not, Perry and Bachman are both very much yesterday’s news. 2012 is over for them.

[justsaynomore]

“What is the source for Cain spending a million of his own money? What did you do with it? Where did he give it?”

2006 - African American Businessman Spends 1M to Urge Blacks
to Vote Pro-Life

http://www.lifenews.com/2006/09/13/nat-2583/