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Aug. 11 Debate Important for Paul and Santorum

August 9, 2011 - Mike Donahey
A warm-up to Saturday’s Iowa Straw Poll is a debate Thursday evening in Ames between the major Republican candidates. It is co-sponsored by Fox News and the Washington Examiner. Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will be there. It is important both do well for different reasons.

Paul, the former gynecologist-obstetrician and 1988 Libertarian presidential candidate, must convince doubters and undecided voters that he has a wide grasp of policy issues and not just those dear to his heart. He is an outspoken critic against abortion, having authored “Abortion and Liberty” in 1983. His stand on abortion bothered some Libertarians, as the party supports personal liberty and opposes laws and restrictions on actions and lifestyles of individuals.

Paul has called for a return to the gold standard, which was dropped in the 1970s by then President Nixon. The importance of the gold standard and its chances of being re-implemented have been questioned and debated by economists.

Give Paul credit, he knows how to organize a campaign and win. He finished third in the 1988, presidential race, garnering 500,000 votes. Importantly, he has won a congressional seat and subsequent re-elections against more established and better-financed opposition. He has represented his district since 1997 and serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Expect him to showcase foreign affairs and economics knowledge during the debate.

A large crowd came out to see him in Marshalltown and Paul yard signs can be seen throughout the area. In their Aug. 8 online edition, polling service Rasmussen Reports reported Paul with 16 percent of support from likely Republican caucus attendees. This put him in the top three. Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann earned 22 percent support while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picked up 21 percent. The poll was conducted Aug. 4. Polls can be tricky, however. They are a snapshot of voter’s opinions at one point in time. And the same report said many voters are open to changing their mind before the 2012 caucus day arrives.

While his campaign may find those results positive, Paul and his supporters are focused on Ames. Credit his organization if he finishes in the top three. A $51,000 purchase of prime booth space from the Iowa Republican Party at the event should help.

Santorum’s poll numbers have been in the single digits in Iowa, but that has not deterred his campaign. He was in Marshalltown Friday and sticking to his guns. Specifically, he announced at the town hall meeting that he is in the race for “leadership and not showmanship” — perhaps a jab at Bachmann and the president. A Santorum administration would have a balanced budget and would be a “champion of faith and families,” he said. While here, he promoted his underdog status and ability to beat incumbent Democrats, something he proved in the 2000 Senate race. A recent Des Moines Register candidate profile highlighted his decision not to moderate his stands (against the advice of a good friend) in the 2006 Senate race against Democrat challenger Bob Casey. (Casey won big — 59 percent to 41 percent).

Santorum must prove he is a viable candidate and not get lost in the crowd. And the crowd may became bigger as Texas Gov. Rick Perry intends to join the presidential race Saturday, according to an online report Monday in the New York Times. However, the report said he would stop short of making a formal announcement.

 
 

Article Comments

(12)

Jackson

Aug-10-11 8:22 PM

Bachmann hasn’t learned the job she’s got yet; it’s ridiculous for her to seek a higher office at this point. That’s obvious to me and also, it appears, to the people of Minnesota. Heck, she couldn’t even take the debt-ceiling debate seriously, she thought it was a trumped up scare tactic. She has a lot of maturing to do.

Aug-10-11 5:26 PM

From, “47% of Minnesota Voters Want Michele Bachmann to Just Go Away”:

"A new PPP survey of Minnesota found that 47% of voters don’t want Michele Bachmann to run for Congress or president. They just want her to go away.

Only 28% of those surveyed want former Gov. Tim Pawlenty to run for president. Seventeen percent would like to see Pawlenty run for Senate, and 7% aren’t sure. Almost half of those asked (47%) did not want to see Pawlenty run for anything.

Michele Bachmann’s potential presidential campaign is even less popular than Pawlenty’s. Only 14% of those surveyed support a Bachmann run for President. Just 10% believe that she should run for another term in the House, and 47% don’t want Bachmann to run for any office.”

Aug-10-11 5:15 PM

Note to Casca1: Get yourself back to REALITY! Delusional is not a way to make it in this world.

Colemans

Aug-10-11 12:25 PM

Bachmann is a fake Tea Party backer. Don’t be suckered, read, “Bachmann's had her share of government aid”, By Melanie Mason and Matea Gold, Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2011.

Also, there is this:

"She is a faithful conservative with great oratory skills, but without any leadership experience or real results from her years in office," wrote Ron Carey in an op-ed published in the Des Moines Register. "She is not prepared to assume the White House in 2013," he concluded.

Bachmann wields more power outside the U.S. Capitol than within. She hasn’t shepherded any major legislation through the House. And a search of congressional records turns up just three resolutions in which she was the major sponsor that passed the chamber -- honoring organizations that provide services for foster children, the State of Minnesota’s 150th anniversary, and “National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month.”

