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Subscribe to RSSPolitico takes a look at the cool reception leading GOP candidates have received among the GOP intelligentsia. Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, tells Politico, “It just does seem to be a little crazy in a year when you have a chance to win the presidency that a lot of leading lights aren’t putting themselves forward.” Kristol had been outspoken in calls for Paul Ryan to run. (Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin and the chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced Monday he would not run.) Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist at the New York Times, ties dissatisfaction with the GOP field to a void left early on in the race, by another would-be candidate: “All this comes back to the failure of Mitch Daniels to get into the race,” Douthat tells Politico. Daniels, the governor of Indiana, announced in late May he wouldn’t run for president.
(Honest question, though, does anyone really think Ryan or Daniels would have the enthusiasm behind their runs to win a GOP primary?)
BACHMANN: Bachmann’s Thursday appearance at a town hall in North Charleston, S.C., remains on the schedule despite a forecast for high winds and heavy rain in the Mid-Atlantic region late this week when Hurricane Irene is expected to arrive, per NBC’s Jamie Novogrod. NBC’s Ali Weinberg reports organizers will review plans Wednesday, and determine whether to postpone the event.
The Washington Examiner reports Bachmann will unveil a health-care plan in the coming weeks.
HUNTSMAN: According to a Salt Lake Tribune blog post… At a fundraiser in Utah this week Jon Huntsman described his GOP opponents, "You stand up on stage in the debate like we did the other night and look around and say, 'Whoa, where'd these folks come from? What an interesting assortment of characters!'" Huntsman also played off August as a "dead month" and expects things to move faster soon. "The drama of today is temporary, it's emphemeral and it passes," the paper’s Robert Gehrke quoted Huntsman saying.
PERRY: The Hill: “The campaign of Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is being hounded by statements made by Rick Perry.” In his book, “Fed Up! he argued, “Perry argues that the federal government should repeal the 16th amendment - which grants Congress wide leeway to levy income taxes - and institute instead a ‘flat tax’ that would tax all Americans at the same rate, regardless of income. But a Perry spokesman conceded Monday that dramatic income tax reform was likely a non-starter, according to the Washington Post.”
Reuters writes that, despite Perry's hard opening push in New Hampshire, "the tough-talking Texan will struggle to win support in this early-voting state."
The Texas Tribune sees few fundraising hurdles for Perry, despite the additional regulations placed on federal candidates that the Texas governor has not faced before.
Jeb Bush yesterday pushed back on the narrative that his family and Perry's don't get along. "I’ve never heard anyone in my family say anything but good things about Rick Perry," he said. "Not with my brother, my dad, not with me at all. I admire him and I think Texas has got a great story and he can legitimately talk about that story as a candidate for president."
Perry is wooing Iowa supporters of NJ Gov. Chris Christie, writes RealClearPolitics.
The Washington Post: "In his nearly 11 years as the state’s chief executive, Perry, now running for the Republican presidential nomination, has overseen more executions than any governor in modern history: 234 and counting."
ROMNEY: The Boston Globe writes of his September jobs plan release: “Romney, who has kept a low profile and not offered specific proposals, is attempting to seize control of what has been the central tenet of his presidential campaign: his message to Republican primary voters that his business background is what gives him the edge against Obama. The candidacy of Texas Governor Rick Perry threatens to steal that message, as he boasts that his state has created about 4 out of every 10 jobs in America over the past two years. Like Romney, Perry has tried to focus tightly on job creation as he outlines his campaign, with a mantra that Romney is also adopting: ‘Get America working again.’” More: “Romney has kept to a fairly low-key strategy, but his advisers have been promising that his approach would shift after Labor Day, when they suggest more voters will begin paying attention.”
“Ten days after Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign ended in Ames, one of the former governor’s top strategists, Minnesota GOP heavyweight Vin Weber, is rejoining forces with Pawlenty rival Mitt Romney,” the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. “Weber, the former Minnesota congressman, Washington lobbyist, and consigliere to former President George W. Bush, served as policy chairman to Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.” The Romney campaign this morning announced the news.
Romney has three events today, per NBC’s Garrett Haake, starting in Southwest New Hampshire and working his way north.
SANTORUM: The AP reports that Rick Santorum will visit South Carolina on Thursday and Friday, making stops in the Upstate areas of Lake Wylie, Greenville and Spartanburg. NBC’s Ali Weinberg notes that Santorum returns to the state just two days after Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) excluded the former senator from participating in his Palmetto Freedom Forum event on Labor Day, because Santorum had not reached 5 percent in an average of national opinion polls.
