Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain won the Presidency 5 straw poll here Saturday, delivering a blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s front-runner status and a victory for a candidate who has struggled to transform his grass-roots popularity into strong showings in national polls.
“Tonight’s winner is Herman Cain,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced. “It shows you something: The road to the White House comes through Florida, and it pays to spend time here.”
Mr. Cain received 37 percent of the more than 2,600 votes cast.
“Thank you to the Republican voters for this incredible honor of being named the winner of the Presidency 5 straw poll in Florida today,” Mr. Cain said. “This is a sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that cannot be ignored. I will continue to share my message of ‘common-sense solutions’ across this country and look forward to spending more time in Florida, a critical state for both the nomination and the general election.”
The two national front-runners — Mr. Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — placed second and third. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, meanwhile, landed in fourth place; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was in fifth place; and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, sixth. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann finished last. (See the poll results here.)
[…]Minutes before the vote, Mr. Cain, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich each personally addressed the crowd Saturday afternoon, while some of the other candidates sent surrogates to speak on their behalf.
When the Republican presidential contenders debated in Orlando tonight, it was really two debates. In the first third of the evening, a series of disjointed questions without follow-ups, Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed strong and well-prepared. But he faded over the rest of the debate, appearing to lose his steam just as he was trying to paint Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper.
The big winner of the night, however, was Rick Santorum.
Santorum has been waiting for the chance to supplant Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) as the third-ranking candidate in the race. Tonight he went a long way toward achieving that. Bachmann never managed to make a presence. Santorum, however, socked Perry on in-state tuition breaks for Texas college students who are illegal immigrants, making the point that Perry is subsidizing those people over non-Texan American citizens. On Afghanistan, he hit a home run, telling off Jon Huntsman Jr. over the latter’s suggestion to bug out of a war short of victory. He barked, “Just because our economy is sick doesn’t mean America is sick.” When asked about right-to-work laws, Santorum smartly steered the discussion to public employee unions. As the debate went on, he received more and more questions, a sure sign he was becoming a contender.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum breathed new life into his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, issuing a string of critiques at his Republican counterparts
Speaking in a GOP debate hosted by Google and Fox News, the Pennsylvania Republican slammed critics of his campaign, calling for a renewed commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and condemning a repeal of the military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Mr. Santorum on Thursday said the military has one responsibility: protecting the country. He says that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is a distraction to that role. The former U.S. senator made the statement in response to a video question from a gay soldier that yielded boos from the debate audience.
Mr. Santorum said that “sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military,” adding that the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which took effect this week, was injecting “social policy into the military.”
“What we’re doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now, and that’s tragic,” Mr. Santorum said.
The Pennsylvania Republican slammed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, questioning his recent comments on on U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast. Mr. Santorum took issue with Mr. Huntsman’s suggestion that the U.S. should leave Afghanistan short of victory.
“Just because our economy is sick doesn’t mean America is sick,” Mr. Santorum said.
Mr. Santorum, who continues to trail former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Republican Rick Perry in the latest polls, had struggled to gain support in recent months. The Pennsylvania Republican has focused his campaign on Iowa, where recent polls seems to suggest Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Mr. Perry as the leading candidates. Still, the Pennsylvania Republican has repeatedly said he remains confident of his chances of securing the 2012 nomination.
The performance at Thursday night’s GOP debate comes as Mr. Santorum has sought to increase his presence within the national debate. Speaking Tuesday, Mr. Santorum launched a scathing rebuke of Mr. Perry’s assessment of U.S. relations with Israel.
“I’ve forgotten more about Israel than Rick Perry knows about Israel,” Mr. Santorum told Politico. “There he is, reading a speech that I’m sure he didn’t write, and has never taken a position on any of this stuff before, and [the media is] taking this guy seriously.”
Preceding the debate hosted by Google, Mr. Santorum made national headlines after issuing a plea to the search engine, requesting that the address search results related to his name. Mr. Santorum’s contacting of Google comes as Google searches for Mr. Santorum’s name have generated some inappropriate results since gay columnist Dan Savage organized an online campaign to link graphic sexual terms to Mr. Santorum’s campaign.
It was a great debate, I recommend watching at least the first half.
ABC News says Michele won, and I can’t disagree, since she is my preferred candidate, by far. Go Michele!
Excerpt:
With her standing in the polls slipping, Michele Bachmann needed to find a way to capture the spotlight she held earlier this summer.
She just may have done that tonight at the Tea Party Express/CNN debate in Tampa, Florida.
Bachmann, the founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the House, knew her audience well and it showed.
Unlike former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Bachmann took a pass at criticizing front-runner Texas Gov. Perry on Social Security and she refused to weigh in on Perry’s comment last month that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may be “treasonous.”
Instead she waited patiently to pounce on Perry when the debate turned to the issues she knew would connect with the audience in the hall.
She attacked Perry for his decision to require HPV vaccinations in Texas, calling it “a government injection through executive order” and a “violation of a liberty interest.”
She knows that while the Tea Party activists are not fans of the federal government, they don’t love big business either.
“We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order,” said Bachmann, “there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate…The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor and this is just flat out wrong”
She also attacked Perry on illegal immigration – another issue that plays well in a GOP primary.
A longer review from the UK Telegraph emphasizes that Perry got beat up Monday night.
WINTERY KNIGHT 