Religion enters GOP race; Cain gains traction

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, speaks at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC

Herman Cain is getting plenty of attention less than three months before the first votes are cast in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

In the process, the ex-pizza magnate has highlighted the vulnerabilities of Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, who this weekend were dragged into a public debate over Romney's Mormon faith at an annual gathering of social conservatives here.

The Romney-Perry contretemps came after the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of a large Baptist church in Dallas, endorsed and introduced Perry, then later told reporters that evangelicals believed the Mormon faith - which Romney and fellow GOP candidate Jon Huntsman practice - was a "cult." Jeffress further predicted that if nominated by the Republicans, Romney could not beat President Barack Obama, because evangelicals would not support the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney was atop a Quinnipiac University poll of Republicans released Wednesday, but Cain had jumped ahead of Perry. Doubts about the Texas governor have increased after mediocre debate performances and because of objections among conservatives to his positions on immigration and his support of mandatory anti-cancer inoculations of children.

All three, along with Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; former Rep. Newt Gingrich; former Sen. Rick Santorum; and Rep. Ron Paul spoke to the annual "Values Voters" conference sponsored by the Family Research Council and other conservative groups.

Cain was greeted with enthusiasm. He joked that "Yes We Cain" and proclaimed himself as a fellow social conservative.

"I believe in life from conception, period, no exceptions," he said to sustained applause. "I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman."

The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza said he was the personification of the American Dream - a black man who grew up during Jim Crow but who could not have similarly succeeded in any other country.

"A reporter asked me . . . well, aren't you angry about how America has treated you?" Cain told a crowd of 3,000 at a D.C. hotel. "I said, 'Sir, you don't get it. I have achieved all of my American dreams and them some because of the great nation of the United States of America. What's there to be angry about?"

Cain finished second, to Paul, in a straw ballot conducted during the conference, far outdistancing both Perry, who finished with 8 percent, and Romney, who got just 4 percent. Paul got 37 percent, Cain 23, and Santorum 17.

Asked what it meant to Perry and Romney, who have alternatively led in national polls among Republicans in general, Family Research Council Chairman Tony Perkins said that "there is still work to do" to attract social conservatives.

But Jeffress's controversial endorsement competed with that headline. He told reporters that he believed Romney was a strong family man, but not a Christian, and therefore would have trouble with evangelical voters. Evangelicals vote heavily in states among the first where ballots for the Republican nomination are cast, including Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

"There are a lot of Christian voters who don't want to appear bigoted, so what they say to pollsters is not necessarily what they will do in the privacy of the voting booth," Jeffress said. "I frankly agree if Gov. Romney is the nominee Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States."

Romney did not directly refer to the issue when he addressed the group Saturday. But he did praise former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, who referred to Jeffress by name and said: "Do not give voice to bigotry."

Bennett complained that Jeffress "stepped on and obscured the words" of seven Republican presidential candidates who addressed the conference.

"You did Rick Perry no good, sir, in what you had to say," Bennett said.

Perry told reporters campaigning in Iowa after his Friday speech that he did not believe Mormonism was a cult.

Paul, who also received a robust reception, said the Perry-Romney dust-up was a distraction.

"Too much government is the issue of the day, not the definition of a cult," he said after his speech.

In his remarks to the group, Perry tried to draw sharper differences with Romney on abortion.

Touching social conservatives' criticism that Romney only hardened his views against abortion when he began running for president, Perry said: "For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to follow the prevailing political winds. To me it's about the absolute principle that every human being is entitled to life."

Romney responded by telling the conference that "our values must also encompass the life of an unborn child." He acknowledged that "there are, of course, strong convictions on both sides of the life issue. Yet, it speaks well of our country that almost all Americans recognize that abortion is a problem."

He also said that "the blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate."

Sarah Palin won't run for president

Sarah Palin made it official Wednesday: She won't run for president.

In a letter to supporters, the 2008 vice presidential nominee took herself out of the running for the Republican nomination.

