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Subscribe to RSSCOLUMBIA, SC -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are statistically tied among South Carolina voters who have made up their minds as to whom they'll support in the state's Republican primary, a Clemson University poll found Wednesday.
But more than two-thirds -- 68 percent -- of likely South Carolina voters, most of whom were frequent GOP primary voters, have said they have not made up their mind in the primary, underscoring the fluidity in the Republican campaign in the Palmetto State.
As for those who have decided: If the primary were today, 22 percent expressed a preference for Romney, while 20 percent picked Herman Cain, a statistical tie well within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 27th and Nov. 7th, during which news broke of Cain’s sexual harassment allegations. It was completed, however, before Cain’s press conference last night denying the charges from Sharon Bialek, the first woman to publicly accuse him.
“I think the picture [of Cain] is much different with each passing day,” Republican consultant and Clemson political science professor Dave Woodard said.
The poll found former Speaker Newt Gingrich in third, at 10 percent. Texas Gov. Rick Perry took 9 percent while Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum all polled below 5 percent. More likely voters, however, insisted they were undecided –- 31 percent -– when asked whom they'd vote for today.
Woodard said he was not surprised by the high number of undecided voters, noting that at this point in 2007, Mitt Romney also led the Clemson poll although he finished fourth in the primary the following year.
He also pointed out that because South Carolina’s January primary comes so soon after the winter holidays, voters might not start tuning in until the week before the vote.
“We’re having a Saturday primary on the 21st and I wouldn’t be surprised if we have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday deciders,” Woodard said. He added that Clemson would conduct two more primary polls, one in December and one in January before the primary.
The co-author of a book with Sen. Jim DeMint, Woodard said that DeMint will likely stick to his decision, reported earlier this week, not to endorse a presidential candidate.
“He’s just not the kind of guy who says something like that and changes his mind,” Woodard said. “If there’s one thing about Jim DeMint, when he says he’s not going to endorse anybody, he’s not going to endorse anybody.”
The poll was conducted Oct. 27-Nov. 7.
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It's painful watching the right wingers twist & squirm trying to pick a nominee! lol
Says a lot when the eventual candidate will win by default!
Pitiful... just plain pitiful...
I'm see quite a few ABR bumper stickers around my neighborhood - Anyone but Romney! ;o)
It's painful watching the right wingers twist & squirm trying to pick a nominee!
Actually, I find it rather therapeutic.
Yet your gleefully the first to respond to every "Woo ... Lib .... Sooie" story here at FR.
And really, where does the article mention twisting and squirming .... doesn't it just say it's tied?
You want twisting and squirming - check out Holder's testimony yesterday.
Classic.
There you are booby - where you been hiding all morning?
You & Sniffy were conspicuously missing!
Couple of cowards crying in their Cheerio's...
You make now resume your guilty little pleasure of tearing the wings off of butterflies! ;o)
Feisty,
No hope for Obama's economy, OOWS (Occupy Obama's Wall Street) is getting fugly, Iran is getting the bomb, the "transparent" one is refusing Congress, Holder admitting he was lying before to Congress, etc ....
It shucks being a lib, so we cut you space for your little insipid, meaningless wet panties celebration this morning?
How many Senate and House seats changed?
You guys put everything into the Ohio / union deal and won .... BFD.
Naw ..... it's a lot easier and more fun tearing the wings off liberal arguments.
Feisty- Smiff turned up on another thread, yammering about....are you ready- Fast and Furrious.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
(but I'm glad you can read Bob's posts, and understand what he's saying. Maybe when I get big....)
"... your little insipid, meaningless wet panties celebration this morning.."
"You make now resume your guilty little pleasure of tearing the wings off of butterflies! ;o)"
Ohhh....my aching ass! Now THIS is funny!
Neat-o-riffic, Bobster. Keep 'em coming!!
You aren't missing anything...
He's certainly pissier then usual today! LOL
Funny how the usual right wing cowards were in hiding and once they slithered out from under their collective rocks want to TALK about anything BUT the elections last night! eh eh eh
Oh Well!
