Herman Cain: The Right Wing Sleeper Candidate in 2012?

CNN should probably pick better partners
CNN SHOULD PROBABLY PICK BETTER PARTNERS.... It makes perfect sense for CNN to host plenty of debates for the Republican Presidential Candidates running in 2012. It makes less sense to partner with sketchy organizations to co-host these debates. CNN said Friday that it is joining forces with the Tea Party Express -- a political action committee that played a key role in the 2010 Midterm Elections -- to co-host a Republican presidential debate. The debate is scheduled for Labor Day week in Tam...

CNN's Tea Party Debate Fail
CNN today announced that it would team up with the Tea Party Express to host a GOP presidential debate over Labor Day next year in Tampa, the site of the Republican National Convention in 2012. Sam Feist, CNN's political director, says the arrangement was designed to give Undecided Voters a way to educate themselves about "diverse perspectives within the Republican Party, including those of the Tea Party." It's not the first time CNN has partnered with the group. Earlier this year, CNN...

Tea Party and CNN to Host 2011 Republican Presidential Debate in Florida
CNN Political Director Sam Feist called the "Tea Party movement a fascinating, diverse, Grassroots force that already has drastically changed the country's political landscape." The movement's impact on the political balance is indisputable. Tea party-backed Candidates, assailing President Obama's policies and calling for smaller government and less spending, had considerable success in the Nov. 2 election. The tea party and allies like Sarah Palin can rightly claim credit for playing a signific...

Potential Dark Horse: Herman Cain in 2012
RedState recently polled their readers to see who they would like to see as the GOP Presidential nominee. The winner was Herman Cain. Who is Herman Cain? Cain is a big Private Sector Candidate - he was a former Pillsbury executive and later ran Godfathers Pizza. He’s also a Talk Show host and PAC founder. He had previously ran for US Senate in Georgia in 2004 - he came in 2nd place, but did not garner enough support to force a runoff. He’s a great speaker who, apparentl...

Romney's opportunistic position on the tax compromise
Your article has been sent. Former Massachusetts Governor and probable 2012 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney came out against President Obama's tax Compromise today, aligning himself with the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. In a column published in USA Today, Romney criticized the deal for delivering short-term economic stimulus while leaving the long-term health of our economy in doubt. "Uncertainty," Romney explains, "is not a friend of investment, growth and Job Creation." I...

Johnson breaks with GOP pack, calls for DADT repeal
Likely 2012 Caucus contender Gary Johnson on Friday called for the U.S. Senate to Repeal the Military’s ban on openly-gay personnel. As has been widely documented, more than twenty of our NATO allies — including those with whom our Troops serve alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan — allow gay men and women to serve openly, and the sky has not fallen. Johnson cites a Washington Post/ABC poll from this week, which showed 75 percent of Americans favor Repeal of the Clinton-era policy...

Why No Labels Makes Sense
The launch of the new Centrist group “No Labels” has sparked much criticism from the right and the left. But as I argue in my latest column for The Week, the project provides a new way to address the issues that can’t be reduced to party dogma. “Has any org ever gotten off to a worse start?” That was Slate publisher Jake Weisberg’s tweeted reaction to the launch of the new Centrist organization, “No Labels.” Weisberg was at least expressing sympathy....

CNN, Tea Party Express plan debate
CNN said Friday that it is joining forces with the Tea Party Express — a political action committee that played a key role in the 2010 Midterm Elections — to co-host a Republican presidential debate. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 The debate is scheduled for Labor Day week in Tampa, Fla., in September — five months before the 2012 presidential primaries begin. It’s CNN’s second entry i...

Herman Cain mania
There's a place in every primary for an ideological purist and debate champ — think Dennis Kucinich — and radio talker Herman Cain seems to be the early front-runner for that slot on the Republican side in 2012. Cain, an African-American conservative with a real Private Sector background — he was a Pillsbury executive and then took over and ran Godfathers Pizza — is a regular on the conservative event circuit and a compelling speaker, though he's little known outside co...

Communications Guru Gives Marco Rubio High Marks
President Barack Obama may be an excellent communicator but he faces a serious challenge in that department from incoming U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, argued a prominent communications expert on Wednesday. Maintaining that the best communicator has prevailed in every Presidential Election since 1980, Brad Phillips released a study Wednesday looking at the communication skills of Obama and 18 possible Republican opponents, including Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush. Phillips, a former Journalist with CN...

Congress throws a tea party
Overall, a pretty good day for those who believe in low taxes and less spending. Here is the money graph from my upcoming Reuters Breakingviews column: Democrats and Republicans in Congress are gridlocked over the $1.1 Trillion 2011 Budget. So they will likely pass a temporary spending measure to keep the government running for another month or two. This creates a situation next year where incoming Tea Party Republicans can a) combine a threat of government shutdown with b) a refusal to raise t...

House approves billions for wars without debate
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday passed Legislation that authorizes the Pentagon to spend nearly $160 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this Budget year without major restrictions on the conduct of operations. The 341-48 vote on the defense authorization bill came after House and Senate Democrats agreed to strip several provisions, including one that would have allowed gays to serve openly in the Military and another that would have authorized Abortions at overseas Military ...

Glenn Beck's Incendiary Rhetoric Is Dangerously Close to Having a Body Count
Sign up to stay up to date on the latest Media and Culture headlines via email. On his Monday Radio Show, Glenn Beck highlighted claims that before he started targeting a little-known, left-leaning organization called the Tides Foundation on his Fox News TV show, "nobody knew" what the non-profit was. Indeed, for more than a year Beck has been portraying the progressive organization as a central player in a larger, nefarious cabal of Marxist/Socialist/Nazi Obama-loving outlets determin...

