1. Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins

2. The Rollercoaster goes back down for Herman Cain

3. Perry and Gingrich, sitting in the polls…

4. Can Rick Perry Rebound With a Flat Tax?

5. A Note To Charlotte’s Workers: Get A Written Guarantee You Won’t Be Outsourced To Unions

6. NYT Editorial Page Editor struggles to examine the record on voter fraud

1. Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins

Mit Romney will not go on Special Report with Brett Baier to answer the tough questions as the other candidates have done. No worries. Conservatives will bitch and moan for a few days and Romney will claim it was a scheduling issue, he’d always meant to go on, and he will go on.Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeated. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he’ll part his hair in their direction.We’ve seen this play out over and over. Jon Huntsman comes up with the best economic plan of all the candidates, Herman Cain follows up with 999, Perry comes out with a flat tax, and Romney refuses to do anything. Until he does something.Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It’s not his fault though, it is the 75%’s fault.Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee. And his general election campaign will be an utter disaster for conservatives as he takes the GOP down with him and burns up what it means to be a conservative in the process.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Rollercoaster goes back down for Herman Cain

We saw last week that Herman Cain was on his way up before the Politico story, and fell off slightly afterward.Friday brought us a new poll which reinforces past conclusions. Yes, he really was on the way down last week, despite raising money in the seven figures.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Perry and Gingrich, sitting in the polls…

R-E-B-O-U-N-D-I-N-G.First came Cain, then came Politico, then came USA Today/Gallup and NBC News/Wall Street Journal with the latest numbers.This also make three straight post-scandal polls that have shown Cain to have re-lost his lead over Romney.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Can Rick Perry Rebound With a Flat Tax?

The Perry campaign wants to reboot, having retooled and refined its message and tried hard to get back on the jobs message.Okay, fine, but first the Perry camp needs to answer a basic question – why should supporters who went all in for him and wound up feeling burned give him a second shot? I asked him about that and it was, perhaps, a good sign that he stayed on the jobs message.The jobs message, though, raises a question about his flat tax – won’t it just help the rich? Also, what about President Obama’s approach and his hostility to jobs and economic reform.I got into all those with Governor Perry last Wednesday in Orange County, CA. Perry also previewed a new line he’s using with credit to Jim DeMint – “Are you better off than you were $4 trillion ago?”Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. A Note To Charlotte’s Workers: Get A Written Guarantee You Won’t Be Outsourced To Unions

Based on a tip last week and subsequent conversations with employees at Charlotte’s Ritz Carlton who, according to them, had been told that they are to be displaced by union workers during the DNC’s 2012 Convention, apparently Charlotte’s mayor and the hotel are saying that the story is untrue.According to WBT.com’s Chris Miller’s twitter feed: Ritz-Carlton calls today’s RedState story “absolutely false.”If the story is “absolutely false,” then either the Ritz Carlton, Charlotte has a communications problem within its own hotel or employees either a) misunderstood what had been told to them, b) are lying (which seems unlikely), or c) had been told, but their management is now walking it back due to the political ramifications–since the employee (recorded here) is a Ritz-Carlton employee who spoke over the weekend.Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. NYT Editorial Page Editor struggles to examine the record on voter fraud

For a number of reasons, I tend to avoid claims of media bias, as I am often reminded of Silberman’s Law, from Rumsfeld’s Rules, that notes that we often overstate “conspiracy,” while “underestimat[ing] incompetency and fortuity.” However, I have trouble explaining this one any other way. The New York Times editorial page editor, Andy Rosenthal, says, “A half-dozen times or so I’ve asked followers of my Twitter feed for examples of voter fraud – particularly of a scale that would justify erecting barriers against whole groups of voters. Haven’t gotten any.” Now, this was the first that I had heard of it because, well, I don’t follow Mr. Rosenthal. However, I am not convinced that I will start following him, as he seems unequipped with the basic tools of research.Now, like Mr. Rosenthal, I do get frustrated with discussions of election fraud that don’t detail specific convictions. And while I believe that ACORN-style registration fraud is a real problem, I try to avoid discussing it. After all, we should lead with our strongest argument.So let’s review some recent convictions, just to remind ourselves that election fraud happens, it is well documented, and it sways elections.Please click here for the rest of the post.