Thoughts on the Republican Race

First a little fun at the expense of the Republican field. I only saw the video for this on Monday not the actual sketch from Saturday Night Live but it was very funny. Here’s what “Herman Cain” had to say in the debate:

“I never thought that anyone would look at it... The original goal of the 9-9-9 plan was to get me a show on Fox News. ... If America is looking for catchy, unworkable solutions to complicated problems, Herman Cain has the answer.

How we fight terrorism my 5-5-5 plan. For every terrorist, America will send five planes, five soldiers, and five of those dogs that caught Osama bin Laden.

How do we fix healthcare my 3-3-3 plan. Every time you get sick you get three pills, three days off, and three chicken-noodle soups.”

The rest of the sketch was equally funny with Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann being in a janitor’s closet. The person who emerged from it would be invited to the next debate. And the debate was sponsored by Marriott on the Marriott channel. Very funny stuff.

And it really points out what a terrible group of candidate the Republicans have. The newest darling is Herman Cain how long he stays as the “front runner” and a threat to Mitt Romney remains to be seen. Cain could be the new flavor of the month.

The conventional wisdom is that Romney is the most likely nominee. He is first or second in polls. In a couple of polls recently he came in second with Cain being in front. Sort of like a few weeks ago when Perry was in first. Romney’s number seems to hover rather consistently in the 20s. Follow this link to realclearpolitics and it shows Romney’s range. The low is in the Gallup poll at 20%. The high is the Rasmussen Reports poll at 29%.

And here I believe is a problem for Romney. He never gets above 30%. And the flavor of the month comes along and ties him or ends up ahead of him in polls. Romney hasn’t closed the deal with Republicans most notably the Tea Party. They think he’s too “liberal” on some issues and changed his positions on some too. I also think the fact that he is a Mormon is a reason as well.

I think many fundamentalist Christians agree with Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Rick Perry supporter, who said in part:

“The decision for conservative evangelical Christians right now is going to be do we prefer somebody who is truly a believer of Jesus Christ or somebody who is a good moral person but he’s a part of a cult. And it’s not politically correct to say but it’s true. Mormonism is a cult.

This is a line that I’ve heard for years about Mormons from fundamentalists. I think Romney has a ways to go to win over this important bloc of the Republican Party. Frankly I’m not sure how he’s going to do it. And that means getting above 30% is going to be a hard climb.

As for Mr. Cain, the 9-9-9 plans leaves a great deal to be desired. Cain has essentially dismissed any criticism of the plan. Over the weekend he did admit that some people would pay more taxes.

The few actual break downs I’ve seen done by the media (as far as I’m concerned the media has done a very poor job of showing how this plan would impact the average person) have shown that most people would pay more. In fact it looks like if you are poor or lower-middle class you’d be paying a great deal more. If you were in the upper income brackets you’d be getting a huge tax break.

Once again a Republican presidential candidate supports another massive shift in the tax burden from the rich to those less well off. This time I think and hope it will be exposed for the fraud it is. Then the question is what is left of Cain campaign without 9-9-9. I think I see another flavor of the month biting the dust.