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Candidate Rick Perry is being totally vetted for high office by a hostile press and his competitors for the GOP nomination.
A process that somehow never occurred in 2007-08 with the 'annointed' Barack Obama.
How quickly they forget..."palling around with terrorists","sat in Rev Wright's church for 20 years","his wife isn't proud of her country","rainbows and unicorns","where is the birth certificate?"... I fired ABC News after a debate where Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos spent twenty minutes asking Barack Obama if he loved his country. Oh, that liberal media.
Ha Katie Couric had to vet Palin with one simple question "what newspapers do you read" one simple question and the wheels came off, I guess republicans learned something from that right. Yeah they learned to hide from that mean old Katie, and to repeat their talking points even if they don't remotely address a question being asked.
Your responses did not and cannot dispute the fact that Obama got a free pass from the mainstream media during his 2008 campaign.
Where's Perry today?
I don't think Mr. Perry will be winning a Pulitzer prize for the great piece of literature he "wrote", Fed Up! I find it hillarious how this D minus student is now running away from his fiction.
Oh, I guess Perry learned that Federal Election Law doesn't allow him to directly take
bribescampaign contributions in exchange forkickbacksissuing grants.Bob-numbers: exactly what do you call reporting on the links to domestic bomber Ayers, Acorn, Rev. Wright, "community organizer" and the other attacks in the media ? I guess they could not attack his intelligence, so they attempted to attack him for people he met and had some minor connections with.
It could be worse, President Obama could have been from Texas. ;D
Nobody gets a bigger free pass than a republican candidate interviewed on Fox Bob. Even Fox could not save Palin from herself, say what you want but Obama did not destroy himself and he was vetted, by everyones campaign looking for something to bring him down, they did not shut up about the stupid birth certificate until Obama finally shoved it up Trump's ass. Not questioned, not vetted, liberal lamestream media, give me a break Bob, you are at least six months behind on your Fox talking points, what are you down to watching old episodes of Glen Beck on DVR.
Bob - Get over it.....and move on....you sound bitter.
Fox (aka tea people GOP propaganda machine) can't save any of the tea people GOP candidates from themselves, as long as their stumbling all over themselves trying to impress the uneducated tea people.
Believe me - the Clintons vetted our President more than anyone else.
Perry wrote a book about 10 months ago and is now backing away from it. Why? Because what he truly believes in, the American people do not. He will be changing his stance on a lot of issues that may show that he is a bigger Flip Flopper than Romney.
GOP intelligentsia
There is an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
It seems that part of the GNOP's manifesto is Pro-Life - Pro Execution!
There's something to be proud of. Along with being ranked last in every economic and social measure as the governor of Texas. Let's give him the keys to the federal government. Sure that would work out well.
Bob, both had written books that voters can read. Perry's book "Fed Up" lays out his extreme positions on income taxes, SS and Medicare etc. Again, Perry is a tea party guy with a cowboy hat. He might appeal to an extreme base in the primaries but nationally he will be seen as a "favorite son " from Texas. The nation will not chose another Texan for president in 2012.
That is extreme positions to YOU. You're not the vote he is going after. He is not trying to please Democrats. That is something you all do not seem to understand. Democrats are not voting for him anyway, so why bother even trying to please them?
YOU do not know what will happen in the general election. 45% is going to vote R, 45% will vote D....that is already decided. The 10% that is confused can go either way. They won't make up their minds until Oct 2012.
ItM, TX: you are probably right about the independents. However, your numbers fail to take into account that the TeaParty faction is driving more and more intelligent people away from the Republican brand. Funny thing about independent voters, unlike the TeaParty, they actually do read and think.
Maybe that's what Perry's campaign is all about, he doesn't really want to be President, he prefers to get his kickbacks and run Texas. He just wants to sell more books. Maybe he's hoping for a longterm stint on Fox News, kind of like Sarah Palin.
In the middle, what do you think about republicans losing district 26 in new york, or people not even waiting for the next election and recalling republicans in WI, btw no dems were recalled.
InTheMiddle TX - Texas isn't in the middle of anything....that's why you don't think his ideology is extreme. However, I will tell you that for most Americans and that includes Republicans as well...this guy if off the cattle ranch and on the funny farm. He's almost certifiable....Americans are tired of the Texas gun slinger with that annoying drawl and little to know visible intelligence.
laurie: Its not the Texas accent, its the Longhorn cowpies that keep coming out of his mouth that bother me.
