What a day Cainiacs! All the doom and gloom and hang wringing and for what. I personally think not a lot, if this is all they got.  Because so much was focused on this–how about a tally of  the good news of the day.

First, things seem ok in Iowa.

From Burns and Haberman  (yeah Politico). They talked with  Steve Grubbs, Cain’s Iowa Chairman.

“I bet we’ll land more precinct captains than we did before the story” and”These sorts of distractions are not stopping our campaign  from reaching our daily goals.”

Grubbs, who declined to comment on how Cain and his national  staff are handling the situation, said the campaign in Iowa has “a full phone  bank of volunteers” making calls on Cain’s behalf Monday. He said the story is  “not much of a distraction.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67240.html#ixzz1cOs0wmpG

So, a full phone bank sounds good. True supporters are NOT running off in droves.  Remember those are volunteers so they could have walked at any time or not bothered to show up.

Next, lets zip to Texas.  Cain tops Perry by one point (statistically tied) in the new Univ. Tex/Texas Tribune poll.  Yes this was surveyed before the bombshell. But its a Texas poll. Perry should have mopped the floor with him. But this is not evidence of a mopping. In fact, I’m not seeing a good dusting.

“Cain got 27 percent to Perry’s 26 percent among Texas registered voters who identify themselves as Republicans. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul was next with 12 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 9 percent and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 8 percent.”  Other candidates got 2 percent or less.  If the hit piece hadn’t been announced last night this would have been the story of the day.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-presidential-election/cain-edges-perry-new-uttt-poll/

In case you don’t know how the campaign came to be this year there is a great article from NRO featuring Marc Block. he talks with Robert Costa.  Its four pages long and very insightful. Not gotcha questions or that sort of stuff. Just a nice background piece on how they met, and what the strategy was going to be.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/281534/blowing-smoke-robert-costa?pg=1

And there also came out another hit piece  today (shocking) concerning campaign finance rules. I don’t know enough about this stuff which is why I’m not tops on anybody’s list to be on a preosidential campaign. The good news is the campaign says they are on this, and have already asked for an outside review.

“As with any suggestions of this type, we have asked outside counsel to investigate the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s suggestions and may comment, if appropriate, when that review is completed,” Block said in an e-mailed statement.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iIRi9FJxU3kKkqebH2_xsh-H5Qig?docId=66637de6e7cc4c8e9ea07c9ab3d078bc

Take heart cainiacs.  Add the good stuff if I missed it.

Floating a Trial Balloon:

Everyone here knows Fred Thompson. We don’t need to get into his bonafides. He’s been vetted.

If I read the signs correctly there are those who feel Mr. Cain’s inexperience in politics is a liabiliity. And I’m also getting the impression Gov Perry is  perceived as not being conservative enough for some voters.

There has been suggestion of a Perry/Cain  Cain/Perry ticket among supporters on both sides but Mr. Cain has indicated he’s not open to that.  He might change his mind. Who knows.

So, how about this.

Fred is political wiz. He  knows Washington. He knows foreign policy. He knows how the game is played.   In short he brings the experience to a Cain campaign.

Conversely,  there is no one who would dispute Fred Thompson’s conservative cred.  If the concern over Perry is only about conservative  credentials, then a Fred on this ticket would waylay some fears.  Also as an actor, Fred could get him a good speaking coach.

I could see both sides getting a benefit from this fine statesman.

( I could not see Fred aiding someone like, say, Mr. Huntsman.  He’s good, but not a miracle worker. )

On one side of the coin I’m not sure how Cain’s personality would fit with Fred’s.  Herman’s outgoing and very motivated. Fred’s a tad more laid back.

Other side of coin, Perry has held high office. So has Fred. I don’t know if this would  bond them or create tensions. Also, they’ve got different personalities.

It would pain me to no end to give Fred to the Perry camp. I want him for my candidate.  But if something happens down the road with Mr Cain (it better not)  and Perry gets better but just needs a bit of an  oomph to pull out the primary,  well then you can have my Fred.

Anyway, thoughts?

South Carolina former Gov Mark Sanford has been hired on by Fox News. He will be a paid contributor.  Sanford is the one who, you’ll recall, said he was going off hiking the Appalachians.  Instead he merrily skipped off to visit his girlfriend in Argentina.

How could Fox think anyone would be interested in this individual’s opinion, commentary, or insight.  Unless, they go to him in a “…speaking of really bad judgements, what are your thoughts Mark?”,  kind of way.

I gave them props when the hired Juan Williams but cannot understand the reasoning behind this. Are they going to hire Anthony Weiner next to navigate us through the up and coming new technology?   Maybe Helen Thomas might sign on as special commentator on Israel-Palestine tensions.   Those last two should really pump up their fair and balanced cred.