Wait until next year - their hair will be on fire! ;o))
PS: Booby wouldn't recognize a BFD if it hit him right between his (@@)'s!
Ohio is a BFD. The middle class is tired of being told that they are no longer worth a safety net. According to bob, the only peole worthy of the United States government is the 1% who don't need any support. Regarding house seats and senate seats, I don't think that is a viable topic this year bob. The 1% can start to sweat now, because there are a lot more of us than them. The predictions of the house going Democratic next year look good. Whoever can show support for the middle class will win the next election. Since republicans have been telling us every day that we just aren't worth it anymore, the writing is on the wall for 2012.
Bob Numbers,
The only reason I can think of for why you forever insist on pissing into a strong wind is that you like it.
Bob,
don't forget Iraq....the war that Bush had won before leaving office. obama the great diplomat just wasted the blood and treasure of our nation and is handing the country over to Iran.
Maybe he should call bush and condie to figure out how to properly negotiate the immunity for our troops.
How pathetic. The Jews must really love him to after his amateurish remarks about bebe.
OBAMA IS A LAUGHINGSTOCK AROUND THE ENTIRE GLOBE!
Jack --
Well that's one way to look at it. ; )
@Rob in ma,
That was a pitiful post. I suppose we should stay there beating that dead horse for the next hundred years. It was your guy who wasted the blood, and then paid for it all on a credit card issued by China and Japan. Don't pin this on Obama. Ask the returning vets if they would rather spend yet another Christmas in a country that doesn't want them there.
"...handing the country over to Iran."
That is EXATLY what Bush did when he removed Saddam from his own country. Let's try a little honesty once in a while, can we?
Meanwhile, on the subject of the story ....
The poll shows that South Carolina's Republican assembly more resembles a pond of quicksand than a pool of voters.
Candidate after candidate has thrown time and money into that state, to rise briefly, then sink back down among the bubbling froth.
This drains campaign treasuries as well as candidate energy and availability. This weakens the eventual nominee and of course also hurts the various candidates' capabilities to mount further efforts later in the primary cycle.
Romney's standing seems to have held relatively steady everywhere he's showing up. It doesn't rise, and doesn't much fall. Lately he's committed some minor ngaffes, and taken a couple of positions that are sure to hurt him in a general election, but he otherwise holds steady. Cain, a much more volatile candidate at the moment, may soon find himself also sucked back into the morass of indecision.
At roughly 20-24%, Romney appears to be doomed if any of the other candidates is capable of drawing votes away from those flailing about the most. The real problem for all the candidates other than Romney is they are dividing up the voters into such relatively small segments, they may hand the victory to Romney by default. So, at what point is a "conservative unity" movement going to emerge to solidify opposition to Romney?
Huntsman. He is the only hope past yet another Baskin Robbins flavor of the week.
Wayne,
See ya tommorrow morning, I have to leave for the burn unit after Jack's blistering inane post.
Rob,
You are absolutely right about Iraq - disgraceful.
Too bad the too clueless have no idea and yep, the rest of the world has Obama figured out.
Other than Iran, Russia, the Libyan terrorist/rebels, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood ....... not sure how many others are laughing though.
Btw Rob, enjoy your comments.
Wayne,
Yeah, ask them, you might not like what they have to say. I'm thinking you never served, did you?
Cold War.
Meanwhile as Democrats and Republicans squabble - Europe falls into Chaos.
Over the past two weeks Cain he said she said posts +/- forty three - super committee updates two, news about economic issues none.
First Read how about a post from an economic voice, how will this affect the US? Some of us are interested in more than just the three ring circus nomination process and the latest wacky soundbite from the far right.
The war Bush won, HA get serious.
