Ron Paul wins Values Voter straw poll
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has won the presidential straw poll at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of more than 3,000 social conservatives in Washington.
Paul, who addressed the summit Saturday morning and whose supporters flooded the convention, took 37 percent in the informal poll, or 732 votes among the 1,983 attendees who participated in the survey.
Afternoon Fix: Carney, Cantor spar on ‘Occupy Wall Street’
White House calls Eric Cantor hypocritical on Wall Street protests, Mitt Romney says his wife tells him he’s less awkward than he used to be, and another Democrat has dropped out in Massachusetts.
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Democrats face uphill climb in 2012 governors races
Democrats’ victory in the West Virginia governor’s race on Tuesday effectively brings to an end the 2011 gubernatorial season — or at least the competitive races.
But, never fear because the big governors races of 2012 are beginning to take shape. And it’s already clear that Democrats have their work cut out for them.
September jobs report is a political push
The September jobs report — 103,000 jobs created, unemployment rate steady at 9.1 percent — is neither good enough to provide President Obama a real boost as he makes the case for passage of his jobs bill nor bad enough to significantly embolden his Republican critics on the campaign trail and in Congress.
Iowa likely to pick Jan. 3 for caucuses; all eyes on New Hampshire
Updated at 3:24 p.m.
Iowa’s Republican Party has tentatively set its 2012 presidential caucuses for Jan. 3, avoiding holding the contest in December, according to two state central committee members.
A.J. Spiker said members of the central committee agreed to the date on an informal conference call Thursday night.
Robert Jeffress endorses Rick Perry, says Mormonism is a ‘cult’
We’re live-blogging this year’s Values Voter summit, a three-day conference organized by the social conservative Family Research Council where most presidential contenders are speaking.
5:28 p.m.: Gingrich actually said something pretty bold in his speech — that he would ignore the Supreme Court if he didn’t agree with its decisions. But his focus on judicial overreach did not have the popular appeal of the broader-based speeches other contenders gave. Audience members seemed to agree with him, but the applause was polite more than enthusiastic.
Who has the most to lose in the economic debate (and why)?
The Washington Post and Bloomberg News are sponsoring an economic-focused debate among the 2012 Republican presidential candidates at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, listens as Texas Gov. Rick Perry makes a statement during a debate Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, Pool)The economy is the dominant issue of both the Republican primary fight and next year's general election so each of the candidates have a considerable amount riding on their debate performance.
Our question for you: Which of the Republican presidential candidates has the most at stake at the debate?
Is it former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney who has staked his campaign on the economic know-how he learned in the private sector? Or Texas Gov. Rick Perry whose job creation successes in the Lonestar State have formed the foundation of his nascent campaign? What about businessman Herman Cain who is the fastest rising star in the GOP field? Or is is someone else?
Offer your thought via Quora or in the comments section below. We’ll incorporate them into our debate preview in advance of Tuesday’s debate.
Values Voters summit kicks off in values-light season
We’ll be liveblogging speeches from Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum from the Values Voters summit today — beginning with Santorum at 11:40 —, so stay tuned.
This weeked, social conservatives are gathering in Washington, D.C. for the Values Voters summit, a big three-day confab organized by the Family Research Council. But the high-profile event comes during a campaign in which social issues have been all but ignored.
Presidential votes in 2011? Probably not
Ever since Florida moved its primary to Jan. 31, the talk has been that the 2011 GOP nominating contest might begin in December.
And in recent days, as South Carolina has moved its primary to Jan. 21 and Nevada set its caucuses for Jan. 14, it seemed the likelihood only increased that Iowa and/or New Hampshire would hold their contests before the New Year.
Afternoon Fix: Scott Brown takes heat for clothing comment
Scott Brown says “Thank God” Elizabeth Warren kept her clothes on in college, Herman Cain says he wouldn’t be Perry’s VP, and Joe Biden says he sympathizes with the occupiers.
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Republican debate: Preview from the Twitterverse | Mention Machine
The 2012 Republican candidates will take the stage next Tuesday, Oct. 11 for the Washington Post/Bloomberg debate in which they will compete to see which one has the better plan to save the struggling U.S. economy.
Before the moderators get their chance to grill the candidates on taxes, jobs, the deficit, we took stock of the buzz from the Twitterverse about each candidate on those issues.
Globalpoint measured 12,000 tweets (1,500 per candidate) sent between Monday and Tuesday afternoon that mention each candidate participating in the debate to see how concerned the Twitterverse is with their stances on “taxes” and “jobs.”