And has anyone else taken note their news slant has been shifting leftward lately.  Not as bad as msnbc but at least leaning as left of center as cnn.

They had a good piece of the pie that worked out very well with ratings and profits. Are they now trying to alienate a sizeable segment of their audience?  Confused.

Dailer caller has a piece up but NY Times originally covered it.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/21/former-south-carolina-gov-mark-sanford-lands-job-as-cable-news-contributor/

Insider Advantage has new polling out for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

Romney leads in New Hampshire and Florida with Cain second.  Gingrich is 3rd in Florida and Paul third in N.H.

Cain leads in Iowa and South Carolina with Romney second in both. Gingrich is third in Iowa and Perry third in SC.

The breakdown is at RCP, I won’t list them all here as they are numerous.  If you have a favorite state and are interested in the numerical breakdown the link is at the bottom, but most know where the polls section of RCP is.

The question was pretty basic “If the Republican presidential primary or caucus were held today would you vote for ( and then they name all the candidates.)

Not sure how reflective the polls are,  but Santorum and Huntsman may need to do a little soul searching.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/

Now there’s a line you just don’t hear everyday. Most likely because its not true. But here’s how it came about…

As you know by now Obama’s fiscal commission put out a framework, if you will, on various things that should be cut or altered in an effort to reduce long term debt. Currently the dems are pretty much dismissing the proposal while the gop finds some agreement in certain parts. Here’s a bit which looks promising ..it suggests defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets fed funds, which it in turn doles out to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting television Stations. These “public” media entities also, as you know, solicit funds from individuals, businesses and corporations through grants and endowments.

Conservatives have frequently called for the defunding of the CPB and/or more specifically, NPR and PBS. It appeared as if no one took the request seriously, but now that the idea has been put in writing from a bipartisan commission things have come to a head.

An article from MIchael O’Brien on thehill.com points out just how worried NPR is at the thought of losing a cash cow. NPR apparently issued its “response” to the suggestion that it no longer receive government funds. Part of it reads:

_________
“The National Commission’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media would have a profound and detrimental impact on all Americans,” NPR said in response to the proposal.
_________

Really??!! “Profound and detriminal to all Americans?” As unbelievable as it may seem to NPR many people’s lives will go on just fine without our tax dollars going to support “public” media. See, a profound change is one in which someone is losing their house or someone we care about dies. A detriment to one’s life would be something injurous to our health or livelyhood. Losing public media will do none of these things. Any good programming these public media offer can be picked up by private media. There are so many niche channels that any show worth airing would have a home. Or you may consider continueing with the “public” brand and make up the lost federal dollars from increased private donations.

It is long overdue that “public” media stands on its own. Despite what NPR wants to believe, its
(in)ability to do this, will not have a major impact on the majority of Americans. We will survive.

h/t to thehill.com

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/128819-npr-says-its-imperative-that-its-federal-funding-not-be-cut

This explains so much. We thought liberalism was a disease turns out its a variant of a gene. ____________
“The study was led by UCSD’s James Fowler and focused on 2,000 subjects from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Scientists matched the subjects’ genetic information with “maps” of their social networks. According to researchers, they determined that people “with a specific variant of the DRD4 gene were more likely to be liberal as adults.” However, the, subjects were only more likely to have leanings to the left if they were also socially active during adolescence.”
____________

The DRD4 is a dopamine receptor gene. Armchair scientists should have fun with that one. And here’s a little something extra they discovered: ” The researchers also said their findings held true no matter what the ethnicity, culture, sex or age of the subjects were.”

Now that we know what causes this abhoration , and I think we can all agree liberalism is an abhoration, we can fix it. Drugs maybe, some gene splicing thing coming down the path, who knows. But first, don’t let your kids be socially active. And if they must play with other kids for heaven’s sake don’t let them play with a lib’s kid. It sort of feeds into their lib makeup or something.

Mutant genes…hmm. Didn’t I see this in Resident Evil?

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Scientists-May-Have-IDd-Liberal-Gene-105917218.html

No I don’t know how to embed these things so don’t even ask.

I’ve never watched The View, but from all I’ve read its pretty liberal. That’s why I don’t waste my time. But yesterday I took an interest because on Hotair they highlighted a clip of where a host, Joy Behar, called Sharron Angle –the B word, and shortly thereafter said Angle was going “to hell”.

I watched the full clip and was immediately reminded why I don’t watch the silly show. Yelling and screaming and insults. I was livid about what she had said about Angle.

But apparently Angle wasn’t.