She’s no leader; she comes to the battlefield when the fighting is over to stab the woun

Johnson

Aug-10-11 10:43 AM

Last night during a campaign stop in Iowa, Michele Bachmann said President Obama should call Congress back from its recess to steady the markets. “If I were president today, I would call all the members of Congress back into Washington, DC, and I’d say this: ‘Look, we are going to get this AAA credit rating back, and this is what we’re going to do.’”

That’s a gutsy demand coming from a congresswoman who’s missed 40% of House votes. Since formally announcing her candidacy, the chairwoman of the Tea Party Caucus has missed 50 of 135 votes. As the Hill noted Sunday, Bachmann’s caucus “was nowhere to be found” during the recent debt ceiling debate and has only held one meeting since Bachmann started it. That’s leadership Bachmann style.

Jeffffro

Aug-09-11 6:16 PM

What a load of lies and misinformation.

Just one point that should discredit all of your six post rant...

This administration has clearly been more active in deporting and preventing illegal immigration than the last three Presidents have....There have been increases in deportation of illegals in the last two years and more resources deployed to the borders than ever before.

And one more thing....the Tea Party is nothing more than a slivered faction of the GOP. It is hardly representative of a true cross section of our society.

Aug-09-11 4:48 PM

When the America people have enough of the illegal immigration occupation, they need to speak up and use their vote as a fulcrum. The small country of Denmark hit pay dirt, by enforcing harsh immigration laws and was able save its citizens $10 billion dollars over a decade. Denmark is hardly larger than the state of Ohio in size with all its islands, but its tough immigration laws has reduced the financial pressure on its people. So why it is with the vast resources and manpower this sovereign nation has at its grasp, yet we cannot remove these illegal workers and their large families—or decline. It’s obvious to any far-sighted taxpayer a permanent E-Verify nationwide, have this capacity to evict illegal workers. Voters must moreover stop the Justice Department from rescinding the “Secure communities” law and mandate this innovation across the country.

Aug-09-11 4:48 PM

The TEA PARTY in Ames, Iowa and nationwide will change the disturbing route that America is going with overpopulation, crumbling infrastructure, unemployment and unrelenting immigration laws. Any state should not be a scapegoat, for the intentional or unconcerned inability, there failure of the U.S government, to ignore the people's wishes when in comes to cutting of public entitlements to foreign nationals.

Aug-09-11 4:47 PM

E-Verify aids in rejecting illegal foreigners stealing jobs in the workplace and Secure Communities determines by fingerprint procedures, alerting ICE to criminals and re-entries after deportations. We can start the repatriation of foreigners using these methods, with sweeping audits by ICE. Businesses should face harsh criminal charges for hiring illegal aliens, with 6 figure fines and time in prison. Congress could simplifying the whole mess inherited over thirty years, to enact illegal entry as a--FELONY--and use Alabama's example that those without legal standing, within its State borders should also be convicted of a felony. American can no longer be passive on this out-of-control issue, as illegal immigration is causing near bankruptcy amongst the states. Currently, federal government and its states are 113 Billion dollars a year that is being extorted from taxpayers to cater to people from across the globe, as reported by The Federation of American Immigration Reform?

Aug-09-11 4:47 PM

Incredulously open-border Democrats have turned a blind eye to aliens voting in all elections, especially that will sure to happen in 2012, when we must be on our guard as citizens. Read more about the increase in Voter Fraud across the 50 states. Charging persons with a felony would mean no more overcrowded schools, no free education for the children and the breakdown of our emergency hospitals.

Aug-09-11 4:47 PM

With Washington under the legislators in the TEA PARTY there will be no hesitation, in enforcing the E-Verify or Secure Communities--that Homeland Security has notified they are rescinding the later law. The Tea Party will reject any form of administration amnesty, which is a link CHAIN MIGRATION. The TEA PARTY has become a massive grassroots movement of millions of concurring Americans from all racial, religious backgrounds and political parties. The TEA PARTY members share the nucleus principles of restricted government, individual freedoms, personal responsibility, fair free markets and above all else returning power to the States and the people. The TEA PARTY is about reforming all political parties and government, so the key principles of our Constitution, once again is the foundation of which this nation stands.

Aug-09-11 4:46 PM

Hopefully the Iowa straw-poll places Rep. Michele Bachmann, the TEA PARTY chairman as a strong presidential contender. With her strong Conservative convictions, she has refused to become part of the "old boys club" in either party. In fact the lady didn't vote in lifting the debt ceiling by another $2.5 Trillion dollars. 2012 will be a “Make or break” year for America in doing the same thing and repeating the same mistakes. Bachmann backbone will not bend to the greed in Washington, and will not be intimidated by corporate lobbyists or the establishment. It wasn’t President Obama or the Majority of Democrats, which caused the massive problem that this country, must now face. But Sen. Harry Reid, who cut off any chance of debate in the discretionary spending when the Senate voted to “table,” a House Republican proposal to “not give the time of day” to “Cut, Cap and Balance”. Reid of Nevada has one of the largest populations of illegal household, next to the Sanctuary state of

 
 

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