Perry responds to hunting camp story
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) denied that a racial epithet was visible on a rock outside the hunting camp his family once leased in his first on-camera television interview since the Post reported its existence over the weekend.
“I think there were very much some strong inconsistencies and just misinformation in that story,” Perry told Fox News Channel reporter Juliet Huddy in an interview this morning. “I know for a fact that in 1984, that rock was painted over. It was painted over very soon, my family did that.”
Does President Obama still have political juice?
The central question of President Obama’s Thursday press conference was asked in its early moments by NBC’s Chuck Todd.
“Are you worried about your own powers of persuasion and maybe that the American public is not listening to you any more?” Todd asked.
What Todd — a Fix friend, in the interest of full disclosure — was really getting at is this: Does Obama still have the political juice to convince his party in the Senate to pass some version of his $447 billion job-creating proposal?
President Obama’s press conference: The Live blog!
President Obama will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. this morning as he seeks to build momentum behind his jobs bill.
And, the Fix will be there — live-blogging, naturally!
Haven’t participated in our live blogs before? Think of it like “Mystery Science Theater 3000” but for politics. And without the robots.
The live-blogging will get started right around 10:45 a.m.. Come hang out with us!
President Obama to hold Thursday press conference
President Obama will hold a press conference today at 11 a.m. as he continues to pressure Congress to pass his jobs plan.
(President Obama will hold a press conference today to sell his jobs plan.)
It’s Obama’s first press conference since July 15 — in the heart of the debt-ceiling negotiations. Of late, he has been on an aggressive nationwide push for passage of the American Jobs Act, which neither the House and Senate has acted on yet.
We’ll be live-blogging the proceedings here on the Fix. Stay tuned.
Obama’s tax plan: Hating the player, not the game
You can’t get 75 percent of people to agree to much of anything these days.
But according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 75 percent of Americans agree that millionaires should have their taxes raised.
This is the crux of President Obama’s tax policy and perhaps the best-known aspect of the jobs plan he has put before Congress.
Iowa in December more likely as Nevada GOP sets caucus for Jan. 14
Nevada’s Republican Party has set its presidential caucuses for Jan. 14 — a move that could increase the chances of the 2012 nominating contest beginning in 2011.
Nevada is one of four states the Republican National Committee has allowed to go earlier than any other. But all four of those states have been forced to move their contests from February to January after Florida last week jumped ahead of them and set its primary for Jan. 31.
Sarah Palin not running for president
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin announced Wednesday evening that she would not be running for president in 2012.
On the Mark Levin radio show Wednesday evening, Palin said she believed she would have more impact outside of the race. The decision ends over a year of speculation about the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee’s plans.
“Not being a candidate, really you are unshackled and you’re able to be even more active,” she told Levin. “I need to be able to say what I want to say.”
Afternoon Fix: Cain says ‘If you’re not rich, blame yourself’
Herman Cain is not going to occupy Wall Street, a former McCain aide based a mentally ill character in her book on Sarah Palin, Gabrielle Giffords is headed back to Washington and Hoekstra raised a million.
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West Virginia governor’s race prediction contest: We have a winner!
Tuesday’s special election for governor of West Virginia was a big win for Democrats.
But it was also a big win for one loyal Fix reader. That’s because he (or she?) predicted the exact percentages that each candidate would get.
Our winner, “terry37,” correctly guessed that Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) would beat Republican Bill Maloney, 50 percent to 47 percent.
Due to that Nostradamus-like prediction, “terry37” has won the most coveted prize of all: an official Fix t-shirt. If you are “terry37,” make sure to send an email to chris.cillizza (at) wpost.com with a mailing address and a preferred size for your t-shirt.
And kudos to “charri68,” who was just one point off on Maloney’s final percentage.
Didn’t win? Never fear. There are lots of elections — and Fix prediction contests — to come!
Blog Contributors
Chris Cillizza
writes “The Fix”, a politics blog for the Washington Post. He also covers the White House for the newspaper and website. Chris has appeared as a guest on NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN to talk politics. He lives in Virginia with his wife and son.
Aaron Blake
Aaron Blake covers national politics at the Washington Post, where he writes regularly for the Fix, the Post’s top political blog. A Minnesota native and summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota, Aaron has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Hill newspaper. Aaron and his wife, Danielle, live in Annandale, Va.
Rachel Weiner
Rachel Weiner came to the Washington Post in 2010 as a web editor. After running PostPolitics for a year, she moved to The Fix, where she is a deputy blogger.
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