Herman Cain Wins Florida Straw Poll Over Fading Perry

While this pre-primary maneuvering may be tedious and inconsequential in the long run, businessman Herman Cain's upset victory in the Florida straw poll reveals in part how presumed-frontrunner Rick Perry has damaged his chances because of his lackluster articulation skills--unlike the charismatic Mr. Cain, an experienced executive with a solid track record of success in the private sector--in the debates thus far.

Obviously the best debater doesn't make the best president; that's a given. But the American people have already proven in several presidential cycles that they are willing to elect a smooth-talking con man. Leaving aside the merits of thus or that issue, given the bias of the media, the GOP candidate will have no room for error and must be a great communicator when the broader, non-ideological electorate is paying attention during the general election debates in the fall.

Many observers have concluded that the incumbent lacks enthusiasm for the actual work of the presidency, and far prefers golf, partying with celebrities, fundraisers, and reading campaign platitudes off the teleprompter. But his debate skills are also well acknowledged.

The president is probably a lot like some of the guys in our study group during law school. Unlike many students who slogged through the casebooks and the lectures, this group seldom did the reading and their class attendance was spotty. Yet they had a genius for cramming the necessary information right before the final exam (which in law school almost always determines the final course grade) and wound up with As. It wasn't really fair to those that put in the time, but that was the reality.

Regardless of his or her study/preparation habits, the ultimate GOP presidential nominee must be able to "ace the final exam" on national television next fall. A candidate with Kim Delaney's public speaking skills is a sure loser.

Here is Cain speaking about his recovery from cancer in terms the electorate can fundamentally relate to:

Rick Perry Fail

Who's having a worse week--Netflix or Texas Governor Rick Perry? After three debates, the debating skills of the soon-to-be-former GOP frontrunner seem to getting worse, not better. Let's remember that the 2008 GOP nominee also failed to communicate during the nationally televised general election presidential debates against Obama; it was one missed opportunity after another, and we've seen this movie before and it doesn't end well.

Meantime, despite all his faults, Mitt Romney seems to be getting stronger and stronger at the podium. He may wind up getting the nomination by default. That being said, all along we've felt that the "best candidate" is the one that can stand up on that national stage next fall and effectively and clearly communicate with the broader "Dancing with the Stars" electorate. For better or worse, running for high office is a performance business. Prof. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection puts it well:

On appearances, Perry came across once again as ill-prepared, stumbling, and uncomfortable.I cringe at the thought of the Rick Perry from last night’s debate on stage in October 2012 against Obama with the whole country watching. I hope there is another Rick Perry out there, because last night’s Rick Perry would not stand a chance on stage against our smooth-talking, fact-misstating Presidentt.

After watching the debate participants (along with admittedly a lot of channel surfing), the best candidate would seem to be a combination of New Gingrich's debating skills, Rick Perry's military background, Mitt Romney's business experience (and excluding the horrid RomneyCare implemented while he was Massachusetts Governor), Herman Cain's inspirational solutions-oriented message, the non-wacky parts of Ron Paul's libertarian philosophy, and Michelle Bachmann's charisma. Even John Huntsman came across far better than Perry.

Note to GOP candidates: Please look into the camera. Your true audience is the viewer/voter at home; the media questioner in the venue is irrelevant. For some reason, Democrats get the memo about looking directly into the camera but Republicans traditionally seem utterly clueless as to who they really are trying to convince.

Update: In response to Perry's disdain for the smoothest debater, Prof. Jacobson offers some further cogent comments:

That’s true but only to a point. We don’t need the smoothest debater, but we do need someone with the minimum required debating smoothness.

Like it or not, in September and October 2012 there are going to be debates which will be watched by an enormous percentage of the electorate, and the mainstream media will be unforgiving of mistakes by the Republican nominee. A miserable performance, on par with the one Perry had Thursday night, would be a disaster.

By contrast, strong debate performances against Obama, holding Obama accountable in front of tens of millions of people, exposing his failures for what they are, could seal the deal. The mainstream media will not perform that task for us, so our nominee needs to do it. Perry has not shown so far that he is capable of that; it’s not smoothness, its preparation and execution.

Trial Lawyers vs. Rick Perry

It remains to be seen if Texas Governor Rick Perry can be a viable presidential candidate over the long term. But one of his principal foes--personal injury lawyers a.k.a. ambulance chasers--could make him worthy of support, the New York Post explains:

If you can judge a political candidate by the enemies he makes, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stands pretty tall. For example, the national tort-lawyer lobby is set to spend millions to try to stop the GOP presidential hopeful in his tracks.

No wonder: Perry, in his 10 years as Texas governor, has managed to implement serious tort reform in a state that even a top litigator concedes was once “the golden goose” for high-end jury verdicts....Since 2003, Texas has become a model for national tort reform.

Along these lines, according to American Lawyer Media, "A fundraising committee backing President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection bid has raised $39 million so far this year, with 11 percent of that sum coming from lawyers, lobbying shops, and law firms such as Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, O'Melveny & Myers and Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom. When it comes to raising campaign cash, no industry has been kinder to the president this year than the legal and lobbying trade, which has contributed a combined $4.3 million to the Obama Victory Fund..."

Could the Democrats ever mount a serious election campaign without unions and trial lawyers? Oh, let's not forget the in-the-tank media, who has subjected Gov. Perry to more scrutiny in a couple of weeks then the ever did Obama in the entire 2008 election cycle. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Jack Kelly published this ominous preview of things to come:

GOP consultant Mark McKinnon says that the editor of a major newspaper told him, "We plan to declare war on Rick Perry and do all in our power to crush him."Mr. McKinnon was outraged. "No pretense of integrity, professionalism or of unbiased news gathering," he wrote in Investors' Business Daily.

Did DHS Mess With Texas Border Security?

With the Homeland Security Department's bureaucracy apparently immobilized, the modern day counterparts of Captains Gus McRae and Woodrow F. Call are now on the case:

Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday

"It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before," Perry said of the Department of Public Safety's elite investigative unit.

The forces, dubbed "Ranger recon" teams, are the latest effort "to fill the gap that's been left by the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico," he said.

The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed.