Quote Roundup: Lynchburg, Va., Presidential Survey Results (ContributorNetwork)

With the presidential election still a year away, most voters are following the campaigns and listening to candidates before making their decision. Voters in the Lynchburg, Va., area seem assured President Barack Obama will not get re-elected, but they remain unsure of who the Republican nominee will be.

Here are some comments from Lynchburg-area residents:

* "I have no idea who's even running. I say whoever the Republicans nominate will win next year because Obama has screwed everything up." -- Regina Cason, administrative assistant, independent, Alta Vista, Va.

* "I consider myself a strong independent, so I'm not really following the races right now. I don't know who will win next year, but probably won't be Obama. I cannot logically imagine that he would win another election, but honestly I didn't think he would have won last time either." -- Carlita Maize, retail store manager, independent, Redding, Va.

* "I haven't really starting paying attention to the candidates yet, but I kind of like Herman Cain. He knows how to create jobs and that's what this country needs right now. I don't know who will win next year, but hopefully it won't be Obama. We need someone who can get something done and I'm tired of waiting." -- Lesa Frankenberry, self employed, Republican, Point Marion, Pa.

* "Probably (Mitt) Romney, because he ran before. I hope Herman Cain gets the nomination for vice president because he ran a good pizza company. It really don't matter to me who wins for the Republicans because President Obama needs another time in the White House. He'd do a lot more if everyone would stop picking on him and let the man do his job." -- Trinity Minns, grocery cashier, Democrat, Gladys, Va.

* "The vice president is probably going to be Herman Cain because I don't think he's going to raise the money to win the nomination in the first place. The nominee will be either Rick Perry or Mitt Romney, but they both could burn each other up in the infighting that these primaries always bring out in people. Whoever gets the nomination, they need to beat Obama and stop that nutty health care plan from killing this country." -- Benton Minnick, retired civil servant, Republican, Rustburg, Va.

* "The Republicans won't find anyone to beat Obama, so it don't matter who they pick. Obama is fighting for the working people and they are the ones who vote anyway. He just needs to get all the Republicans out of Congress and then he can his job done without them trying to stop him all the time." -- Franklin Morrison II, car wash attendant, Democrat, Madison Heights, Va.

* "I really hope Jon Huntsman can pull it off because I think he's got the experience to really help the country. Herman Cain would be a great vice president for him too. I'm not sure that Huntsman will win the nomination, but if he does I think he can beat Obama easily. Obama has too many problems with the economy and he doesn't know what he's doing." -- Mark L. Weyersmann, financial consultant, Republican, Lynchburg, Va.

* "I want President Obama to win, but I don't think he's going to. I think (Mitt) Romney is going to get the win and take Rick Perry with him as vice president. They would do good for the country I think." -- Eleanor Freeg, retired school cafeteria aide, Democrat, Lynchburg, Va.

* "It's really hard to know right now. I mean they all keep switching positions in every poll. I wanted Sarah Palin, but she's not running I'm told. Maybe the other woman will win the nomination because we need a woman in the president's spot. Palin would have been good. She was a governor and all and took care of Alaska. Obama doesn't deserve another chance. Look what he's done to the economy and all that spending." -- Mary Ach, assistant manager, Green Party, rural Lynchburg, Va.

Dan McGinnis is a freelance writer, published author and former newspaper publisher. He has been a candidate, campaign manager and press secretary for state and local political campaigns for more than 30 years.

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Top Obama aide vents frustration with Congress (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top aide to President Barack Obama expressed frustration on Friday with his fellow Democrats as well as Republican members of Congress for resisting the White House's domestic agenda.

The comments by Obama's chief of staff William Daley, made in an interview with the Politico newspaper, could add to tension that has arisen between Obama and some congressional Democrats.

"On the domestic side, both Democrats and Republicans have really made it very difficult for the president to be anything like a chief executive," Daley told Politico. "This has led to a kind of frustration."

Some Democrats have been unhappy with Obama's handling of this year's budget battles, viewing him as having been too willing to compromise with Republicans on their demands for spending cuts to cherished social programs.

"There's no question that Democrats haven't agreed, or some Democrats haven't agreed, with every position the president has taken on every issue," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Democrats were upset when word leaked out last summer about the shape of a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction that was discussed between Obama and Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. Under discussion were changes to the Social Security retirement program that Democrats opposed.

Ultimately, Boehner walked away from the talks because his fellow Republicans balked.

Carney, seeming to play down Daley's comments, said it had been Republicans, not Democrats, who have thwarted the president's agenda.

"The obstacle to getting things done that the American people want done on the economy and jobs has been congressional Republicans," Carney said.

Obama this week took a series of actions on the economy, including steps to help struggling homeowners, college students and small businesses, that do not require congressional action.

Rolling out a new slogan, "We can't wait," Obama has pledged to take further executive actions.

The White House has sought to paint Republicans as obstructionists for impeding his $447 billion jobs package and the new executive actions are aimed at part in putting pressure on them to work with the administration on that legislation.

(Writing by Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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GOP rivals focus on flat taxes, smaller government (AP)

WASHINGTON – On jobs and taxes, the top Republican presidential rivals are locked in a fierce game of one-upmanship. They're all trying to outdo each other in offering the boldest economic plan for the campaign to unseat President Barack Obama next November.

Despite some notable differences in the blueprints, they all are built around the central theme that Obama's stimulus programs haven't worked and his job creation record is dismal. Example No. 1: Unemployment is holding at a painfully high 9.1 percent.

