The GOP's Nightmare Debate
Is there a phrase that means the opposite of Dream Team? It would come in handy to describe the upcoming face-off between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain . The Texas showdown has been advertised as a revival of the exalted Lincoln-Douglas debates, but a better description at this point might be What Women Don't Want.
The audience at the event, a fundraiser for the Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC at the Woodlands Resort & Conference Center near Houston, won't be hearing about three women's sexual-harassment allegations against Cain . “It's going to be totally focused on economic issues. It will not be at all sidetracked by that kind of thing,” says Suzanne Guggenheim, cofounder of the Tea Party group.
The hosts promise “a substantive discussion of the most pressing issues facing America today.” But imagine if those in the audience had thought clouds above their heads. Don't think about elephants, the old joke goes, and then of course all you can think about are elephants—in this case the allegations engulfing Cain and the checkered marital history that dogs Gingrich.
So far, Cain is not feeling any pain on the political front. His campaign says it has raised $1 million since the harassment story erupted Sunday night . And a new Rasmussen poll of Republicans taken since then shows Cain leading the field with 26 percent, followed by Mitt Romney (23 percent) and Newt Gingrich (14 percent), with everyone else in single digits. Gingrich isn't doing badly, either. That showing is tantamount to a surge for him, and he says his contributions are surging as well.
Not surprisingly, the Cain-Gingrich Debate 2011 has set a record for advance sales of tickets, which range from $150 to $1,000. Guggenheim has been monitoring reaction to the Cain allegations and had not noticed them getting any traction as of Thursday. “People really have the impression that this is a made-up thing,” she tells The Daily Beast. But she added that could change: “If something comes up that seems legitimate and true, obviously people will then react to it. People who are conservative and vote for their values, this would obviously affect them.
Cspan Impeachment Trial - News
Anything could happen, and C-Span will be there to make sure millions are witness to it. Republicans who don't see Cain or Gingrich as the future of their party may want to cross their fingers and hope this Lincoln-Douglas reenactment will be little
Think "reduce the deficit," "era of transparency," "cut wasteful spending," "no back room deals," "broadcast everything on C-span," "Give the public 72 hours to read a bill before signing," etc., etc., etc. Holder also knows the Chicago way.
