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Herman Cain Wins South Dakota Straw Poll; SDGOP Wants to Raise Your Taxes?

Last updated on 2011.11.06

So what time did the bar open?

Senator Dan Lederman tweets results of the South Dakota Republican Party Presidential Straw Poll held this evening at the GOP State Dinner in Sioux Falls:

2011 Straw Poll Full Results

  1. Herman Cain, 35%
  2. Newt Gingrich, 23%
  3. Mitt Romney, 20%
  4. Rick Perry, 7%
  5. Ron Paul, 5%
  6. Michele Bachmann, 4%
  7. Jon Huntsman, 3%
  8. Rick Santorum, 3%

Lederman may be scratching his head over these results, as they completely defied his pre-poll prediction of Perry and Bachmann on top with Romney nowhere in sight.

O.K., now you fellas are just funnin' with us, right? You're just trying to get some media attention and scare Romney into a few more conservative flip-flops before you all vote for him next November, right? I mean, why else would a majority of you pick two men who are incapable of winning the Presidency and who are really just working a little harder than Sarah Palin to sell books?

You don't really support Herman Cain. You don't really want to hit families of four making $50,000 with another $5,000 in taxes. You don't want to nine-tuple taxes on the bottom fifth of income earners (that's a lot of South Dakotans) and explode the deficit. You don't want to elect a man who knows nothing about foreign policy and who has said he shouldn't be expected to know anything about foreign policy until he's elected. You don't really want to see tone-deaf ads sandbagging your candidate and turning Barack Obama into Bill Clinton instead of Jimmy Carter.

The apparent minority of sober Republicans can take heart from their recent historical inaccuracy: the only other time they held a Presidential straw poll, at the 2007 State Fair, they went for Fred Thompson (25%) and Rudy Giuliani (19%) over the eventual nominee John McCain (14%). Hmmm... is there something about the lonesome prairie that makes South Dakota Republicans fall for talk-radio hosts?

Update 22:52 MDT: Ron Paul wins the Illinois GOP weeklong straw poll thanks to his avid online voters. Romney wins the in-person vote; Cain comes in second in online and in-person votes.

Update 23:02 MDT: At tonight's "debate" in Texas, Cain "seemed ill at ease" and "deferred frequently to Gingrich on complex aspects of federal programs." Cain can't answer any questions, can he?

Here's another reason Romney wins: he's doing the real legwork and building the love by campaigning down-ticket.

Update 07:03 MST: ...and here's why Romney will lose (though not by much) to Obama: he's peddling Paul Ryan's voucherizing destruction of Medicare. Kristi Noem will love that... and she will lose, too.

Votes in the SDGOP straw poll weren't cheap: According to the SDGOP events calendar, guests paid $75 just to attend the dinner, $250 for the VIP reception with Governor Dennis Daugaard, Senator John Thune, and Representative "Kristie" Noem. (Not only do these people vote for no-go candidates, but the can't even spell their own gal's name right.)

18 Comments

  1. Stan Gibilisco 2011.11.05

    The results for Newt Gingrich interest (and surprise) me more than the results for Herman Cain.

    South Dakotans certainly slant toward the conservative side. But I don't think Herman Cain qualifies as a true conservative. Newt Gingrich does.

  2. consise 2011.11.05

    The time is now . The place is here. This time around. We'll persevere. It has once again officially begun. No excuses this time. It is ESSENTIAL we all stand together , give it everything we have & demand our country back. No more democrat / republican, black / white , straight / gay, rich / poor, east / west . Enough is enough..No matter what category you might think they or you are in. Its as simple as Divide and conquer a classic war tactic. It makes a weaker nation if you put yourself in any group or support someone simply because of their political party. No more special interest groups ! ! It removes the groupie from the one & only real group there is. We are all AMERICANS.. First and foremost. We all have the same interests at hand. Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are no longer " all created equal " the second we are anything but an AMERICANS. Be on the right side of history. Vote for the only trustworthy candidate who is running for president. The one who has a profound love and respect for things like peace & accountability. Ron Paul wants you to be free and prosperous. He will immediately end all the wars, and not enter into another one without a declaration. I'd vote for Ron Paul no matter the Party he was forced to run with. I'd vote for anyone if they had as consistent of a voting record and brought to light the issues Ron Paul addresses.
    He is consistent, principled, logical, moral, and above all honest about political situations. If the GOP backs any candidate other than Paul, they hand the election to Obama. If they endorse Paul, they get Obama’s entire anti-war voter base.
    Let it not be said that no one cared,
    that no one objected once it's realized
    that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy
    - Ron Paul

