“Yesterday, radio talk show host Sean Hannity asked the former House Speaker what he ‘made of the ups and downs in this (Republican presidential) race.’
“Gingrich responded by saying he felt that ‘most Republicans, probably 70% of them, know that they want someone other than Romney but they don’t have anybody’ and that that is why the race has seen so many candidates pull up in the polls and then fall.'”
“According to the NBC/WSJ poll, this is pretty fascinating: Cain over-performs vs. Romney in the GOP horse race among high-interest Republican voters, men, those 55-plus, Republicans who have college educations, Tea Party supporters, and those who identify themselves as ‘very conservative.’ Where Romney over-performs: less-interested voters, women, non-Tea Party Republicans, and moderate/liberal Republicans. In fact, re-read the responses from the RE-interviews: These are folks who ARE watching the debates and who are paying attention to the day-to-day campaign. These numbers are yellow flags that border on red for Romney. Why? He’s being propped up by folks who simply are familiar with him, not those who are actively following the campaign. Ouch.”
“Businessman Herman Cain has shot to the top of the polls with support from Tea Party members, but his backing of the Troubled Asset Relief Program and opposition to auditing the Federal Reserve could hurt him with those same voters…
“‘Among the Tea Party audience, the TARP bailout is something they’re adamantly against, and they’re going to absolutely need to hear more from him on this issue to be comfortable with him,’ said Russell. ‘I don’t know one Tea Party activist who’d say it’s a bad idea to audit the Fed, that’s not a popular position for him to be staking out.'”
“[Paul] Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan is a good starting point for debate, and 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.’…
“Kevin Seifert, a spokesman for Ryan, clarified late Thursday that the budget committee chairman was not endorsing Cain or the specifics of the 9-9-9 plan, but rather that he loved that it was becoming ‘a starting point for a larger conversation on tax reform.'”
“The 9-9-9 plan is … calling for a 9 percent rate for business taxes, personal income taxes, and a national sales tax. First of all, the numbers don’t add up. Either government services will be savaged or we’ll run an unthinkable deficit. And again, middle- and lower-income people will be crushed, even worse than under Phase 1. Most poor and many working-class people pay no income tax (they do, of course, pay payroll taxes). But under Cain’s plan, they would pay. And the wealthy would pay far, far, far less than they do now. Far, far, far less than George W. Bush ever dreamed of making them pay.
“Cain would say: But I get rid of payroll taxes. Fine. That saves an average taxpayer about $3,000. But it also means there is no Social Security, since that is how Social Security is financed. So the taxpayer would probably plow most of that back into a private retirement account anyway. Then, she pays a 9 percent tax on everything she buys. What people buy, from food to entertainment to what have you, usually amounts to 60 percent or more of their income…
“Ah, but if you think that’s a lot of sales tax, just wait till you hear about Phase 3. This last phase ends 9-9-9 and imposes a (get this name) ‘Fair Tax’ — a 30 percent sales tax on all goods and services. The theory here is that prices will fall. Another part of the theory, which proponents don’t mention quite as often, is that wages would fall, too. And all that’s on top of spending $130 for a $100 pair of sneakers for your teenager, or $780 for a $600 television.”
“The pizza magnate’s ascension has been the product of his well-honed outsider’s shtick, his stirring personal story and his charisma. It’s a package that resonates with Tea Party activists who are searching for a Romney alternative. ‘Black walnut isn’t a flavor of the week,’ he declared. But the attributes that lend power to his candidacy–including his unwillingness to play by, or even pay attention to, Washington’s rules–will almost certainly derail his chances of winning the GOP nomination…
“You can win the hearts of the Tea Party with sloganeering. But pabulum about common-sense solutions won’t be enough to singularly carry Cain through a campaign. ‘So, it is not simple, is what you are saying?’ Cain pressed Romney. If fixing America’s books were simple, it could be done around the proverbial kitchen table everyone keeps yammering about. It isn’t. Cain’s determination to pretend otherwise is one of the main reasons his campaign is likely to repeat the parabola traced by the likes of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, fellow sensations who started off strong but have faded once voters took a longer look.”
Via Greg Hengler.
Via the Daily Caller.
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