In Fehrnstrom’s defense, he was right. This is what candidates in both parties do—whether it’s softening a position on an issue or professing sudden love for someone you slammed as a primary foe, but who now is offering you his or her endorsement. It’s not that Fehrnstrom was wrong. He just shouldn’t have said it out loud. All candidates shake the proverbial Etch A Sketch, but Romney has a particular problem explaining why he has changed his views on such fundamental issues as abortion and gay rights.
They can’t stop talking about social issues, even as contraception is a fact of life for 99 percent of American women and a majority of Americans support gay rights, including a plurality in the NBC News poll who back gay marriage. The Republicans are too driven by the talk radio universe of Rush Limbaugh and a primary in which only the base of the base is turning out because their candidates aren’t generating any excitement.
"the most wide-open, the most fluid, the most topsy-turvy."
— Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition on this year’s GOP race at CPAC 2012 - ‘Topsy-Turvy’ GOP Race Heads to CPAC
Two days before the South Carolina Primary, Perry drops out of the race.
Does the Rick Perry ‘War on Religion’ Ad Go Too Far?
Gay rights activists, and even some religious leaders, are denouncing the spot. Even Perry campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio, who has previously worked with Log Cabin Republicans to promote gay rights among the GOP, called the ad “nuts” in an E-mail to its creator Nelson Warfield.
Republican presidential candidates Perry and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas speak during a debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich. More in our photo gallery of 2012 GOP candidates.
"I just wanted to give you a heads up. I don’t have anything to hide."
— Herman Cain Says Woman Will Accuse Him of Having an Affair, denies all allegations.
"Oops."
In an interview with ABC News/Yahoo! Tuesday, presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann said she would like to see former President Ronald Reagan’s face added to Mount Rushmore. Also on her list of Rushmore-worthy presidents were Calvin Coolidge and James Garfield. When asked who he would like to see on the South Dakota monument, GOP 2012 contender Herman Cain agreed with Bachmann on Reagan, but only after he said—rather ambiguously—he would like to see someone who “hasn’t been president yet” on the monument that currently includes the faces of former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
In the race for the 2012 Republican nomination, spouses range from virtually invisible like Gloria Cain, to staunch campaigners like Ann Romney, to the focus of controversy themselves, like Marcus Bachmann or Callista Gingrich. Here’s a rundown of the GOP spouses on the campaign trail so far.
If anyone needed proof that Herman Cain had become a legitimate contender for the 2012 presidential nomination, the story that broke over the weekend in Politico—that he had been accused of sexual harassment when he headed the National Restaurant Association—is it.
It’s the politics of personal destruction all over again. Someone who would rather not see Cain as the GOP nominee—or who just wants to keep the GOP field in disarray—has injected a highly volatile, potentially campaign and career-ending allegation into the race that has already forced the arguable Republican front-runner onto the defensive.
After his monologue, Block takes a drag of his cigarette. The ad closes with a tight shot of Cain turning and smiling to the camera as a techno-pop song sings “I am America.” The video caught the attention of the media, including a spot on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But many watchers are asking, “Is this for real?”
Christie’s Out. Now Who for GOP Fiscal Conservatives, Romney?
As unlikely as a Christie run seemed, it ignited intense interest from a certain class of Republicans. Reportedly, industrialist David Koch, one of the intellectual and financial godfathers of the Tea Party movement, was among those pushing for a Christie run. Christie’s high-profile battles with the state’s public employee unions, and his full-throated and passionate case that entitlements are strangling the futures of New Jersey and America, made him look like the perfect candidate for the segment of the GOP concerned mainly with deficits and the size of government. While, on paper, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, another northeastern moderate, seems a logical choice for Christie backers to turn to, there are many reasons why they might look elsewhere—or sit out for the time being.
"Keep in mind that these people not having any income tax liability does not mean that they don’t pay taxes (as is often implied in GOP talking points). They pay state and local taxes, not to mention federal payroll taxes, which of course the GOP wants to see rise."
— Robert Schlesinger: Why the Republicans Want to Raise Your Taxes