    Ron Paul has
    - never voted to raise taxes
    - never voted for an unbalanced budget
    - never voted to raise congressional pay
    - never taken a government paid junket
    - voted against the Patriot Act
    - voted against regulating the Internet
    - voted against the Iraq war
    - never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership
    - never voted to increase the power of the executive branch

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.05

    Stan, I'll assign both numbers equal interest. My assumption is that the GOP dinner was a gathering of party faithful. If SD Tea partiers infiltrated, they wouldn't have gone for Cain, because he's not an abortion crusader, and the Tea Party, East River and West, is all about abortion (Unruh, Randazzo, etc.). They'd have latched on to Bachmann, maybe Perry. The mainstream Republicans aren't stupid: they can see Cain is worse than Noem for being all image and no actual qualifications for the job. What are they thinking?

    Gingrich surprises me, too. Maybe the older crowd recall Gingrich fondly... or just have read lots of his books.

  4. larry kurtz 2011.11.06

    This is such a great post, it tested my sphincter control. I failed.

  5. Steve Hickey 2011.11.06

    I was there. I'll comment on your last paragraph. There were Tea Party folk there - who knows, some surely voted for Perry and Paul. Perhaps to your surprise, most that I know aren't for Bachman or Perry, including me. But who am I, a tea party disappointment or so I've heard (it was that darn vehicle reg. fee vote, SB38/43, or perhaps my non-participation in the immigration bill smokeout). I've mentioned to you before that I like Cain. And really, Cory, in '08 you voted for a community organizer who had zero qualifications for the job. I heard the other day that Cain has the most extensive resume of anyone who has run for president in the last 50 years. To my surprise, Gingrich isn't out of the game as far as the evangelical crowd goes - and I'm now talking about my friends outside the state. I have no interest in him - can't keep promises to his wives, swallowed the global warming hype, etc. What I heard most last night was please-not-Romney - apparently this mysterious republican establishment hasn't crowned Romney their king yet.

  6. LK 2011.11.06

    A candidate who doesn't know that China has been a nuclear power since the 1960s is a joke. The most frightening thing is that Republicans don't seem to care.

  7. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.06

    Steve, there's a difference between an extensive resume and a relevant resume. Herman Cain has no foreign policy knowledge, let alone experience. As Leo points out, Cain's ignorance is as frightening as the Republicans' willingness to embrace it. In 2008, Senator Obama had already been a key player in nuclear proliferation issues. And on the domestic side, one could argue that community organizing is more relevant to the work of the American President (building coalitions, empowering citizens, educating, strengthening communities) than Cain's business experience (hierarchical, autocratic, turning a profit). I refuse to engage in this exaltation of business-über-alles. Society includes all sorts of people: teachers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, activists, as well as businesspeople. Businesspeople do not have a unique claim to power over the rest of us or to legitimacy in a democratic society.

  8. Bill Fleming 2011.11.06

    I've been scratching my head about our SDGOP buddies' taste in POTUS candidates ever since Lee and Troy went all GaGa over the Lady from Alaska. I think I have it pretty much figured out, but am not quite ready to divulge. Suffice to say that a thoughtful examination of their top three candidates tends to reveal my working hypothesis*, but only if you think of Lee and Troy as being very, very savvy.
    –––––––––––––––––––––––
    * If Newt turns out to be the "man with the plan",
    the Party will definitely need a different pitchmeister.

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.06

    As for our visitor from Ron Paul La-La-Land: Ryan, South Dakotan Republicans will never vote to nominate Ron Paul.

    --Paul would withdraw all our overseas forces and cut the military, meaning we'd have to find jobs here at home for that disproportionate number of South Dakotans who join the military.

    --Paul won't back Israel enough for Rep. Rev. Hickey and the fundagelicals who have the state GOP by the throat (or is it the tail?).