Instead, Palin said she can be more effective helping other Republicans win office as governors, members of Congress and president.

It was a shorter, sweeter retreat than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's official bowing-out on Tuesday, which came at a lengthy press conference in Trenton.

Taken together, the twin Shermanesque statements pretty much leave Republicans facing what's likely to be the complete GOP field -- dominated by Mitt Romney and a fading Rick Perry, and with pizza magnate Herman Cain rising in the polls.

Most Republicans had not expected Palin to run ever since Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann got into the race and soared to the top in the Iowa straw poll. But Bachmann's stumbles since then opened the door a bit for another female contender with strong conservative credentials.

Palin's path to the nomination would have been complicated by the presence of Perry and so many others, including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, destined to split the conservative vote.


The man who picked her as his running mate in 2008, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said on Twitter that Palin will "continue to play an important role in our party and for our nation."

The announcement, made from her home in Wasilla, Alaska, could mark the end of Palin's meteoric political career. She was an obscure first-term governor in America's 50th state when she became the surprise vice presidential candidate on the eve of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Her experience as veep nominee was rocky, much as Dan Quayle's was 20 years earlier when he was plucked from relative obscurity by George H.W. Bush on the eve of that year's GOP convention in New Orleans.

After a strong convention speech, she had a tough time dealing with a skeptical media. Her worst moment may have come during an interview with Katie Couric on CBS, when she reiterated that her state's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience.

Here's the former Alaska governor's letter, as obtained by ABC News:

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office -- from the nation's governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the "fundamental transformation" of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back -- and as I've always said, one doesn't need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let's unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

Sarah Palin

Michele Bachmann's 'genius' in vowing $2-a-gallon gas

While President Obama wanders around the oil patch trying to come up with a coherent energy policy, he could learn a thing or two from GOP hopeful Michele Bachmann, writes energy correspondent Lisa Margonelli in The Atlantic.

Every president has tried to make the case for energy independence, the need to cut down on oil imports or otherwise find a way to slack the nation's thirst for foreign oil. Rep. Bachmann of Minnesota simply says that when she is elected president, she will hold the price of gallon of gas down to $2 a gallon.

"Under President Bachmann," she told a campaign audience, "you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen."

What's so smart about that?:

Bachmann's genius is that she neatly pivoted away from the impossible dream of energy independence to the impossible dream of $2 gas, which is hugely important to struggling lower middle-class voters. While intellectuals heard "$2 gas" and scoffed at the hubris, many Americans heard "$2 gas" and thought such cheap fuel would be awfully nice to have and that "President Bachmann" would feel their pain more than someone mealy mouthing away about cutting imports from the Middle East. After 38 years of stasis, Bachmann managed to change the premise of the energy debate away from the abstraction of "independence" to the visceral issue of price. In addition to getting the phrase "President Bachmann" into our ears, she managed to turn every one of the country's more than 120,000 gasoline price signs into a rebuking advertisement for herself.

Margonelli says Bachmann didn't come up with the $2-a-gallon on a whim:

She's been promising it since 2008, with the issue resonating with families making less than $50,000 and seeing the pump eat up a lot of their spendable income.

For Obama, the challenge is come up with a similar ploy. In case you're wondering, the Energy Department reported yesterday that regular gas averaged $3.674 a gallon across the country, up a nickel a gallon from last week.

Bill O'Reilly: Things Heat Up in Republican Precincts

By Bill O'Reilly

In a couple of weeks, the Republican campaign to unseat President Obama will be ramped up.

According to the latest polls, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is now the frontrunner, Mitt Romney second and Michele Bachmann third. At this point, those are the three candidates who seem to have a chance for the nomination. Of course, anything can happen in the bizarre world of politics.

Michele Bachmann is an ideological candidate who is handling herself very well in my opinion. Her appeal is for conservatives and fiscal independents who are simply fed up with liberal philosophy and big government spending. But at this point, the polls say that Mrs. Bachmann is a long shot.