Chutzpah! Right Wing Hate Group Plays the "Hate Card" Against Venerable Civil Rights Group
In the topsy-turvy world that is Right Wing politics, anti-gay conservative groups are attacking a venerable Civil Rights organization, accusing it of "character Assassination." I'm sure you've heard this before -- and it will not surprise you one bit -- but a liberal organization is once again under attack from the right. This time, however, there are no phony Journalists with hidden cameras trying to entrap cooperative staff members (a la forays against ACORN and Planned Parenthood) into compr...

The 8th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards
In order to recognize the excellent work some of our fellow Bloggers have been doing, RWN has put together the "8th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blog Awards." More than 250 Bloggers were invited to vote for their favorite blog in numerous categories and 46 responded. 1) For every category except "The Best Blog Overall," each judge was allowed to make 1-5 unranked selections. The winner of each category was the blog with the most votes. In "The Best Blog Overall" category, the judges made ...

Black segregation in U.S. drops to lowest in century
WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's neighborhoods took large strides toward racial integration in the past decade as blacks and whites chose to live near each other at the highest levels in a century. Still, segregation in many parts of the U.S. persisted, with Hispanics in particular turning away from whites. A broad range of 2009 Census data released Tuesday also found a mixed economic picture, with the Poverty rate swinging wildly among counties from 4 percent to more than 40 percent as the nation...

American Segregation At An All-Time Low
This is interesting because it’s evidence that things really are changing and in a positive direction. It’s going to take a long time to heal the racial divide that was set forth at the founding of our nation and embedded shamefully in our very Constitution when it was first written. But maybe we’re on our way to the realization of the dream of One Nation Under God, Indivisible. This also has implications for Congressional re-districting in the future…should be interest...

Legislature passes bill that could hurt AEA, ASEA
The Alabama Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, quickly passed a bill that could hurt organizations that represent educators and State Employees on Wednesday. The bill, which would stop the state from taking dues out of checks for organizations like the Alabama Education Association and the Alabama State Employees Association, now goes to Gov. Bob Riley for his signature. Senate Republicans quickly shut down debate, taking a vote 45 minutes after convening. The House spent 15 hours de...

Afternoon Fix: Duncan won't seek RNC chair; Lieberman says he would likely run as an independent; Palin will wait to announce in
Obama's Mr. Fix-It (VIDEO) * Former Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan announced Friday that he will not seek his old job. Duncan, who participated in a Candidates debate recently, said "changes in my family, business and outside responsibilities make it impossible for me to devote the time needed to effectively lead the RNC over the next two years." * Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Friday that, if he runs for Reelection, it's likely to be as an Independent Candidate. Lieberma...

Tea Party Express, CNN to host debate in 2011
Mark your calendars! Tea Party Express and CNN announced that they will be holding a debate of Republican Presidential Candidates for Labor Day 2011. More from CNN: Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer talked to CNN about what Activists hope to hear from Republican presidential Candidates. “We want to hear what their ideas are - what their thoughts are - on turning this economy back around and getting us on a sound economic footing, paying down some of our Deficit, getting a b...

Mama Grizzly: I am a woman of the people
Sarah Palin wants America to know she's a woman of the people.   The Mama Grizzly who hunts animals and recently palled around with mom of eight Kate Gosselin on Palin's Reality TV show bristled at a question from Fox News host Bill O'Reilly who asked if her on-camera behavior was "presidential."   "Oooh, I'm sorry I'm not so hoity-toity," Palin said in an awkward-sounding British accent.   On Friday, the former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP vice Presidential Candidate complained that female

Obamas Got a Good Look for 2012, but Afghanistan Could Be an Issue
Despite a rising rebellion of Progressives to his left, relentless opposition from Conservatives on his right and an increasingly expensive War in Afghanistan that may last well beyond the 2011 withdrawal date he set, President Barack Obama finds himself in solid political position for 2012.  It’s a good look for a President who appeared to lick gaping political wounds during a post-Election Day Press Conference in the White House East Room more than a month ago.  Definitely not ...

Poll Watch: Quinnipiac Pennsylvania Political Survey
Quinnipiac Pennsylvania Political Survey Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as President? Approve 44% Disapprove 43% If the 2012 election for President were being held today, do you think you would vote for Barack Obama the Democratic Candidate, or the Republican Candidate? Barack Obama 41% Republican 37% Depends on Candidate (vol.) 14% Do you feel that Barack Obama deserves to be reelected, or do you feel that he does not deserve to be reelected? Ye...

Sarah Palin goes 'lamestream' (Politico)
After making attacks on what she memorably labeled “the lamestream media” one of her signature issues, Sarah Palin has started to experiment with a new strategy toward the press — engaging it. The former Alaska Governor has started cautiously cooperating with some of the same media outlets she and her supporters have accused of unfair and inaccurate coverage they feel has caricatured her as a flaky lightweight — a narrative her team seems determined to rewrite as Palin...

Sarah Palin's MSM dtente (Politico)
After making attacks on what she memorably labeled “the lamestream media” one of her signature issues, Sarah Palin has started to experiment with a new strategy toward the press — engaging it. The former Alaska Governor has started cautiously cooperating with some of the same media outlets she and her supporters have accused of unfair and inaccurate coverage they feel has caricatured her as a flaky lightweight — a narrative her team seems determined to rewrite as Palin...