    --Paul would get rid of FEMA, which the rich party boys in Fort Pierre are counting on to pay for their poorly placed McMansions on the Missouri River.

    --Paul supports legalizing marijuana and industrial hemp, which our Republicans just can't.

    --Paul opposes farm subsidies, and South Dakota Republicans can't have Kristi Noem going broke.

    --Paul supports reverting to the gold standard. Even South Dakota Republicans are smart enough to recognize we left the gold standard for very good reasons.

    Ron Paul appeals only to the immature who think latching onto a couple of arcane phrases ("Gold standard!" "Austrian economics!") makes them political philosophers while they in fact lack the brains and the stomach for solving the real practical problems of the polis (there's my fancy word that makes me a political genius).

  10. Jana 2011.11.06

    So were any women there that were allowed to vote? Seriously boys, for some of us, sexual harassment and infidelity speak volumes about an individual. Heck, Newt even named a strip club and a porn producer businesses of the year...nice!

  11. larry kurtz 2011.11.06

    A President has to be a community organizer before she/he ever enters politics by definition, Hickey. If you weren't able to organize one you would still be passing the plate to buy votes.

  12. Bill Fleming 2011.11.06

    Question for Pastor Hickey. How much weight, if any, do you think the SD GOP gives (or takes away) concerning Romney's Mormonism? i.e. is it an issue, or a non-issue? Are Mormons Christian or non-Christian? I'm noticing Romney and Huntsman simply don't want to talk about it. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing (GOP politically speaking.)

  13. Bill Fleming 2011.11.06

    Jana, yeah, I think they started out trying to blame Cain's victims. Then they switched to blaming Perry, then Romney, then who knows? (Ken Blanchard's buys trying to blame the media: http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/2011/11/herman-cain-politicos-irresponsible-journalism.html#comments)

    The one thing we have not seen is Cain take responsibility for his actions.

    Curious that doesn't seem to matter, isn't it? I could have sworn Stace Nelson and other GOP leaders insisted that was a core Republican value.

  14. Jana 2011.11.06

    Bill, good point on blaming the victims. They were probably wearing something suggestive.

    It also seems that there is a disconnect on Mr. Cain's experience and SD Republicans. Wasn't he a lobbyist and wasn't one of the things he promoted was being able to smoke in restaurants? It seems to me that the tobacco industry really liked him.

  15. Brett Hoffman 2011.11.06

    Cory, you know you've made it as a blogger when Paul-bots are leaving nonsense comments on your stories.

  16. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.06

    Whoo-hoo! Thanks, Brett! Now if the Paul-bots would stop fantasizing that they are superheroes and just use their real names, I'd leave their nonsense comments up... as I happily do for my friend Roger.

  17. packeryman 2011.11.12

    Whats with the people of South Dakota? Cain is a one dog and pony show with his flawed 9-9-9 plan and always has been , the guy knows nothing of international politics and affairs. He appears to know a lot about harassment issues but refuses to speak on the subject. Any candidate that is a bible thumping religious fanatic or tea bagging lunatic or who is supported by the same will never win a national election beating Obama. The only Republican that does not fall into this category is Mitt Romney. Romney is the only one of the pack that can carry the Independents(a must to win),some Dem's who don't like Obama, moderate Republicans, and far right Republicans who don't want to standby and let Obama get elected without them voting against him. Rick Perry is toast, and Newt Gingrich has way too much negative baggage with affairs and the women he has shafted in his life to ever win a national. The rest of the candidates don't even register. The far right of the party is just going to have to "butch up" and vote for Romney because he is the only possible winner on a national scene against Obama or the far right wing crazies can nominate a candidate with the reactionary flat earth political ideology (bible thumping religious fanatics and tea bagging lunatics) that will carry the GOP to a loss worse than Goldwater in 1964 and result in the GOP loss of the House of Representatives.

  18. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.12

    You mean, what's wrong with South Dakota Republicans. The GOP establishment is sufficiently deluded to claim that its straw poll vote represents some sort of prescient leadership.

    As you say, if the Republicans pick anyone but Romney, they're headed for a replay of Johnson-Goldwater. But if they pick Romney, they might get something like Nixon-McGovern, with Romney playing McGovern, winning no place but Massachusetts.

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