Therefore, the race between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney becomes a headline, and there are reports that the two men don't like each other very much.

On Tuesday, Gov. Romney spoke to the VFW in San Antonio, Texas:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, I'm a conservative businessman. I spent most of my life outside politics dealing with real problems in the real economy. Career politicians got us into this mess, and they simply don't know how to get us out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Some believe that was a veiled shot at Rick Perry, who is a career politician.

What separates the two governors is, again, ideology. Mr. Perry is more conservative than Mr. Romney, and he often uses spirituality in his presentations. Mr. Romney is running as America's CEO, a man who has succeeded in private business and who knows how to handle the free marketplace. Gov. Perry is pretty much running on that as well, showcasing Texas as an economic success story.

The truth is that both Romney and Perry have many things in common, including good hair, and both of them would offer a tough challenge to Barack Obama. At this point, it is impossible to say which man has the most going for him. Even though Gov. Perry leads in the polls, he is untested in debate and Americans don't know very much about him. Gov. Romney has big-name recognition, but many conservatives are suspicious of him -- not a good thing in Republican primaries.

Right now "Talking Points" believes the Perry-Romney battle is a toss-up and could go either way depending on how the candidates perform in the upcoming debates.

So as they like to say in Texas, there will be a high noon between these two men, a verbal shoot-out that will leave just one standing.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

As you may know, former Vice President Dick Cheney has a book out, and, of course, the late-night guys sense an easy target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Dick Cheney's new book is out. It comes out tomorrow. This is Dick Cheney's new book. It's right here. It's called "Torture in the Rye." You don't want to miss it.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": In a recent interview, Dick Cheney said that his new memoir will have "heads exploding in D.C." Yes, especially if you read it while you're on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Dick says that the reason he wrote the memoir is because friends encouraged him to do it. What? This guy has friends?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

You know, fellows, it's just too easy. You're pinheads for being predictable.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.

Michele Bachmann Wins! Scenes from the Ames Straw Poll Circus

The victorious Minnesotan's tent was thronged, Ron Paul's support proved deep as expected and Tim Pawlenty's many green T-shirts couldn't mask his soft support

AMES, Iowa -- Women wearing sign-boards that say, "I am a person" over an image of a fetus. The ubiquitous Fair Tax people. The AARP. The National Association for Guns Rights' development director barking into a bullhorn against "Hillary Clinton's small arms treaty" and "the international destruction of the Second Amendment."

The Ames Straw Poll is a test of Republican presidential contenders' organizational strength that has a strong track record of accurately predicting the winner of the Iowa caucuses -- since 1979, that man's always been an Ames No. 1 or 2 finisher, Nate Silver reminds -- if not the GOP nomination or the presidency.

It's also a zoo, the political equivalent of the Iowa State Fair down the road in Des Moines, a festival of Bar-B-Q and T-shirts, bumper stickers and personal mobility devices. Some 700 members of the press reportedly signed up to cover it this year, and an eye-ball estimate of the conservative throngs by midday suggested to me attendance was far larger than in 2007, when 14,302 cast votes. Of course, not everyone here voted. Some just came for the scene.

Here's some of what they saw:

BACHMANN SWAMPS

"I have been to 4 #iastrawpoll events and never seen a line as long as Bachmann's," Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad's Communications Director Tim Albrecht tweeted midday.

That seemingly endless line was the subject of much speculation, snaking out from her tent and curving back around until it nearly intersected with the food line at former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum's tent on the other side of the Hilton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University. At the line's front, once could actually slip unimpeded into her tent to see musical acts like Randy Travis in the dim air-conditioned space, where there were seats for the elderly and infirm. The hold-up at the tent's entrance wasn't to enter -- it was the thousands of people waiting to sign in and be given tickets that would allow them to cast a vote for Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Ultimately, more than 6,000 of the $30 tickets to vote were distributed by her campaign, according to a source inside her tent, giving her the edge and making her the first woman to ever win the Ames Straw Poll after 4,823 of them cast ballots for her.