Bin Ladens head is on Obama's trophy wall, remember him that's the guy Bush forgot about, so I guess you forgot about him too, this was a war on terror, Bin Laden was the guy who was responsible. You want to talk about another murderous bastard Qaddafi, Obama has his head on the wall too, and did it without the loss of American lives, and in a most cost effective manner. You want to watch him debate Rick Perry, Hermann Cain, or Mitt Romney on foreign policy which one of those guys would you like to watch get their heads handed to them by the CIC, when the time comes.
ABO right. Problem is anybody is not a candidate and republicans don't have the somebody that can beat him, I think that is sinking in, I think you realize that, I think it has republicans frustrated and angry. I would be too if my party already lost, a year out from the election, sad, very sad, for you, not for me.
Thank you.
"F" on GOP Candidates' Economic Ideas - College Profs
Just in time for tonight's debate, if the CNBC moderators happen to take notice of this story ... not one of the Republican primary candidates has a clue about economic realities and how their proposals would fail.
Some college Econ 101 professors rate the candidates' positions.
No news to most of us. We've been pointing out the absurdity of the entire GOP agenda now for a long time. Too bad it isn't funny - this country deserves better than the vicious obstructionism and corruption of the right wing.
Inane? That proves two things I have thought for some time.
I see the GOPers are again beating the "we can't leave Iraq" drum. As Colonel jack Jacobs said, "Iraq may be more destabilized NOT because we're leaving but because we went there in the first place." The right wing posters are as clueless as their candidates regarding Iraq. It was a stable country UNTIL Bush invaded with shock and awe, guaranteed we'd be met with flowers and parades. Bush destabilized the only country that kept Iran in check. Never mind that Bush charged the trillion dollars on the credit card.
TO: bob-1805084 who wrote:
The only thing getting "fugly" around here is Republican non-stop hate-speech.
President Obama has a solid 50% approval rating, which is even higher than Bill Clinton's was before Clinton was re-elected, and President Obama still has as 98% approval rating among blacks.
I don't know of ANY Republican with that kind of approval rating, OR that kind of support.
After that little game Eric Cantor played with raising the debt ceiling, the Teabaggers don't even support the fruits and nuts they sent to Washington anymore.
All of that, backed up with daily Republican literature that lets everybody know that Republicans don't have any memory of the devastation they caused and are therefore doomed to repeat their failures which caused the majority of the American People serious financial pain, together with the fact that the only folks Republicans support are the super-rich 1%ers, and the Republicans' pledge to lower American Workers' wages and deny us fringe benefits, not even a life-long Republican would vote for any GOP candidate.
Obama / Biden 2012 !!!
What is going through Romney's head ... to be tied with a man who has no chance of getting into the White House!
And Perry ... he's running behind a man he had to erase off a rock ....
Cain has gone from being the "feel good" candidate to the "good feel" candidate! For those that questioned his credentials on foreign affairs, it's obvious he has "Russian hands" and "Roman fingers"!
I hope they choose Cain, he doesn't stand a chance up against Obama.
Don't take the results too serious. The poll is coming from South Carolina, the land of the living dead!
Republicans prefer unwanted sexual advances rather than consensual ones. After all, in a true Republican World, what right do women have to say "No"? Give them "Cain"!
I just wonder who the Republican women other than Anne Coulter will support?
"....other than Anne Coulter..."
Get out of here. That's a woman? Who knew??
Drive By,
That was hilarious!
I don't think Colter is a woman...can't get past the adam apple myself...or the butt ugliness
Rick.
If Cain sat next to her in a car, he would be putting his hand under her skirt to check her/him out!
We liberals need to stop making disparaging remarks against these front runners. Everyone of them are great candidates to run against President Obama. He will be reelected for sure in 2012 with each one of these Republicans except for maybe Huntsman. He is trailing badly so hardly any questions are directed at him and we don't know much about him. He may be just as bad as all the rest but who knows. So lets all sing praises to Cain and Romney shall we? Let's call flip flopping constituent sensitivity instead. Let's call sexual harassment a fondness of all things female instead. Let's call multiple affairs, multiple marriages and misconduct while in public service sensetivity towards woman, colleagues and constituents instead. OK?
