CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Perry maintains lead

A new CNN/ORC International poll finds Texas Governor Rick Perry continues to lead in the race for the 2011 Republican presidential nomination:

• Perry - 28%
• Romney - 21%
• Gingrich - 10%
• Cain - 7%
• Palin - 7%
• Paul - 7%
• Bachmann - 4%
• Santorum - 3%
• Huntsman - 1%

Without Palin in the mix the results are similar:

• Perry - 30%
• Romney - 22%
• Gingrich - 11%    
• All others in single digits

The new poll also finds that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney polls better than Perry in hypothetical matchups against President Obama:

Romney vs. Obama:

• Romney - 48%
• Obama - 49%

Paul vs. Obama:

• Paul - 47%
• Obama - 515

Perry vs. Obama:

• Perry - 46%
• Obama - 51%

The poll was conducted September 23-25 and has sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent. It' is important to remember that polls taken a year before the election may have little predictive value.

CNN Polling Director Keating Holland doesn't think the poll indicates Perry lost ground because of his widely panned FoxNews/Google debate performance:

"Perry's support is down just two points, and Romney is up only one to three points - and since all those numbers are well within the sampling error, it doesn't look like much has changed, possibly because average voters aren't as plugged into the debates as political junkies are. If the debates have had an effect, it may be mostly in favor of Gingrich, whose support went from 5 percent in mid-September to 10 percent now."

Huckabee: Perry ‘is not prepared for the pressure of the presidential stage’

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor and candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, says Texas Governor Rick Perry "is not prepared for the pressure of the presidential stage."

Huckabee's comment came during an appearance on a Fox & Friends segment which came down hard on Perrys performance at the News/Google GOP Debate at the Orange County Convention Center Orlando.

The Fox & Friends cast was all over Perry now infamous defense of allowing illegal immigrants to get in state tuition:

"But if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart."

On Friday, Perry tried to put the you don't have a heart line behind him on Friday saying:

"It’s not who is the slickest candidate or the smoothest debater that we need to elect. We need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country."

Huckabee suggested Perry could have dealt with the issue in a way that would have diffused it. Huckabee said Perry should have pointed out that theses are not people who just showed up to go to college, but children already educated in the Texas school system.

Watch the video:

Huckabee comparing Perry to 2008 presidential candidate Fred Thompson was a little political payback. During the 2008 campaign, Huckabee sought Perry's endorsement, but Perry backed Rudy Giuliani.

Perry must do whatever is necessary to be better prepared for these debates. He must be able to adequately respond to issues we all know will be thrown at him.

Perry campaign releases CNN/TEA Party debate highlights

Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign released the following highlights from Perry's performance at the September 12, 2011 Republican presidential candidates CNN/TEA Party debate:

As in the Reagan Library debate highlights, Perry's performance was good, but not as good as the editing makes him appear in this video.

The transcript of the debate is available here and video of the entire debate is available on YouTube here.

Perry campaign releases Reagan Library debate highlights

Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign released the following highlights from Perry's performance at the September 7, 2011 Republican presidential candidates debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum:

Perry's performance was good, but not as good as the editing makes him appear in the video.

The transcript of the debate is available here and video of the entire debate is available on YouTube here.

How many continents are there?

The following video "explains" why you might be confused about how many continents there are:

I hope that took care of the confusion.

Obama's approval rating drops to another all-time low

A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that President Obama's overall approval rating has dropped to an all-time low 43% and his disapproval rating has reached an all-time high of 50%.

The New York Times put it this way:

President Obama’s support is eroding among elements of his base, and a yearlong effort to recapture the political center has failed to attract independent voters, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, leaving him vulnerable at a moment when pessimism over the country’s direction is greater than at any other time since he took office.

The new poll found a partisan a partisan divide. On Obama's job performance: 78% of Democrats approve, 89% of Republicans disapprove and only 37% of Independents approve, while 54% disapprove.

The poll was conducted September 10-15, 2011 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. 

Gallup's three-day rolling average Obama Job Approval for September 13-15 has Obama's approval back in the 30s -- 39% approval and 52% disapproval.

Perry still leads

Democratic polling company PPP finds that Texas Governor Rick Perry maintains his 13 point lead over Mitt Romney :

• Perry - 31%
• Romney - 18%
• Ron Paul - 11%
• Newt Gingrich - 10%,
• Michele Bachmann - 9%
• Herman Cain - 8%
• Rick Santorum - 2%
• Jon Huntsman 2%.

According to PPP, Bachmann continues to tumble from contention not long after winning the Ames Straw Poll. Paul is up five points and Gingrich and Cain each two. Santorum has fallen two points and Huntsman one.

Laggards Santorum and Huntsman continue to lose ground and one wonders how much longer they will continue their Quixotic campaigns.

The race for the Republican nomination remains a two-man race -- Perry and Romney. If they were they only contenders now, Perry would lead 49%-37%.

The poll was conducted September 8 to 11, 2011 and has a +/-4.4% margin of error.

