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New York Times columnist David Brooks often receives the scorn of many conservatives for taking positions contrary to ideology in the name of moderation and smart politics. But what did Brooks think of Herman Cain’s Web ad featuring his campaign manager smoking a cigarette at the end of it? Brooks’ impression might surprise some. In his regular appearance on Friday’s PBS “NewsHour,” host Judy Woodruff inquired about the ad and Brooks all but gave it two-thumbs up. “My heart melts for that smile,” Brooks said. “I just I like it. Everybody is going crazy, ‘Oh, it’s terrible.’ First of all,...

While Herman Cain's viral Web ad — in which chief of staff Mark Block pointedly takes a drag from a cigarette after extolling the presidential candidate's virtues — might have raised eyebrows among political strategists and heckles in Internet comment sections, the ad seems to have also raised the rate at which the insurgent campaign is bringing in fundraising dollars. Cain has brought in nearly $2 million within the last week alone, nearly doubling his weekly returns earlier this month, his campaign told The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Cain only brought in $2.8 million over the entire third quarter....

... Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him. Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years to settle accusations he coordinated a judge's re-election campaign with a special interest group. Records show Block has faced foreclosure on his home, a tax warrant by the Internal Revenue Service and a lawsuit for an unpaid bill. He...

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan says he “loves” presidential candidate Herman Cain’s signature “9-9-9″ tax plan. Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan shows the GOP presidential campaign season has entered into a more advanced stage where ideas — not just personalities — have come to the forefront. “We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said. “I’m more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.” The budget chairman went on to say that ideas like Cain’s plan could help shape the debate over tax reform moving into...

Businessman Herman Cain, the upstart newcomer in the 2012 Republican primary field, has a new title: serious candidate for president. Once viewed as an interesting if provocative also-ran, Cain has elbowed his way to front-of-the-pack status with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the result of several strong debate appearances, a commanding victory in the Florida GOP straw poll last month, and a stubborn reluctance by conservative voters to accept Romney. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows the former Godfather’s Pizza executive tied with Perry in second place, with 17 percent of the vote, one of several recent surveys catapulting...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in an interview with the Daily Caller today that he “loves” the 999 Plan proposed by presidential candidate Herman Cain, in which the federal tax system would be reduced to a 9% income tax, 9% corporate tax, and 9% sales tax. Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan shows the GOP presidential campaign season has entered into a more advanced stage where ideas — not just personalities — have come to the forefront.“We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said. “I’m more of...

WASHINGTON America’s second black president was lost in a gaggle of fans. With uncharacteristic bravado, I pushed aside the acolytes, shouldered my way to the centre of the huddle, and told the object of all the attention that he should look closely at the name card that was pinned to the jacket of my suit. “Meet your running mate!” I announced. Herman Cain turned around. “Cain and Abel!” bellowed the preacher’s son and pizza magnate from Georgia. “Ha! That’s good!” “I AM over thirty-five, sir,” I stated, in all seriousness. (This is one of the constitutional requirements to serve as...

Lots of buzz about this among political junkies on Twitter tonight, mostly of the so-bad-it’s-good variety. Is the image of this guy taking a soothing drag on camera after 40 seconds of ad-tastic exertion really that strange and transgressive? Cain’s campaign is all about unapologetic populist authenticity, and there’s nothing more unapologetically, authentically populist than defiantly lighting one up when the mood strikes, politesse be damned. As the man says, “We’ve run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen.” If you’ve got a problem with casual smoking during presidential spots, well, that only proves what an uptight establishment RINO you really...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is sure to be heard a lot more in the coming days as he's purchased a 50-state commercial campaign on the No. 1 radio show in America, hosted by Rush Limbaugh. "It's actually 57 states, but who's counting?" joked Limbaugh today, poking fun at Barack Obama's flub during the 2008 campaign when the then-Illinois senator said he had campaigned in 57 states and still had a few more to go. "It doesn't mean that we've endorsed Herman Cain, and it doesn't mean that we're not gonna talk about anybody else," Limbaugh stressed. "Romney can buy...

>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Herman Cain, by the way, continues to do well in the polls. Several hit pieces on him and his staff are out this morning. From the New York Times: "As Cain Promotes Management Skills, Ex-Aides Tell of Chaos." The article goes on to say Herman "Cain's presidential campaign has generated much promise ... But Mr. Cain’s campaign may have undermined itself with questionable decisions and a series of missteps," and there's also this love note from the AP: "Top Cain Aide Has Checkered Past." The AP goes on to say, "Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager....