"... OK?:
OK, Ana- we're with you, but WHAT, pray tell, are we to call Nahn-Nahn-Nahn? (and be nice, now)
I think I drank too much after all victories last night! Nahn-Nahn-Nahn????
Think 6 6 6, upside down, and in a Southern drawl....
We call him the party of nein-nein-nein (really a party of one).
nein - I have never done anything inappropriate
nein - I don't even know that woman
nein - I don't know of any settlement
Thanks for the translation Drive By!
I need a nap.
Ana...you are so right on. I'm lovin' this line-up and if we make the case that they suck, we're liable to scare up a new candidate. I think in the end, most Repubs will hold their nose and vote Romney, but the enthusiasm gap vs polling numbers are telling. I know that hatred of the President is all they have for motivation to turn out but we should recognize that hate is a powerful emotion.
My God, Jack- the poor thing fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch on the way down.
I mean, this skank is so ugly, she has to sneak up on a glass of water to get a drink.
Well, then you'll find this really scary. I've met some Republicans who think that Anne Coulter is very sexy.
Drive by and Jack,
was wondering who the heck you were referring to with ugly skank comment. Now gentlemen, she isn't that bad is she? I bet none of you would mind sitting next to her at a bar. Don't confuse her looks with her political views.
"Now gentlemen, she isn't that bad is she?"
Yes.
Irrespective of her political views.
And no- I couldn't possibly drink that much and still stand up, let alone see.
AnaBanana,
I wasn't so much agreeing with Drive-By as enjoying his wicked sense of humor.
Nah, she's definitely not my type. Bars aren't either, so little chance I'll run into her.
She is so mean and ugly she could make a speeding freight train take a dirt road.
Annie is what's known as 'coyote fugly' - that's when you would rather chew off your own arm in the morning then disturb her! ;o)
Okay, Fiesty, you get the prize. That was even funnier than DBO's remarks--and that's going some!
I say we split it Jack - I'm still LMAO at your comment to the boob about pissing in the wind...
CLASSIC!!! ;o))
She is so ugly she could not even get sexually harassed by Hermann Cain.
I can't believe they are tied I guess republicans can't make up their minds between two candidates that are as different as night and day.
Let's face it. Neither one passes the purity test.
dbo,
That is so mean, funny, but mean.Â
Hey Forrest,Â
You being a union man, how happy are you today? Any somersaults, back flips or handstands?
Â
All of the above Thetotas, the working men and women in America deserve to make an honest decent living, none of these people are headed for Beverly Hills, they live, work and spend their money in the community, the small businessmen in those communities, depend on them, it is a good thing, not a bad thing, these are the people that provide the services that make a community worth living in.
Forrest,
I get what your saying, and I don't begrudge anyone right to a decent living. I just cant wrap my head around the whole private v. public sector thing.
It might surprise you, but the majority of our friends are union members, and my husband is a shop steward for the CWA. I understand the need for the private sector, but the need for public sector unions escapes me.
Anyway, good for you and the people that will benefit from this victory.
Because they can get taken advantage of as well as the next person, just look at what republican governors are doing to some of them, they could bargain with a third party if bargaining directly with politicians is what every body is so worried about.
The gop must believe that cain is telling the truth or they don't care despite their religious beliefs don't care if he is a molester. But I can say logically, it doesn't make sense. What would the creator want you to do. Insist upon the truth or look the other way. Support a molester.
In any election I have a hard time with undecided people in either party----what takes them so long to make up their minds? How much research do they really do?
At least each Presidential election cycle bring comic relief that is badly needed in this troubling economy. This crop of GOP candidates is lacking a star performer like Palin in the last cycle. It should be a very interesting 12 months with all the corrupt money that will be provided for the ads that will be invading our TV's, mailboxes, email accounts, etc.. Pop the popcorn and let the show begin.....
Romney's gotta be thinking, "WTF, I can't even beat a sex offender?"
