Free Republic

While former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain’s poll numbers have been sky-high in recent weeks, the honeymoon may soon be over for him, says Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume. “The abortion blunder was inexplicable,” Hume continued. “It doesn’t walk it back when you say it ought to be the person’s choice but it is also illegal. I’m sorry — that doesn’t help. I suspect Herman Cain may have peaked and may begin to decline.”

Whatever questions come flying at Herman Cain at Tuesday’s night Republican debate in Las Vegas, there is one big one he has to answer: Are you serious? It is a measure of Cain’s success that anyone would care to ask. For much of this year Cain seemed to be enjoying his role as political novelty act — an entertaining sideshow at debates, and even an occasional presence on the early-state campaign trail — when he wasn’t otherwise occupied with speeches, television appearances and book-tour publicity. But now that Cain, buoyed by bulging poll numbers, is demanding to be viewed as...

The real political defect of the Cain plan is that it imposes a new national sales tax while maintaining the income tax. Mr. Cain's rates are seductively low, but the current income tax was introduced in 1913 with a top rate of 7% amid promises that it would never exceed 10%. By 1918 the top rate was 77%. Part of Mr. Cain's appeal is his willingness to challenge political convention, and he certainly has with his tax proposal. Voters like that he isn't a lifetime politician but a successful business owner who has met a payroll and created jobs. But...

WASHINGTON — Republican White House hopeful Rick Perry tried to revive his campaign Friday but got dragged into a religious row and saw a plea to Christian voters drowned out by fast-rising longshot Herman Cain. Perry, who exploded into the White House race in August but has since fallen back after wobbly debate performances, sought to win over evangelical Christian conservative voters, a crucial bloc in the party nominating contest.

Now that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has announced he will not seek the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, all of the Republican donors, elected officials, and party activists pining for a savior to jump into the race must face the reality that the field is set. They need to channel Stephen Stills: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” No doubt the fundraisers for Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are tying up the phone lines into New York’s financial district, wooing donors who had either been holding out for Christie or had used...

As the debates rage on among GOP presidential hopefuls, one particular issue has caught my attention. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has entered a particularly bitter battle with Gov. Rick Perry over his 2007 executive order requiring that all sixth-grade Texas girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is a risk factor for developing cervical cancer.

My good friends John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson offer eulogies for the Tim Pawlenty presidential campaign today at Power Line, and as usual, they are quite insightful. Scott says that Pawlenty’s descent started when he backed down from challenging Mitt Romney in an earlier debate, and notes that Republicans in this cycle want a fighter. John laments the loss of the one candidate he thought could easily beat Barack Obama based on his record, and says that Pawlenty never got past “the first impression of him as just another guy in a suit.” Both are fair conclusions, and be sure...

.......Perry, who served with Pawlenty on the executive council of the Republican Governors Association working to elect more Republican governors across the country, said they had traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan together and "spent a lot of quality personal time." "He is one of my favorite governors out there, not only because of what a Republican governor did in a pretty blue state, but also in a personal way. He is one of the funniest guys I've ever been around in my life and I just love him," Perry said, adding that they often "joke and poke each other." Perry...

‘If Jeb Bush’s name were Jeb Smith, he’d be the next president of the United States,” says Texas governor Rick Perry, and then there’s a long pause in the conversation to let pass the unspoken corollary: “And if Rick Perry were the governor of Florida . . . ” People constantly ask Governor Perry if he’s thinking about running for president. In fact, they ask him if he’s thinking about running for president so often that by now he almost certainly must be thinking about running for president, even if he wasn’t thinking about it before. He plays down that...

Rick Perry who just announced his candidacy received more votes than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. How much longer can Palin just drive around the country not doing much of anything and still expect to run for POTUS? A potential candidate without the organization to even manage 100 write in votes looks really really bad.