FLORIDA STRAW POLL POSTGAME: I am now a Herman Cain fan.

Nothing but net. Well done.

 

OMG I HAVE NEVER LOVED YOU MORE.

 

Awesome.

 

Randolph: "You don't seriously believe I would hire a n****** to run our business?"
Mortimer: "Of course not. And neither would I."

 

Well, at least you used *** instead of calling him the c-word.

 

This one is about 10,000X more viable than Iowa's. At least this one has a history of correctly predicting the nominee. Iowa's usually just goes with the most extreme of the candidates.

I'm absolutely stunned by Cain winning Florida. I don't think he will be the nominee, but I think a lot of people are taking him a little more seriously today.

 

I think he's more like this candidate:



I still have a hard time seeing an out-of-nowhere, underfunded candidate like Cain making any inroads, unless everyone else has just given up. Bachmann has crashed, Perry is crashing, and there's no primary enthusiasm for Romney. The professional right is reduced to begging Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie to reconsider -- not that it will definitely make a difference if they did. I'm sure there are pockets of support for Cain, but this seems as much about Republican's desperation for a viable anybody-but-Romney candidate as anything else.

 

I don't think this was a protest vote. But I think it was an indication that people are not pleased or at least overly excited with the two frontrunners.

That said, I have mixed feelings about someone who has to be begged to run, especially since most people think the reason Daniels and Christie both sat it out so they could wait until 2016. Now that there is the actual chance they could win, they look like hypocrites.

That said, I think both would be huge (not a Christie fat joke) improvements over the current crop.

 

If a bully who is built like William Howard Taft and is polling in the low 40s in his own state is the GOP's silver bullet, Obama has every reason to feel confidence.

 

I don't disagree, but Florida is a key state. It's not like fucking Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina. If you win Florida, you usually win the election. I don't think this is a sign that he's going to be a serious candidate, but I think this may give him a boost that he desperately needed to keep him in the race.

 

The Koch Brothers and others are giving Christie millions upon millions of reasons to run, although, really their begging is starting to look a little embarrassing. Also, money can buy you instant front-runnership, but it doesn't mean people are going to vote for you. Otherwise, we would have California Gov. Meg Whitman, U.S. Sen. Carly Fiorina (R-Calif.), Sen. Michael Huffington (R, Calif.)... and current N.J. Gov. Jon Corzine.

As for the draft-Christie movement:

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/the-big-money-behind-the-chris-christie-boomlet.php?ref=fpb

In July, Christie attended a meeting with a “who’s who A-list of successful fundraisers,” as FOX News put it to discuss a possible presidential bid. The group reportedly included several billionaires, including its host, Home Depot co-founder and venture capitalist Kenneth Langone, who appears to be the most enthusiastic driver of the Christie boomlet. ...

New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer is also named by Politico as one of the leaders of the latest Draft Christie movement. Singer was a major fundraiser for both George W. Bush’s and Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaigns. ...

Another key Christie backer: FOX News CEO Roger Ailes. According to New York Magazine, Ailes begged him to run before the presidential race got under way and brokered a meeting between Christie and Rush Limbaugh.

Georgette Mosbacher, a cosmetics CEO who co-chaired John McCain’s 2000 and 20008 campaigns, recently told Capital NY that she and about a dozen major fundraisers in the tri-state area are all waiting to see if Christie runs before committing to another candidate.

Charles and David Koch are fans of Christie, who secretly attended a gathering they hosted in June to deliver a speech on how Republicans need to take on the teachers union “once and for all.” According to Mother Jones, which posted audio of his remarks, David Koch introduced Christie as “my kind of guy” and a “true political hero.”