2012 Presidential Elections
May 20, 2011 - Is Rick Perry the 12th Man for the Republicans?
There’s been quite a bit of activity these past two weeks regarding the Republican presidential nominees. To start with, New Gingrich threw his hat in the ring for the first time in his and may have wished differently after his FAIL week as presidential nominee. Mike Huckabee declared it God’s will that he not seek the nomination. Donald Trump announced his decision to not seek the nomination during Upfront Week with the network, like the true ... Read more »
May 28, 2011 - In, out, or mulling it about
Wow, the Perry presidential candidacy has to be one of the hottest political topics running the national spectrum these days. Yesterday, Peggy Fikac of the Chronicle/Express-News political reporting team wrote about the latest buzz on Perry’s non-candidacy. As Fikac quoted, Perry kept the buzz alive by saying he’ll “think about it.” Perry then went on to say “I think about a lot of things.” My favorite quote from the article was by Larry ... Read more »
June 13, 2011 - We’ll get the word on Perry Time
When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, I had the opportunity to help with one of his infamous bus tours where we toured rural America in a bus caravan of around 10 buses and support vehicles. It was quite a site when the tour would pull into a small town like Salado or Tyler. I drove one of the support vans that usually tailed the buses but was in front of the bomb squad from Ft. Hood. At one of the stops I asked the soldiers traveling with ... Read more »
August 14, 2011 - Winners, losers and what’s up with Ron Paul?
Today Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) probably had her biggest round of media exposure since the 2012 presidential campaign started, appearing on all the major networks this morning celebrating her victory in the Iowa Straw Poll. Gov. Rick Perry had his media day yesterday, announcing his candidacy at the RedState Gathering in South Carolina. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, realizing he was going to show poorly in Iowa, headed to New Hampshire to show some ... Read more »
August 16, 2011 - Rick Perry=Retail Politics
Rick Perry’s in the race of a lifetime and he’s loving every minute of it. Running for president has most likely been in his plans since he first entered politics. He’s been training for this day and now he gets to put all those skills into action now that he’s running for the highest office in the land. Regardless of the message, Perry knows how to campaign and actually enjoys it more than anything. But with a stage as big as the United States ... Read more »
October 25, 2011 - The Perry flat tax – part of a race to the right
Today Gov. Rick Perry announced a part of his economic plan in South Carolina focused on creating a new flat tax for individuals and corporations. I say a part because this particular plan is short on a lot of details and dealing with other parts of the economy. In fact, if this is where Perry leaves it a lot of people are going to be very disappointed and it will probably damage his already faltering campaign. Many have already started picking the ... Read more »
October 27, 2011 - Note to Perry: This ain’t Texas politics anymore
Rick Perry probably wishes he was just running around Texas right now. He probably wishes Texas was that “whole other country” our state’s Tourism likes to market. But it isn’t and now Perry’s on a much bigger stage in terms of campaigns. While he might want the rest of the nation to act and think like we Texans they don’t. The problem is he and his staff of cronies started his campaign out thinking that way but trying to act like the ... Read more »
November 15, 2011 - The GOP field–Romney and anybody but him
Yesterday some more polls came out highlighting some of the changes that have happened in the Republican primary field after two weeks of fun. Those two weeks saw two debates, a campaign in denial, and another campaign trying to get some positive air-time. But looking at the polls and the shape of the field it’s becoming apparent Republican voters are falling into two clearly distinctive camps (well, three if you count the faithful) – those who ... Read more »
December 1, 2011 - The strangeness of the Iowa caucus
Today Rasmussen released their latest poll showing Gingrich in the lead with 38% trailed by Romney at 17%, Paul and Cain tied at 8%, followed by the pack around the 4% mark. That’s an interesting spread with each segment half the distance of its leader. If we held an election today, Gingrich wins this race outright with no questions. But the first contest is not an election. In fact, it’s probably one of the most bizarre forms of democracy we ... Read more »
December 15, 2011 - Iowa and beyond
Tonight is the final debate between the GOP presidential primary candidates before the Iowa Caucuses on Jan. 3rd. After that, there’s nothing between the candidates and the caucus other than a lot of open roads, corn fields and a bunch of towns full of Iowans. Just check out Gov. Perry’s 44-city, two week bus tour throughout Iowa. At least he’s taking some time off for Christmas. But he’s not alone as every single candidate will be criss-crossing ... Read more »
December 17, 2011 - Sometimes increasing voter turnout is not a good thing
Today Victor Landa wrote a good column in the Express-News as a follow-up to last Saturday’s presentation of a Citizen’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities presented by graduate students at UTSA’s College of Public Policy. He picked up on a suggestion made by Phyllis Ingram, head of San Antonio’s League of Women Voters, that to increase voter turnout we should consolidate the elections to a single day. On the surface, that sounds like a good ... Read more »
December 19, 2011 - Another day, another poll
Another poll was released yesterday from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic based polling firm that actually seems to bias towards Republican candidates according to Nate Silver. In the poll, Ron Paul took the lead from Newt Gingrich who actually slid pretty substantially from 27% on Dec. 5th to 14% in this latest poll. The poll was taken just after the last Republican debate in Sioux City and included Sunday after the release of the Des Moines Register ... Read more »
January 3, 2012 - The Iowa Caucus is not about picking a winner
Today’s the day many of us have been waiting for. Tonight about 100,000 Iowans will head to schools, churches, meeting halls, and living rooms to sit down and cast their choice for the Republican presidential nominee. Iowa is “first in the nation” and received prominent attention during the 70s when an obscure former GA governor and peanut farmer won the contest and went on to become president. Since then the nation focuses on this state’s ... Read more »
January 3, 2012 - Live blogging Iowa
The Iowa Caucus day is finally here. The big question is who will survive and who will have to ask the hard questions about continuing forward. Current poll averages show Romney a little over a point ahead of Paul. Santorum has been surging lately, rising almost daily so he could be a surprise tonight. Regardless of what the polls say, it all boils down to who shows up at the caucus sites at 7 p.m. Unlike primary elections you can't just stop in and ... Read more »
January 4, 2012 - The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Iowa
For all the flack Iowa is taking about not being a representative selection process for a presidential nominee, it created some interesting outcomes that the Republican Party will be dealing with in the weeks or months to come. As I said yesterday, Iowa is not about picking winners. It’s about culling the crop of the bottom tier of candidates. But the dynamics of the Iowa campaign may have created some outcomes the Party wasn’t expecting or planning ... Read more »
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