Now Hotair tells us that today Angle sent Behar a bouquet of flowers with a thank you note explaining how $150,000 was donated online to the Angle campaign yesterday. O.K. Maybe I overreacted. Maybe this woman Behar is good for something and not just an oxygen sucker. But even after that nice gesture, Behar said “those flowers were picked by illegal immigrants and they aren’t voting for you b**ch!”.

Please Behar, keep insulting Angle. Got anything else besides the B bomb? And call Christine O’Donnell something too. We’re in a fundraising mood right now.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/26/joy-behar-on-sharron-angle-this-bitch-is-going-to-hell/

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/27/more-behar-on-sharron-angle-i-cant-believe-this-bitch-sent-me-flowers/

If the Buck v Bennett race isn’t enough to get voters’ blood pumping in Denver, how about Ordinance 300? A h/t to Jonah Goldberg at NRO’s The Corner for pointing out this beauty. An ordinance creating the Extraterrestrial Affair Commission. Obviously this is some kind of joke, to humor voters after a very trying election cycle, right? Um, no. Checking the Denver Election Division I site, you’ll find a sample ballot and at the very bottom on the right hand side is this:

“Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles, and fund such commission from grants, gifts and donations?”

Notice that last part about funding and gifting and stuff? I’m not sure how big a problem aliens are in Denver (the outer space kind not the illegals crossing boarder kind) but do the citizens really need to fork over tax money because Colorado might someday be visited by Klingons in a Bird of Prey? Can a commission effectively plan against a Borg attack? Maybe the group is suppose to put together welcome bags? Kind of like a Chamber of Commerce for a haphazard Dr. Who or band of Wookies who might find themselves stuck here.

Somebody, somewhere in Denver obviously feels there is going to be an issue whenever the aliens grace us with their presence and he/she is taking the Barney Fife approach and hopes to nip it in the bud right now. This is big government run amok, and getting muckier by the day.

www.denvergov.org/Portals/639/documents/SAMPLEBALLOTS/2010_Sample_Ballot_General_Combined.pdfwww.denvergov.org/Portals/639/documents/SAMPLEBALLOTS/2010_Sample_Ballot_General_Combined.pdf

From NRO, Jim Geraghty finally gives up the good news! He had hinted earlier a house dem who everybody thought was SAFE is not so much anymore. Turns out he was talking about Lincoln Davis. Early voting has started and its looking good for his R-opponent Dr. DesJarlais. Here’s the juicy meat:

“Scott DesJarlais has taken the lead over Congressman Lincoln Davis. After pulling even two weeks ago, DesJarlais has surged ahead to take a five-point lead (now: 45% DesJarlais – 40% Davis / Sept 27-28: 42% – 42%). For the third consecutive survey, Davis’ ballot support has dropped (from 45% in August to 42% in September to 40% now).”

And the buttery potatoes:

“Moreover, DesJarlais has a commanding 21-point lead over Davis (55% – 34%) among voters who rate their interest level as “high” (8-10 on a one-to-ten scale)”

There’s been a lot of focus on TN’s open districts and money pouring into those, so the help Dr. DesJarlais got was from right here at home. Remember, these numbers come after Davis has been running those stupid ads claiming the good doctor threatend an exwife. Plus made sure all the left wing web sources would spread it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot

For those watching this race closely, you’ve already seen what’s on the scoreboard. R-candidate Scott DesJarlais released an internal poll showing him and D-Lincoln Davis tied at 42 percent. They had to show the internals because no one else wants to poll this race. ( Much like the Miller/Murky race and the Djou/Hanabusa battle there are some races pollsters just don’t want go to. But I digress )

You are also keenly aware of the attack ads Davis is running based on a past wife’s false claims. The Chattanooga Times Free Press already has already pointed out the same ex wife was the one found in contempt and the judge found no fault with the good Dr. D. But not everybody in this sprawling district gets the Chat TFP. So undecided voters may be left with Davis’ lies being the last thing they hear. Unless we help him now.

And I’m confident you already know the NRC recently bestowed on the good doctor full “Young Gun” status and Nate Silver at fivethirty eight.com gives Desjarlais a 57.8 percent chance of a win over Davis’ 42.2. They actually rate the district as lean-R.

So, lets see –a total unknown conservative, who has had smears and lies tossed at him by an entrenched opponent still manages to keep his head above water. TN-04 voters know Davis’ record and know why he has to go. But if you need one more reason its this:

The Tennessean endorsed him yesterday. When the shock of discovering the Tennrag endorsed yet another lefty politician, please consider a gift to the good doctor.

www.scottdesjarlais.com

http://blogs.tennessean.com/opinion/2010/10/10/davis-wants-to-hold-congress-accountable-on-spending/

www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/oct/03/barrett-stimulus-happy-davis-has-good-reason-avoid/

http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/forecasts/house/tennessee/4