The Primay Campaigns Are Getting Interesting

The candidates are beginning to speak out on a number of issues and that is what is needed for thinking people to decide who they will back in the primaries. Not all the candidates get the same amount of media attention. Some of that is due the candidate’s standing in the polls and part is due to bias and  a desire by the media to decide who will be the Republican nominee.

Bachmann and Perry are getting most of the attention from the media with a few crumbs left for Ron Paul and Herman Cain. As for the rest of the field _ who is the rest of the field? I forget. At any rate, today I want to share some of the things I picked-up on in the news and, of course, there will be a little editorializing by yours truly. So, in no particular order, here is what caught my eye.

Herman Cain:

Other than the announcement  the other day, which I reported on, of Cain’s 9-9-9  tax reform plan, i could find very little else in the news about him. When I Googled “Herman Cain in the news”, most of the articles dated back to May of this year.

Cain’s tax reform plan, of 9% individual income tax, 9% corporate tax and, 9% Federal  Sales Tax, is something I welcome, in that it is a  proposed specific solution to a very real problem. Whether it is the right solution or not, it is, at least a place to start debating real solutions. It is not enough just to rail against Big Government and Big Spending saying your for cutting spending and shrinking the size of government. We need to hear from our candidates what they would specifically propose doing if they were President.

It appears that Cain is not doing well in fund-raising and building a campaign organization. I expect that unless he makes a very strong showing in Iowa or New Hampshire that he will have drop out of the race. Personally, I hope he can stay in the race because I think he helps to frame the issues.

Michele Bachman:

Ms. Bachmann has been in the news this past weekend. Via Yahoo News the Associated Press (AP) tells us that Bachmann, while talking to crowd at a sandwich shop in Jacksonville, Fl. about he need o reduce corporate taxes, she was asked  whether she thought changes to the minimum wage would be in order. here is her response.

“I’m not married to anything. I’m not saying that’s where I’m going to go,” she said.

A pretty non-committal statement. I suspect she was being careful about commenting on a specific issue that she had not yet considered. In which case, it was a smart move on her part. She did go on to say:

“I want to bring advisers in from labor and from manufacturers and from the service industry and financial services. I want to know what they know, because that’s what we’ve been missing from President Obama. He has virtually no one in his Cabinet with private sector experience,” Bachmann said. “I want to bring people who know how to create jobs into my administration.”

Imagine that. Getting ideas from people in the know. Another smart answer I would say.

The AP also reported here on her comments while in Poinciana, Fl.  Let me share a few snips:

“The United States is the number one country in the world for energy resources,” the Minnesota congresswoman told a central Florida town hall meeting, arguing that in shale deposits alone the U.S. easily outstrips the total oil supply of Saudi Arabia. “That doesn’t even include … all the oil in Alaska.”

[…]

“The radical environmentalists have demanded that we lock up all our energy resources,” she added. “President Bachmann will take that key out of the door. I will unlock it.”

The crowd at the upscale retirement community cheered wildly.

And Bachmann got a similar reception when she promised to eliminate the “job killing” Environmental Protection Agency, saying that she would close the agency down in a single trip. “We will turn out the lights and we’ll lock the doors,” she said.

Maybe a bit of rhetoric there about shutting down the EPA; but, at least she has let us know that she understands the energy issue in the US and the negative role played by Obama and the EPA. I’m sure this comment will receive the rath of the liberals in Washington and the liberal media. I can see the headlines now: “Bachmann Willing to let Greedy Corporations Poison Our Air and Water”. Oh well, that’s politics in America _ unfortunately.

Ron Paul

Again, it was hard to find much in the news about Ron Paul other than that he is holding his own in the polls. I suppose that it shouldn’t be surprising that Paul rarely makes the news these days, because he  rarely says anything new. I don’t say that in derogatory way. The fact is that Ron Paul’s message has been pretty much unchanged for the last thirty years: “take control of the Federal Reserve and get out of the war business.”

I did, however, find one news item about Ron Paul. It seems that Paul is not a fan of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). MSNBC carried this story of a comment he made in Gilford, N.H. in reference to FEMA response to hurricane Irene:

“There’s no magic about FEMA. They’re a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don’t have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states,” Paul told NBC News. “A state can decide. We don’t need somebody in Washington.”

Another Ron Paul gaff? Maybe or maybe not. I too am not a big fan of FEMA. Although I might be convinced that there is a need for some organization to coordinate response to major emergencies, I do not like the fact that FEMA has been militarized.  Besides coordinating relief aid such as food, water, shelter and medical aid, they are also charged with controlling any civil unrest. They have become another national police force with virtually unlimited power. I would prefer they stick to coordinating relief and leave any police actions to the local police or at the discretion of state governors, the state’s National Guard.

I also came across a new Ron Paul campaign ad, which you can watch here. The message of the ad is not bad. However, I think his campaign people made a serious error with the title they choose: The One. The message being that Ron Paul is the one to make the necessary changes required in our federal government. But, we all know that “The One” is one of the derogatory names we use when referring to Barack Obama.

Rick Perry

Without a doubt, Rick Perry is grabbing a lot of media attention since he threw his Stetson into the ring. Polls now show Perry to be the front-runner, at least for now. The first couple of primaries will tell if he can hold that position. Associated Press via Yahoo news carried this story on Perry in Des Moines, Iowa where Perry continued to hammer way on jobs:

“You have lost 12,000 jobs since the current resident of the White House took office,” said Perry. He said that is precisely the opposite of his own record in office.

“Since I’ve become governor, Texas has created more than 1 million jobs, while the rest of the country has lost 2.5 million jobs,” said Perry.

Probably the biggest news about Perry has to do with a “timely” letter he wrote to  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking that DHS reimburse Texas   $350 million to cover the costs he says Texas has incurred incarcerating illegal immigrants in state prisons and county jails. You can read the story here.

Mitt Romney

Surprisingly, I could find very little in current news reports on Mitt Romney. It seems that Rick Perry is the flavor of the day for now, anyway.  I did find one story that I thought was out of line where the Washington Post ran this headline: Mormon Mitt Romney not ‘Christian,’ says Fox News. You can read the story here and here.

Tea Party Express Tour

Bus tours are the in-thing this year. Sarah Palin’s bus tour has been very successful for her in getting her message out. Obama tried the same thing with less than stunning results. Now the Tea Party Express is organizing a nation wide bus tour with planned stops in twenty-nine cities. I think this will be very good for the conservative movement. You can read about it here.

Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?