GOP candidates to clash in Tampa—Perry, Romney still lead

Republican women held a luncheon in Jacksonville ahead of the 2010 midterms.GOP women and youth will be a key influencer on the 2012 election.Florida tends to have a big impact on presidential elections, and 2012 will be no different.

In Florida GOP frontrunners Gov. Rick Perry (Texas) and former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) are already dueling for support.

Romney went in with an advantage—his supporters are still smarting from the 2008 general election when Sen. John McCain ended up with the GOP nomination.

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Obama doesn’t get it: Place to start is with repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley

Updated on Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:48AM by Kay B. Day, Editor

SOX carries the name of Sen. Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat from Maryland. Rep.Michael G. Oxley, a Republican from Ohio, worked the bill in the House. Both men left Congress shortly after the bill was passed.President Barack Obama announced what amounts to Stimulus 2 on Thursday, adopting a strident tone. He repeatedly directed Congress to pass a bill that isn’t even written yet, to the tune of $447 billion in US taxpayer assets.

Incredibly even though social security’s future solvency is in question, Obama decided to continue reducing contributions from American workers. This is a backdoor method for raiding a fiscally vulnerable social insurance program.

The president’s ideas reflect a complete lack of understanding of the business sector, from small companies to mega-corporations.

The first thing the president should ask Congress to do is to repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. That would remove a great deal of uncertainty in the marketplace.

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DeMint Presidential Forum a format to imitate

Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Tim Scott wait to speak at Red State Gathering held in Charleston. South Carolina is a key primary state, one reason political events are abundant there ahead of 2012. (Photo by Kay B. Day)Sen. Jim DeMint’s Presidential Forum gave each GOP candidate the opportunity to respond to questions on issues ranging from the Federal Reserve to Immigration. I watched as much as possible, but between the breakaways for commercials and other interruptions, I ended up just watching as much as possible rather than taking the notes I usually take.

So I have some gut reactions to the candidates I actually got to see and I regret that I didn't get to see them all.

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Perry on front line in polls and attacks

Gov. Rick Perry smiled as he waited for applause to die down ahead of his official announcement at the Red State Gathering 2011.The political battles have begun, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is on the front line in opinion polls, with a single questionable exception. He’s also on the front line facing attacks from progressive media and some of his fellow Republican candidates.

That’s natural when the end goal is to become president of the most exceptional country in the world.

The questionable poll comes from National Journal. NJ claimed GOP “insiders” believe former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would be the ideal candidate to beat President Barack Obama in 2012. As soon as I saw some of the names on the GOP ‘insider’ list, I questioned the poll.

When I saw some of the names of Democrats on the list NJ polled, Dept. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano stood out like a hair in a fast food salad.

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Perry rising to top as GOP candidates jockey for position

Sen. Jim DeMint organized a Presidential Forum scheduled for Sept. 5 in Columbia, SC. DeMint is shown here as he arrived at the Red State Gathering in Charleston in August. (Photo by Kay B. Day/The US Report)President Barack Obama technically has the bully pulpit, but for the last couple of weeks, the GOP presidential candidates have had the drama. Let’s face it. Most Americans aren’t glued to the TV watching Where in the World is Muammar Gadaffi?

Even with Democrats in Congress bashing the tea partiers (because the Dems’ record is dismal), the GOP candidate drama still holds center stage. Part of the reason for that is fluidity; there may be frontrunners but it's still early.

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Perry does meet and greet with his supporters—and with Obama’s

Gov. Rick Perry at Right Online conference. [Screen Snip]Today on Facebook I responded to a comment posted by my friend Cindy Graves, president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women. Cindy asked us to vote in a newspaper poll related to criticism of Gov. Rick Perry’s comments about Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. I commented about criticism of Perry, and concluded with this:

“Thus far, Perry is not only like a breath of fresh air to a maddeningly dull campaign field. He is telling it like it is. In my opinion.”

A few minutes later, a headline came in from The Boston Globe: ‘Protesters quiz Perry sharply in N.H.’ It would've been helpful had the newspaper written the header as 'Democrats quiz Perry sharply in N.H.'

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Attacks on Pawlenty show he’s a serious contender

Some in the conservative and progressive camps have harped on former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s reluctance to attack former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s healthcare program to a point where the criticism is suspect. At least it’s suspect if you consider the treatment President Barack Obama is getting right now.

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