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity. Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want you to hear these sound bites. The media is going nuts over the Herman Cain ad. First, here is a montage from yesterday and last night, and the reaction, the State-Run Media hyperventilating over Herman Cain's smoking ad. It tells you so much about how insane our society has become about smoking and political correctness. There is a humorless doom-and-gloomism out there, and if you drag on cigarette, if you show a picture of somebody dragging on -- I mean Hollywood is famous, everybody in every movie it seems smokes. Have you noticed? You can't...

Get-Out-The-Vote Rallies, and other events with Herman Cain OK - Oct. 26, 6-8pm - An Evening with Herman Cain Hosted by Americans for Prosperity Jim Thorpe Museum & Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. Tickets and more information: http://soonerdinner2010.eventbrite.com/ GA - Oct. 29, 7pm - LIVE Herman Cain Show Take Back Our Government Tour Duluth Town Green - 3578 W Lawrenceville St Duluth, GA 30096-3235 FL - Oct. 30, 12pm - Herman Cain, other speakers and candidates Across Florida - GOTV Rally Spencer Farm , Middleburg, FL Cost: Free Register at: http://www.thehermanatorpac.com/jacksonville MI - Oct. 31, 12pm - Herman Cain and...

Can Cain Do It?He's running a non-traditional campaign. As Herman Cain rises in the polls, Beltway Republicans are wondering whether he is running a “serious” campaign, complete with bustling staffers, field organizers, and national money raisers. His recent bus tour around Tennessee and northern Virginia, hawking his latest hardcover, has only increased chatter about his efforts in early primary states, which appear lackadaisical. But behind Cain’s bookstore stops, his political team is building — just not in usual frontrunner fashion. Instead of betting the campaign on Iowa, or another winter primary, his small team of advisers is attempting to play...

(Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Herman Cain's quirky "smoking ad" may have mystified many Americans, but according to a new Reuters/Ipsos online poll, it has drawn a sharp line between Republicans who identify with the Tea Party and those who don't. The ad, which shows Cain's chief of staff Mark Block puffing on a cigarette for no apparent reason, created enormous Internet buzz this week.Six in 10 of those who strongly identify with the conservative Tea Party movement said they loved or liked the ad.An almost equal percentage of people who self-identified as mainstream Republicans either disliked or hated it.

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral. "We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain." Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party

Herman Cain is entrusting a lean campaign staff with minimal presidential experience to translate his rising support in the GOP primary into victory at the polls. That staff is led by Mark J. Block, 57, the chief political strategist and campaign manager all rolled into one whose expertise is in grass-roots organizing. His last significant role on a presidential campaign was in 1988, when he served as the Wisconsin executive director of George Bush’s campaign. The campaign doesn’t work with a pollster and has no plans to hire one, still lacks a dedicated fundraiser and recently hired a communications director...

The Herman Cain campaign has raked in at least $3 million in October, says chief of staff Mark Block. That bests Cain's fundraising tally for the entire third quarter of 2011. Herman Cain may be an unconventional presidential candidate, but he’s proving a time-honored convention in politics: buzz brings cash. Since the start of October, donors have given more than $3 million to the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, according to his chief of staff, Mark Block, speaking on CNN Thursday night. That’s more than the $2.8 million Mr. Cain brought in for the entire third quarter of 2011. Cain...

Herman Cain has raised more than $3 million in the month of October, campaign strategist Mark Block told CNN. Continue Reading "It’s over $3 million," Block said in an interview with Erin Burnett. "We’re well over 65,000 [donors.] So we’ve actually doubled in little over a month. That’s what we’re seeing in our grassroots activism growth and obviously in the YouTube thing." The "YouTube thing" refers, of course, to this. Cain's $3 million intake is more than he raised in the whole third quarter of the year, and gives him resources to spring for paid media and step up his...

Blowing SmokeWith a politically incorrect puff, Mark Block lights up the presidential race. As I strolled up First Street, I spotted him immediately. Mark Block, as he likes to say, was “being Block.”He was smoking.To be exact, he was puffing a Marlboro Light. And like most in Washington, he was doing it outside on a Wednesday afternoon, banished from the indoors.As Block paced, a drizzle began. Others took cover. Block lit up another cigarette, gripping an iPhone to his ear as he circled his campaign papers, which were piled in binders on the pavement.When the drops fell harder, he picked...