"Thank you everyone for being here," Bachmann said to cheers, emerging briefly from her campaign bus to shake hands and thank supporters after being declared the victor. "This is the very first step toward taking the White House in 2012 and sending the message that Barack Obama will be a one-term president." The one-term president line has become a signature in her stump speech, so much so that the coliseum audience chanted it along with her when she used it in while addressing them earlier in the day.

"We love you. Thank you so much. It's your victory," she told supporters.

It's not totally clear what happened to the rest of the distributed Bachmann tickets, some 1,200 of which did not turn into votes. What was clear was that not everyone in Bachmann's long lines was an eligible voter -- there were a slew of people from Minnesota still waiting for beef sundaes toward the end of the balloting period, for example. Among them was Pat Konkleir, 58, who came down from Blaine, Minn., in Bachmann's district to help organize straw poll activities. "We brought down a bus of 40 or 50 or so," she said.

Even so, with 16,892 ballots cast, it was highest number of votes at a straw poll since 1999.

Bachmann's Iowa faith-based coalitions organizer credited her win to the churches. "I've not ever seen anything like this," he said, strolling the floor in the press center after it was clear she'd won but before the results were announced -- and before realizing he wasn't supposed to give out his name. They were "extraordinary numbers."

"At the end of the day, the story is going to be the faith-based turnout," he said. That, and Ed Rollins, Bachmann's top political adviser, who was "really an inspiration. He told us how to do it."

But in talking volunteers wearing orange Michele Bachmann T-shirts or wilting in line for her tent, Bachmann's social conservatism stood out as only one aspect of what appeared to be a coalition that's gathered around her.

"She's a constitutionalist," observed volunteer Paul Dayton of Boone. "She's fiscally conservative. She votes the way she says she will."

"She's firm, she's solid. I love her enthusiasm. I love everything she is," effused Shirley Ripley, 70, of Charles City, a self-described "tea party person." Pressed for specifics, she pointed to "regulations up the ying yang," "how they're trying to tell us how we can't have salt, can't have potato chips, can't have pop" and what is being taught to children.

In addition to religious conservatives, fiscal conservatives and constitutionalists (which usually means: people with a libertarian stance toward federal government regulations), Bachmann appeals to conservative women. Even if they are so conservative they can't always vote for her.

Dea Davenport, 73, of Diagonal, Iowa, said she was a Bachmann supporter but hadn't cast her straw poll vote for her. "If she were a man I would have voted for her," Davenport said. "I feel like a man ought to be running the country, but she'd be my second choice."

"I think she's a good candidate, though, I really do," she sighed. "I just wish she were a man."

A STALLED PAUL

Texas Rep. Ron Paul is waging his third presidential bid and has said he won't run for the House again so he can focus all his energies on it. The fact that he won as many votes as he did, 4,671, and that Bachmann could put together an operation that bested his years-long effort in just 48 days -- a number she mentioned repeatedly during her speech in the coliseum Saturday afternoon -- suggests both how narrow and deep his base of support is.

Paul has tended to win straw polls wherever he goes, but the critical difference between the Ames Straw Poll and the ones at the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Republican Leadership Conference earlier this year -- both of which he won -- is that this poll was limited to people from a circumscribed geographic area.

It's easy for Paul to gather his impassioned supporters from around the country at a conference; it's harder for him to muster support within a single locale. That was the case for him last cycle as well, when he was able to build enormous presence at GOP and conservative events throughout Iowa by drawing supporters from around the region but came in fifth in the straw poll.

