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Poor Rick Perry. His "brain freeze" is indelible, otherwise it would forever be eclipsed by Herman Cain's more cringe-inducing meanderings on Libya. At a meeting with the editors of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cain was asked whether he agreed with President Barack Obama's handling of Libya. You would think he had been asked who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, Cain's joshing description of a prototypical gotcha foreign-policy question. What ensued was the longest five minutes of an editorial-board meeting ever. As the inspiring outsider-businessman, Cain needn't sound like he's auditioning for the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But...

GOP presidential candidate slams president's 'lazy' comment, economic policies

Playbook has the script of a new radio ad airing in South Carolina this week from the pro-Rick Perry super PAC Make Us Great Again, featuring praise from Rush Limbaugh and former Focus on the Family head James Dobson:

Gov. Rick Perry stated at the outset of his presidential campaign that he is running for president based on his principles and leadership accomplishments, not his oratorical skills. Media focus on his debate missteps deliberately ignores Perry's record and charisma. America's third president - Thomas Jefferson - was a lousy public speaker. He was literally a genius, and his singular eloquence as a writer is seen in his prose in the Declaration of Independence and other writings. But Jefferson was no speaker, so much so that he only gave a couple speeches in his entire two-term presidency. He was so...

Much has been made lately about Rick Perry's deep decline in Republican presidential polls over the past two months. However, it would be a very bad idea to count Perry out just yet. The reason? History. According to Real Clear Politics, on November 3rd, 2007, four years exactly to the day, Giuliani held a 13 point lead (29-16 percent) on former senator Fred Thompson, the second candidate in the top tier four years ago, was nowhere to be seen when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., captured the GOP nomination. The eventual nominee was stuck at 14 percent, while Romney sat in...

"Sarah Palin was presiding over a legislature in open warfare in 2007 over what would become her singular lawmaking legacy - a substantial boost in the petroleum profits tax that would force oil companies to share billions of dollars more of their profits with the state. Palin had initially proposed a modest hike, coupled with a crucial new "progressivity" component that jacked up the rate when oil prices rose above normal market levels. But her Democratic allies in the Legislature saw the chance to do more and raised it to 25%, with Palin's enthusiastic support."

The nation's high joblessness, already a problem for President Barack Obama as he seeks re-election next year, is shaping up to be a particular burden in a handful of key swing states where the unemployment rate is above the national average. In four states that may prove key to the Obama re-election strategy - Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Michigan - the jobless picture is bleak. In three of the four, the rate tops 10%. Amid signs that the recovery is stalling, Republicans have sharpened their focus on the jobs picture. No incumbent president since World War II has been...

Heavy industry in Europe faces a crippling bill for global warming. Lately, it seems, ever more people have been waking up to the almost unimaginable scale of this disaster now roaring down on us. As one power company last week raised its charges by an average £200 a year, it was claimed by the Global Warming Policy Foundation that a fifth of our soaring energy bills are now accounted for by the hidden subsidies and other costs imposed by the drive to "decarbonise" our electricity supplies. The GWPF has also published a magisterial paper by Lord Turnbull, who was head...

As Perry flirts with a White House run, Mitt Romney - the man who would be most threatened by a Perry candidacy - is making the tactical decisions of a front-runner. Romney announced that he'll skip the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa this summer. Perry shares many of Romney's major selling points: He's a smart, fiscally prudent pro-business guy with gubernatorial experience. Plus, he was in the Air Force, worked on the family cotton-farming business, and is a personal cheapskate - the campaign ads write themselves. And he's good at creating jobs, which is what Americans want regardless of party...

"What Republicans need is a candidate who is unabashedly conservative across the board, a savvy campaigner who does not make stupid mistakes, someone with no skeletons anywhere, a proven government executive who would hit the ground running as president, and a candidate who could very quickly and almost bloodlessly win the Republican nomination. Governor Perry is perfect for this mission. Consider the five criteria I listed. Is Perry conservative? He is a social and a fiscal conservative with a very long track record of walking the walk as well as talking the talk. In the fiscal area, think of Mitch...