You think obama could beat Bill Clinton (the first black man in that office) in a race for the white house?
roc, you are being silly; they both won! Ha! Ha! I sure wouldn't put money on any of the current Republican candidates.
Unbeleivable. Guy has four people saying he sexually harrassed employees as well as other witnesses to the harrassment. And he is still tied for the republican lead. I guess Forest was right - Stupid is as Stupid does
You guys making fun of Ann Coulter's looks. She has improved a lot! Why, when she was a youngster she was so ugly her folks had to tie a pork chop bone around her neck so the dog would play with her!
That is ugly, that sounds like Chelsey Clinton...............
To be or not to be that is the question. Is it better in the minds of women to be a sexual pawn or not to be one and remain unemployed? Cain can answer that question, he has hired hundreds and only a few refused the job because of his improper behavior.
The GOP has done a lot in regard to creating jobs. There has been an increased need for comedy writers on the late night shows to keep up with the antics of the presidential candidates.
Why was Herman Cain fired from NRA?
I still think after all the debates and the sheer lack of a viable presidential candidate among them there will be a Draft Chris Christie movement in the GOP.
Wow that's a surprising poll coming from the purist of the pure Southern Republicans. How two-face can you be??? ANd again as I've said many times before it would've been a fabulous sight to see how America came to have two African (Black Men as Mr. Cain would say) American males go at on a debate stage. Guess that won't happen this lifetime.
What? A womanizer running for president, but, Clinton can't run again!! Oh, is it John Edwards, but, he doesn't have a wife!! Come on now, only the beloved JFK can screw around on the side, right?
Sorry, I need proof about Cain. He said that he did not know the latest accuser. This is what the field looks like right now. If proved he knew her then he is done everywhere. If it is proved that he did not know her then he is made. Even if the others come out with proof, he will be seen as a martyr and will solidify the right against the press. After that any attack against him will be seen as racially motivated.
Cain is an act of faith. Faith is not subject to proof. He could have the entire graduating class of Vassar accuse him of improper behavior and it would not matter to the true believers.
You feel you would react to proof, but you reserve the right to judge what constitutes proof. Do you think these four women got together and conspired to attack Mr. Cain?
You say if it is proven he knew her, that would constitute proof. That would only prove that he prevaricates, but we already know that from day one of the drama.
Actually I am thinking of the swift boat campaign. He made a very strong and easily proven statement. If he really didn't know the women then all the attacks against him become truly suspect. If it comes out he did know her then no matter if it isn't true his rep is done.
Oh please, please, please, please teapublicans ---- nominate Pizza Man and make either Bachmann or Palin his running mate.
Ya Cain will them a 'job' interview..
The old school GOP boys from the club want Romney, so Romney it will be. They dislike Mr. Cain on both sides. Blue blood GOP wont have a black man represent them and the leftists dislike his business experience and education so both will work together to force him out. They wont let a woman in the club so Mrs. Bachman is out. They know Newt will fizzle on his own. They want Romney and they will make sure its Romney no matter what. Which is what is wrong with this two party system. Whom ever you like is irrelevent, its who the PARTY likes that matters. They will decide and let you choose from thier pick. Thats why so many Americans are sick to death of politics and many just stop voting. With Romney its politics as usual, period.
The old school GOP wants Romney, because it realizes that the other GOP pigs are so mentally screwed-up they have no chance in the general election.
"Azrancher" I concur with your assessment. I think they actually wanted Rick Perry, he was their golden boy until he started opening his mouth. The nomination was his too loose and he actually blew it - amazing. Either way, the GOP has nothing to offer in 2012 with this group.
Did you conservative wanna-be's clear having your own opinion with your cult leader before posting? :D
Why are 68% undecided?
Think of a carnivore at a salad bar....
Pick one: 1) Rick Perry -- Alcohol-addled bumbler; 2) Herman Cain -- Sexual predator; 3) Mitt Romney -- Mormon cultist and flip-flopper.