Summary: It was a make or break for a number of candidates last night. All but out of the running are Bachman, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul. Moving up is Huntsman, leading is Romney, followed by Cain. And the man who only recently surged into the lead, Gov. Rick Perry, looks like he will be joining the bottom of pack.
Herm Cain had the look of a victor going into the debate, but he emerged weaker and his plans embattled. Cain recently captured the attention of the Tea Party as he displaced Rick Perry, but last night his soaring numbers took a big hit. It was not his best performance and he looked like he may not be ready for the job. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan leaves a lot to be desired, and it came under fire last night by several of the candidates. Bachman said, “When you turn on it on its head the devil is in the details.” That quip brought more than a chuckle from the group and Cain didn’t like it and it showed. Few people are ready for his national sales tax and according to some economists, Cain’s plan will fall woefully short of the revenue necessary to run the nation, even with significant cost cuts and new consumption tax. Cain strongly disagrees, saying his plan will stimulate the economy and he’s betting that by expanding the economic base this will increase tax revenue enough to make it work.
Romney has been the steady Eddie in this race from day one. He’s the only one with a real campaign structure and he’s been improving his game and looking more presidential with each passing debate. Cain came across too angry when his 999 plan was being chided. Overall Cain’s plans and his performance lost him some of his momentum last night.
Romney was the winner and he is proving to America he has the kind business savvy and political background the great middle can vote for and feel safe. By contrast Cain would be a huge gamble. Cain simply has too many unknowns and the last thing voters need coming off the greatest recession in our history is more risk from an untested candidate sitting in the White House (again).
The big question now in the time remaining, will Cain be able to sell his ideas to the public as reasonable and workable and retake the lead? If he can, he may edge out Romney, but my guess is we’re looking at Romney in 2012 and if this is the way it plays out he’s on track to unseat Obama. There’s the bottom line, which candidate can take out Obama? Romney looks like the man.
Cain is far from out and Romney is far from winning.
Toby I hope you are right, but it looks like we have got ourselves another establishment moderate to run simply because he can grab the great middle of voters. If Cain is to have a prayer we’ll know in the next couple of weeks.
Romney, as Obama was, is the perfect establishment candidate. He uses lots and lots of words and says absolutely nothing except that he has had a job and is looking for another gig. Anyone else saying nothing would have exited the arena sometime ago. The only poll I see him winning is the Fox News poll. He did nothing to lose last night because no one else is set up to win by the media and the establishment. Romney says he can work with good Democrats so does that indicate he and Pelosi get their marching orders from the same group? I have yet to decide who is more chauvinistic Romney or Santorum. Gingrich has been humbled so his act has toned done but he could not win. Cain is the only one with a workable plan but he is not articulate enough to sell it or to win. Bachman is just a Romney stand-in. Why is Huntsman still there? At least Gov. Johnson could get a laugh. Perry should have stayed in Texas.
Cain Leapfrogs Romney to Vault to Lead in Poll
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/12/cain-vaults-to-lead-in-poll/#ixzz1ades9RQY
This was Wed night. We will not be sold who the Left wants us to run, it will not happen.
That’s interesting and thanks for sending it Toby, I’m not against Cain, don’t get me wrong. I’m just calling it like I see it. My take is Cain is a long shot and he ran into trouble during the last debate. I know that some will disagree with me, but that’s what opinions are all about. I saw it one way, somebody else might see it another. I think Cain is going to have a real hard sell with his 9-9-9 plan and I honestly think even if he was elected that it would never fly. There are just too many unknowns with it, its way too rough and besides that, did you know it imposes a stiff tax on social security recipients in addition to the tax they already pay? That’s not going to win over their vote.
…why do you say Ron Paul lost? That is ridiculous. An obvious bias.
“Bachman said, “When you turn on it on its head the devil is in the details.” That quip brought more than a chuckle from the group and Cain didn’t like it and it showed.”
I saw that, and found it absolutely hilarious. My mom actually brought the whole “6-6-6” thing to my attention a few days ago, and I told her, “You know if Cain were a liberal Michele Bachmann would be ALL OVER that.” But I didn’t actually expect her to use that against Cain in a debate. Good to know she’s an equal opportunity evangelical nutcase.
I hope Cain can hang in there. The 9-9-9 plan is a proposal; Cain knows it is a proposal. He knows if he is elected the Congress will, if they take it seriously, make his plan into something different. At least I think we could count on him to use the veto pen if they created a monster.
9-9-9 puts the current tax code on the table and that’s a very good thing.
Ron Paul is serving the country well by pushing into the conversation all that’s wrong with our economic and tax systems and the proper solutions to consider.
It doesn’t matter much who won this debate. It’s still early.
I liked this round table format but would have preferred different moderators.