This time, Paul did a better job turning out his local backers but there was little to suggest he'd significantly broadened his appeal. His Hawkeye State-backers in Ames by and large seemed to have been with him for the long haul, rather than new supporters, raising questions about how much more backing he can gain before the caucuses. Sure, he had a dunk-tank near his tents for little kids to compete with Bachmann's entertainingly tiny yellow blimp, which floated above her campaign bus all day to signal where her tent was, but the people who turned out for him weren't there for that or the hot dogs or his giant inflatable "Sliding Dollar" slide game.

Ray Bures, 69, of Ely, Iowa, had been a supporter of Paul's "going all the way back probably 20 years, when I first became aware of him." Tony Stuntz, 30, of Council Bluffs, had been backing him "since 2007" and says he'd "met a couple of guys who voted for him in '88." Mark Hansen, 30 and also of Council Bluffs, described himself as "a strong supporter for the last four years."

Paul's consistency has kept these voters and others like them with him, even as new candidates have entered the field. "He's always been doing the same thing," said Bill Hofmeister, 39, of Cedar Rapids, a Paul supporter since 2009. "He's not a flip-flopper."

SOFT PAWLENTY SUPPORT

Tim Pawlenty's machine seemed well-organized, but interviews with individuals in and around his tent revealed less than firm support for him -- a level of support that was ultimately reflected in Pawlenty's third-place finish with just 2,293 of the votes cast.

"Why are you supporting Tim Pawlenty?" I asked Becky Reif of Cedar Rapids, who was one of many people wearing a green Pawlenty 2012 T-shirt.

"I don't have a candidate," she replied. "I'm still open to other people."

"But you voted for him today?" I followed up.

"I did vote for him today," she said. "He sounds like a good man. He sounds like he's got the same Christian values."

She'd come in with a group from the River of Life Church that was all voting Pawlenty, she explained. She was not in Ames out of any kind of personal passion for him.

Over in the food tent, Lavada Dennis, 74 and from Cedar Falls, was similarly noncommittal. "I'm a Pawlenty supporter. But it's a long way from the election," she said while eating a sandwich from Famous Dave's BBQ. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who announced today for the presidency at an event in South Carolina, was also of interest to her.

"I think Rick Perry has a lot of experience running the state of Texas," she observed. That made his argument much like Pawlenty's -- the experience argument, "versus, you know, Bachmann," she said.

Pawlenty, perhaps sensing his weak hold on those wearing his T-shirts, warned them from the stage midday: "I hope you have all voted. If not I'm gonna come over and give you the what for."

A SANTORUM BUMP

"This is the little engine that could campaign," Santorum described his candidacy in remarks in the coliseum.

Wooed with hot dogs and peach preserves made from peach trees on Santorum property -- quite excellent by the way -- a surprising number of people appeared to have turned out for him. But he still came in fourth with 1,657 votes, a finish that was clearly disappointing to him. Ebullient and cautiously optimistic at midday, he had a deflated look when he came back to speak to the press long after results were announced and staff from Iowa State University was trying to clear press out so the space could be turned over to NBC for a taping of "Meet the Press."

The Santorum effort would be "the fine wine candidacy," he said, committing to staying in the race. "We will age very, very well."

***

Below are the rest of the official results:

OFFICIAL RESULTS

2011 Straw Poll Full Results (Votes, %)
1. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (4823, 28.55%)
2. Congressman Ron Paul (4671, 27.65%)
3. Governor Tim Pawlenty (2293, 13.57%)
4. Senator Rick Santorum (1657, 9.81%)
5. Herman Cain(1456, 8.62%)
6. Governor Rick Perry (718, 3.62%) write-in
7. Governor Mitt Romney (567, 3.36%)
8. Speaker Newt Gingrich (385, 2.28%)
9. Governor Jon Huntsman (69, 0.41%)
10. Congressman Thad McCotter (35, 0.21%)
Scattering (162, 0.96 %) Includes all those receiving votes at less than one-percent that were not on the ballot.


Image credits: Bachmann (REUTERS/Daniel Acker); Santorum (Garance Franke-Ruta)