After electing the likes of George W. Bush and Rick Perry as governor, is it any wonder that the rest of the country is starting to truly believe that Texas has a majority of idiots ?
You're right ITM, but you do realize the rest of the country is watching, and making up their minds for the general. Your also right he doesn't have to please the Democrats. But he'd better please some one other than the tea people GOP, that's only going to get him about 11% if that much.
X
Pretty obvious to me what’s going on with all the GOP candidates coming out of the woodwork lately. Keep in mind, too, that none of them really offer anything other than “Obama sucks, because….” Rather than “I’m the best choice, because….”.
It gets them on TV and other public forums, so they can have so much more coverage of their never-ending, never-deviating talking points about Obama and Democrats. Think about it: A No Jo or a JAS1 or a Spankie or any other malcontent can easily post their negative comments on blogs like this one, but that’s about it. They have no access to Fox, CNN, MSNBC, your local TV station, your local state fair, Hannity, Limbaugh, Medved, Boortz, etc. etc. etc. Even if they could, the posters couldn’t afford all the road trips and public appearances it would take to get it done. These ‘candidates’ can, however, via donations to their ‘campaigns’. To witt: One Sarah Palin. Not even declared, yet on the road constantly, getting all that coverage of her saying “Obama sucks, because…..” Instead of “I’m your gal, because……”.
How do you combat it? Not sure- but a vigilant, constant, well-reasoned challenging of the daily nonsense as you hear it and read it seems at least like the minimum we can all do.
Now- somebody change the subject to ‘Buzz is an idiot’ or ‘Obama took some vacation days’ or something……
"a vigilant, constant, well-reasoned challenging of the daily nonsense as you hear it and read it seems at least like the minimum we can all do."
yeah, all you 'grassroots folks', paid by George Soros...
Hey Bob-numbers, do you know how I can get paid ? I keep hearing people say that the Democrats can get paid for posting, how do I do that ? In the economy being destroyed by the TeaPublican House, I could use any extra cash I can get.
And all you tin hatters who think we're all cashing Soros checks. You're sucking up too much Koch there bob.
Oh Bob it is not just Soro's you forgot about all those union dues, and welfare checks donated to Obama and the democrats. Ha you are ate up buddy.
Still no response from Bob, and I could really use the money.
Bob
Well, technically I am a paid blogger, as I post comments here in between my office tasks. (Should I admit that?)
But you couldn't pay me to support the Republican Party, and I'd do just about anything for money :)
Amy, my vacation was great in Maine, you were kind enough to allow good weather.
Nice to help support the Maine economy, which hopefully will help re-elect the great Governor , LePage!
Somebody's cashing Soros' checks, or if they are leftist enough, are sending their resume in.
Individual donations to 527 organizations (2001 to 2010)
George Soros: $32.5 million
Koch Brothers: $1.5 million
George Soros founded the Open Society Institute which is his primary philanthropy organization. According to the website, "The Open Society Foundations fund a range of programs around the world, from public health to education to business development." While the foundation spends much of its resources on democratic causes around the world, OSI has also contributed to political advocacy groups such as the Tides Foundation. In 2004, Soros pledged $3 million to the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress. Soros is also a major financial backer of the Democracy Alliance, an organization committed to drive progressive activist funding and the recently formed Institute for New Economic Thinking, which was jump started by a $50 million pledge from Soros.
If the economy doesn't improve, Obama could be beaten by a platypus. 2012 = Agent P. v. President Doofenschmirtz.
LOL.... now if only the GOP could come up with someone half as intelligent as Agent P or Phineas & Ferb, that person could win the general election. All they would have to do is pretend to be an idiot to get the GOP nomination first.
So Scott your praying the economy doesn't improve? How patriotic of you. You tea people could care less about your fellow citizens.
Mo-1852032
You tea people could care less about your fellow citizens.
What makes you say that, I am curious. There are thousand of Tea Party Members and yet you talk about them as if they are one. The movement is filled with people from all walks of life, and is not controlled by party affiliation. Trying to demonized them, trying to pigeon hold them, only makes them more determined to go out and do their patriotic duty. I applaud them.
To say that The Tea Party could care less about American citizens, is disingenuous at best.