Gingrich may be the most articulate of the debaters, although given that half the people on the stage are borderline-******ed, it is what it is. The bigger problem is that Gingrich comes off as angry and mean. Now some voters are very angry, so they may not notice this, but most will notice it, and they won't like it. How long has it been since America elected an angry and mean president? Oh, also, Gingrich is a serial adulterer and a con man. It will be easy for the press (which I suspect hates him) to rip him apart.

Its the short term and someone needs to be 3rd/4th (depending where Paul is). Cain is going to be there by default so the question will always be if he can move past the whole molesty-scandal stuff, get a strong IA result and pick up campaign infrastructure from those who drop out.

On probability Cain is probably done, but he has plenty of chance to surge back. He just needs another plan as catchy as 999, like the abc plan to cut public spending.

Edit, the media definitely hates Newt and with him moving up the polls he is entering the cross hairs.

This of course isn't true, but unfortunately too many on the left now just default to thinking that a person with conservative views must be ******ed unless it's so glaringly obvious that the person is bright (see: Romney, Gingrich, probably Huntsman) that they know the attack won't stick.

Given who you were talking about, I enjoyed the post more when I first read it and thought the last part said "pubic spending."

And Gingrich has almost no organization on the ground.

No. I still think Cain and Paul have a shot. No one is polling above 25%. Five candidates are polling between 8% and 23% nationally as well as in Iowa. A lot of the anti-Romney vote is still up for grabs and could go to any of four candidates.

Intelligence has a liberal bias.

I genuinely can't figure out whether you're kidding or not.

But I'm a conservative, so it's a little tough for me to figure things out.

Yup. His best shot is Perry dropping out fast (ideally as soon as Monday) and get his endorsement, money and campaign structure. This is also Cain's best chance too imo.

Given he couldnt hold onto his campaign staff for literally 1 month this is going to be the thing that is the big problem for him and its not even close. Romney is multiple levels ahead right now.

Of course im kidding. The serious version of that statement is "education has a liberal bias".

Yeah that much is true. Surprised by the number of conservative/libertarian profs I've had really.

I'm curious to see the next NH poll. They dumped Perry for Cain within two weeks in the polls, I'd sort of expect them to dump Cain for Gingrich in a similar time frame. Wouldn't be surprised to see Cain under 12% there for the first time since September.

I admit Perry, Cain and Bachman aren't literally ******ed. But in the context of a Presidential race, an IQ in the range of 95 to 110 qualifies for a ride to the debates on a short bus. Couple that with their glaring lack of knowledge and the designation of borderline-******ed seems reasonable.

I do actually agree that the perceived level of intelligence of candidates is often unfairly influenced by what party they belong to. However, I also think it's the case that conservatives today too willingly accept and defend any level of ignorance and stupidity. Back in the day, Republicans were educated and successful, now, yikes, it's a circus...a super fun circus, but a circus nonetheless.

I won't defend Perry. Every once in a while the "stupid" attack manages to have an actual worthwhile target.

Cain lacks in a pretty serious way for political savvy, but I'm not buying him as unintelligent. I would suggest that his successes in business are evidence of a man with a very capable mind. Bachmann, while fairly crazy, is well-educated and well-spoken. Successful federal tax attorneys aren't generally too far off the pace for intelligence level in a race for national office. I don't like her much, but I don't really see why she is seen as unknowledgeable.

The debate tonight is foreign policy which should be entertaining. Unfortunately it's in South Carolina so Paul is going to get booed at some point, but Cain and Perry will bring the lols enough for me to be excited.

Maybe I'm incredibly sexist, but I think Perry comes across smarter than Bachmann. I know he's messed up terribly in debates in the past as well, but I don't see his gaffe from Wednesday being evidence of stupidity as much as evidence of a guy who isn't particularly adept at debates in general and who's mind went completely blank at the worst possible time. Had Rick Perry been able to list that third agency, would it be reflective of an entirely different level of intelligence?

Michelle Bachmann on the other hand has made her career by saying stupid things that attract attention from liberals/liberal media which has given her a certain level of credibility and prestige from a certain wing of conservative republicans. This would be the wing that thinks liberals mock Palin because they fear that she'd destroy Obama. Perhaps I've only read about Bachmann's past from biased sources, but my understanding is that she wasn't particularly accomplished as a tax attorney.

Cain is truly baffling in that his resume suggests he has to be an incredibly bright guy but every time he opens his mouth other than to talk about 9/9/9 he comes across as an idiot. I mean, come on, even if you had never read or heard about China having nukes, you don't have to be a international politics wiz to know there is no way they wouldn't have them.

sick read

I don't think this helps. Or at least, I don't think this should.

Herman Cain: Where the white women are at.

Re: Perry, I agree that the gaffe from the other night is probably wrongly being attributed to a lack of intelligence when I think it's more about being somewhat bad at public speaking and also to an extent might be akin to an athlete whose slump gets into his head. That may not have ever happened if he wasn't dealing with a series of bad debate performances. It wouldn't kill someone if it was a stand-alone...if Romney had a forgetful moment like that one time, he would rightfully get a pass because everyone is fully aware that he knows his stuff. But there is precedent for Perry, he had already come off as pretty unintelligent at times, and when something like that happens to perpetuate your image you're screwed. Eloquence does too quickly get interchanged with intelligence in our society, but I still have a hard time seeing Perry as a bright guy.

If a person is going to question Bachmann's intelligence I'm surprised they don't question Santorum's in the same breath. His crazy statements have been more egregious than hers. I generally see him as a pretty bright guy though, just not one I possibly want in the White House.

I just see Bachmann a different way. I see her as crazy like a fox, knowing just how to pander to the audience she's speaking to. She has chosen to pander to one of the more odious parts of the right wing at times, which really doesn't reflect well on her, but it doesn't reflect on a lack of intelligence either IMO. I think on some level my opinion of Bachmann was boosted by really low expectations...before I became familiar with her, I heard multiple people compare her to Palin (a very surface-level comparison that I don't think holds water at all). Once I thought I would be seeing a mouthbreather talk and she came off as knowledgeable and well-spoken, I guess I sort of quickly slotted her under the category of "Republicans that lefties call stupid that aren't really."

I think the idea was right, but the execution sucked. Perry wasn't funny in it and seemed to not have any knack for comedy. I had more hope for him being funny before watching that clip than I would have had for John McCain before doing that roast of Obama at the press dinner in '08, when McCain turned out to be surprisingly funny.

Can't believe they're having a Saturday night debate. I guess they need to talk about foreign policy when no one is watching.

Perry just dropped 1M on a national ad buy, almost unprecedented at this point in the primary race (almost all spending is usually allocated to the early primary states), which show's how much they realize this is a sinking campaign.

Debate next Saturday also. "Thanksgiving Family Forum"? If they're having one focused entirely on social issues, Santorum must be licking his chops at the thought of finally getting to fail in his specialty area.

Rachel having a great time ripping the Newt Book Tour Campaign

god what a sad field

This is where I start to barf about my own party.