GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is struggling a bit with the additional scrutiny that comes from his rising poll numbers. Cain acknowledged Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his “9-9-9” tax plan would raise taxes on some people (the poor and many in the middle class, while cutting taxes on the wealthy), and he backed away from campaign comments about building an electrified fence on the Mexico border that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. In addition, Associated Press reported on the connections between Cain and Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed group. Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for AFP, and an AFP advisory board member helped devise the 9-9-9 plan.
Even though Republicans are struggling to find a presidential candidate they can get excited about, they have no shortage of enthusiasm — which could be the key to the election. Only 45 percent Democrats and Democratic leaning Independents said they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting in the 2012 presidential election, while 44 percent said they were less so, according to a Gallup survey. Meanwhile, 58 percent of Republicans said they were more enthusiastic about voting while 30 percent are less excited. This “intensity gap” between Democrats and Republicans is largest since 2000. It also was key to GOP gains in last year’s congressional races and in recent special elections.
Many Americans scoff at the official declaration that the recession is over. It sure doesn’t feel like it, they say. They’re right. Household income has continued to decline since the recession ended. In fact, it has declined at a steeper rate than it did than during the recession. Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, the New York Times reported. That’s twice as steep as the 3.2 percent drop during the recession, from December 2007 to June 2009.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who took flak for her pro-choice positions as was Kansas governor, didn’t hold back when speaking at a recent NARAL Pro-Choice America fundraising luncheon in Chicago, warning that Republicans “want to roll back the last 50 years in progress women have made in comprehensive health care in America.” She touted the health reform law’s measures to increase access to birth control. “Forty percent of unplanned pregnancies end in those women seeking abortions,” she said. “Wouldn’t you think that people who want to reduce the number of abortions would champion the cause of widely available, widely affordable contraceptive services? Not so much.”
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is struggling a bit with the additional scrutiny that comes from his rising poll numbers. Cain acknowledged Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his “9-9-9” tax plan would raise taxes on some people (the poor and many in the middle class, while cutting taxes on the wealthy), and he backed away from campaign comments about building an electrified fence on the Mexico border that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. In addition, Associated Press reported on the connections between Cain and Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed group. Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for AFP, and an AFP advisory board member helped devise the 9-9-9 plan.