While 29 percent named the economy as the most important problem, 26 percent said unemployment and lack of jobs, 13 percent the federal budget deficit, 11 percent government leadership or the lack of it and 10 percent poor healthcare or hospitals. Only 5 percent said education is the top issue, and 4 percent fuel prices or immigration, while hot-button social issues such as abortion, race relations and gay rights were at 1 percent or less.

The president has unveiled a plan to cut joblessness with an industrial policy from the 19th century. In this "new" economy, government will pick winners and losers for industry. It didn't work then, it won't work now. Taking a cue from classical Marxist theory as well as vintage union organizing doctrine, both discounting the value of service work over manufacturing, we now see President Obama touting training for factory jobs over all others, pushing government spending in that area and calling it a jobs recovery plan. It's as if all the economic knowledge acquired in the course of the 20th...

For years exponents of climate change theories have used images of deforestation to support their cause. However, the density of forests and woodland across much of the world is actually increasing, according to a respected scientific study. The change, which is being dubbed the 'Great Reversal', could be crucial in reducing atmospheric carbon, which is linked to climate change. In countries from Finland to Malaysia, the thickening has taken place so quickly that it has reversed the carbon losses caused by deforestation between 1990 and 2010. In Britain, forest density has increased by 10.8 per cent from 2000 to 2010...

Some of the most interesting developments in health care policy these days aren't taking place in Washington. They're taking place in Sacramento and the rest of California, where public officials, private sector leaders, and activists are working to implement the Affordable Care Act. California is not the only state moving aggressively to implement health care reform. For all of the news that opponents of the law have generated, several states have embraced it. Mostly it's more liberal states, like Maryland... But even some more conservative states are moving forward. ... the governor in Alabama has issued an executive order to...

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," the Republican said: "This administration' policy clearly has been to drive up the cost of energy so Americans would use less of it. That's environmental policy. That's not energy policy. But that's their policy. They think it will give you less pollution, make these alternative energy sources more competitive." "When Barack Obama became president gasoline was $1.80 a gallon," he added. "And now it's up to $4 a gallon.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delighted conservatives last week when he pledged to withdraw his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) of Northeastern states. Conservative delight, however, quickly turned to frustration as Christie emphasized he was merely taking issue with the political and economic mechanisms of RGGI, but did not disagree with the notion that humans are causing a global warming problem that needs to be addressed. "[W]hen you have over 90% of the world's scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role, it's time to defer to...

Donald Trump continued to dig into Barack Obama during his appearance at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's conference Friday, pointing to a major media bias when it comes to coverage of the president's mistakes. He also called attention to Obama's gaffs during his visit with Britain's royal family. "I watched the news the next day and they're saying, 'Isn't that cute?' 'Isn't that wonderful?' 'Oh that was so funny when he said that;' 'oh, oh, he's so smart;' 'It was so funny,'" Trump observed. He summed, "That's part of ... the problem that the Republicans are going to have. Nobody...

The Republican who wants to win would avoid talk of the costs that our spendthrift ways, particularly benefits like Social Security, are supposedly heaping on future generations. He would especially avoid painting images of the pain Americans feel at burdening their children and grandchildren. This high-minded talk, rooted in fantasy, isn't going to warm the hearts of voters of mature age—and they are legion—who feel no such pain. None. The Republican who wins will have to know, and show that he knows, that most Americans aren't sitting around worried to death about big government - they're worried about jobs and...

The Public Policy Polling sampling showed: Obama 54 percent, Mitt Romney 40 percent. Obama 55, Sarah Palin 35. Obama 49, Tim Pawlenty 37. Obama 54, Newt Gingrich 33. Obama 50, Herman Cain 32.

In the first town hall of his freshly announced presidential campaign, Mitt Romney yesterday reaffirmed his view that global warming is occurring and that humans are contributing to it, a position that has been rejected in recent years by many Republicans as the issue has taken on a greater partisan tinge. "I don't speak for the scientific community, of course," Romney said. "But I believe the world's getting warmer. I can't prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that . . ....