Congressman Paul Ryan explains pro-growth tax reform

Wisconsin Congressman, and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, explains common sense ideas about pro-growth tax reforms that are fair, competitive, simple, and that have
 bipartisan support:

It's that simple.

Full transcript of the video:

Pro-growth Tax Reform - Fair. Competitive. Simple.

America’s economy has been hit really hard. A lot of people have lost their jobs. More borrowing and spending and higher taxes are not going to bring jobs back to America. The last thing we need to be doing is to complicate job creation in America with this complicated tax code that we have today.

A tax code should be fair, competitive and simple, and the US tax code fails on all three counts.  Here are common-sense ideas we've advanced before...ideas that have bipartisan support.

First, we have to make our tax code fair.

It’s full of deductions, credits and special carve-outs – otherwise known as “loopholes” – that let politically-connected companies avoid paying taxes. Every dollar that businesses spend lobbying for a better tax deal, is a dollar they’re not spending on making a better product. 

And, since every dollar hidden in a loophole doesn’t get taxed – politicians make up for this lost revenue by increasing overall tax rates. So we need to close these loopholes.

But if we just close loopholes, then our federal corporate tax rate is 35 percent, which is really high.

Add in state and local taxes, the rate climbs to 39.2 percent – the second highest tax rate among developed countries.

On top of sending almost 40 cents out of every dollar earned, straight to the government, businesses pay investment taxes, payroll taxes, and a handful of other taxes our government makes job creators pay.

In the 21st century global economy – and when American families need jobs – this approach just doesn’t make any sense.

We need to make our tax code competitive.

The budget we passed in the House of Representatives calls for closing the loopholes and lowering the rates. 

The President’s bipartisan Fiscal Commission proposed something similar.

Its plan would reduce the corporate tax rate to as low as 26 percent, and to lower the top individual rate that many small businesses pay to as low as 23 percent.

So if we lower tax rates, does that mean the wealthy pay less in taxes? Not if we do it by closing loopholes. Because the people who use most of the loopholes are those in the top tax brackets. For all the money that’s parked in these tax loopholes, all that money’s taxed at zero. Take away the tax loophole; lower everybody’s tax rates – that money’s now taxed. But its taxed at a fair more simple, more competitive way so the small business men and women who are out there striving and competing have a better tax rate so they can compete in this global economy.

Third, let’s make the tax code simple.

All together, individuals and businesses spend over six billion hours and 160 billion dollars, every year, just trying to understand and comply with the tax code.

Let’s simplify the code, not just by closing loopholes, but also by decreasing the number of different tax brackets taxpayers fall in.

Fewer brackets, along with lower individual rates, will make the tax code less complicated, and let more people keep more of the money they earn. 

There’s a reason this approach has attracted bipartisan support: It’s Fair, It’s Competitive, and It’s Simple.

America’s been knocked down before. We’ve had tough recessions before, and we know that the secret to growing jobs and prosperity in America are through the ingenuity and the hard work of our businesses – of our small businesses, of our large businesses, of job creators. We don’t want a tax system that rewards people for coming to Washington and getting special favors. We want a tax system that rewards Americans for hard work, risk taking, entrepreneurship , investment and innovation. These are the kinds of things that have made America great in the past. And these are the kinds of ideas the we’re going to need if want to grow our economy in the future and compete in the 21st century global economy.

Perry leads in Gallup's Positive Intensity Scores

Gallup reports that prior to Monday night's CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential debate Perry's Positive Intensity Score of 24 was holding near the upper boundary of his scores since he entered the race -- similar to the 25 recorded in the prior two weeks.

According to Gallup, the only announced candidate whose Positive Intensity Score improved significantly in recent weeks is Mitt Romney -- up from 11 in late August.

The rest of the candidates aren't doing as well:

• Bachmann has lost much of the passionate support she generated as recently as early August.

• Palin among national Republicans has also slipped to a new low for the year.

• Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, and Huntsman all seem to be in a holding pattern at levels seemingly keeping them out of serious contention.

• Cain continues to score high in positive intensity but remains unable to get his recognition above 50%.

It still looks like a two man race

Like Rasmussen's Presidential Approval Index rating, Gallup calculates a "Positive Intensity Score" based on the difference between strongly favorable and strongly unfavorable opinions among those who are familiar with the candidate.

Republican wins disgraced Democrat Weiner's Congressional seat

Republican Bob Turner won the special election to replace disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner in New York's 9th congressional district. A Democrat bastion since the 1920s held by the likes of Geraldine Ferraro, the Democrats' 1984 vice-presidential nominee, now-Sen. Charles E. Schumer and, for the last 12-plus years, the infamous Anthony Weiner.

This shocking victory was possible because the election became a referendum on President Obama and his extreme left-wing agenda.

One example of how the election became a referendum on Obama is this ad the Emergency Committee for Israel aired hitting President Obama's anti-Israel policy:

The Republican's win came in the face of the massive last minute Democrat campaign push that saturated the district with robo-calls from former President Bill Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As former George W. Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer tput it:

"This is a backlash in a 3-to-1 Democratic district that's overhwelmingly Jewish."