"We knew ultimately that the 2012 election was going to be a big referendum on the president," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office who was the chief economic adviser to Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "But Republicans also have to say what they would do. It's not enough to say we don't like what's going on."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry teased rival Herman Cain — "I'll bump plans with you, brother" — when both rolled out ambitious proposals for a single-rate flat tax. That's a concept hailed by numerous Republicans and some Democrats for its simplicity, yet it never has managed to attract much congressional support. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the lone major GOP contender not calling for a flat or flatter tax.

The 2012 contenders also are serving up a platter of familiar conservative fare: calls for deep spending cuts, reduced government regulation and an emphasis on private enterprise as the true engine of job growth and prosperity.

The plans underscore the party's attempt to respond to the biggest voter concerns of the day and capitalize on what they see it as Obama's chief vulnerability, the still shaky recovery. The candidates claim their various plans would help create millions of private sector jobs; just how is not always clear.

With polls showing that most people support increasing taxes on the wealthiest households, as Obama and Democrats are proposing, the GOP flat-tax plans would largely end up as a boon to the wealthiest, independent analyses suggest.

The tax debate coincides with spreading protests, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, against economic inequality. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently reported the top 1 percent of American earners doubled their share of national income over the past 30 years, to 20 percent.

Some of the GOP plans show depth, complexity and sophistication, Holtz-Eakin said. Not every economist is as charitable or sees the GOP offerings as workable.

"I don't think any of the plans can be taken too seriously as actual policy," said Bruce Bartlett, who held top economic posts in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations but now considers himself a political independent.

"The Republican goal is to nominate the person who is the most committed, most articulate in terms of the Republican philosophy. What they're competing for is who best represents that core philosophy and articulate it in a way that the base finds satisfying," Bartlett said.

No matter that some GOP dogma, such as an insistence that cuts in business taxes and government regulation will spur private-sector job growth, "is economic nonsense," Bartlett said.

All the GOP rivals would pare federal regulations.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., would kill the Environmental Protection Agency and repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial industry regulation law. Romney is proposing a 10 percent cut in the federal workforce. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum wants to repeal all regulations put in place by Obama. "The federal government kills jobs. We don't need more programs and bureaucrats telling business how to operate," he says.

Economists generally agree the shortage of jobs isn't caused by government overregulation but by a lack of consumer demand. A recent Labor Department survey showed that less than 1 percent of all layoffs in the past four years have been attributed by employers to government regulation.

With consumer spending driving two-thirds of the U.S. economy, those without jobs have little money to spend. Many with jobs fear losing them, or their houses are worth less than their mortgages, so they have little spare cash or borrowing ability.

Killing off Obama's health care overhaul is a common feature of the GOP plans. So, too, is a proposal to offer American companies a chance to bring money generated overseas back into the U.S. without being taxed. But studies have shown that a similar repatriation "holiday" in 2004-2005 had little effect on job growth.

Some Republicans go further than others. For instance, Bachmann says she would consider allowing oil and gas exploration in the Florida Everglades. None of her rivals has been that bold, perhaps given Florida's importance in presidential calculus.

Hoping to coax more U.S. export jobs, Romney threatens to trade penalties against China if it does not boost the value of its currency. "If you're not willing to stand up to China, you'll get rolled over by China," he says. But former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who recently served as U.S. ambassador to China, argues that such penalties probably would lead to a trade war that would hurt both economies.

On taxes, Romney would make incremental changes and move later to a simpler system. For now, he would extend Bush-era tax cuts, lower the 35 percent corporate tax rate to 25 percent and exempt investment income for those earning less than $200,000. He would extract more U.S. oil, coal and natural gas, expand trade pacts and cut federal spending.

Rep. Ron Paul's plan is the most radical. The Texas Republican, a libertarian, would scrap the income tax entirely. He contends the government didn't have the authority to impose it in the first place. He would make ends meet through excise taxes, tariffs, and a smaller government. In the process, he would abolish the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve.

Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO who has replaced Romney as the GOP front-runner in some recent polls, repeatedly pushes his "9-9-9" tax plan that would cut personal and corporate tax rates to 9 percent each and impose a new 9 percent federal sales tax.

Perry's plan would give taxpayers the choice of paying at a flat rate of 20 percent or adhering to the current tax structure. He would preserve deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations and state and local tax taxes for households earning less than $500,000 a year and offer a $12,500 exemption for individuals and dependents.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has proposed a 15 percent optional flat tax. Huntsman would set up a three-tiered system with a top rate of 23 percent. Bachmann would replace the tax code with a yet-to-be specified flat tax. Santorum proposes a "simpler, flatter and fairer" tax without offering specifics. He would cut the corporate tax in half and eliminate it for manufacturers who keep jobs in the U.S.

In the past, flat tax schemes — pushed by Democrat Jerry Brown in 1992 and Republican publisher Steve Forbes in 1990 and 2000 — failed to generate much political traction, in part because most plans would put a disproportionate burden on lower-income families.

Quick studies of the current major GOP proposals by independent research groups have made similar findings.

____

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomraum

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Perry to GOP: I could handle Obama in debate (AP)

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry says he may not be the best debater, but he's confident he can draw clear distinctions with President Barack Obama onstage next year.

The Texas governor is trying to reassure Republican primary voters in the wide-open nominating contest.

He says he may skip some debates with the other GOP hopefuls between now and the end of January. But he says he's "not worried a bit" about his ability to contrast his plans on the economy and foreign policy with the president's during scheduled debates in the 2012 elections.

Perry's campaign has said he'll participate in at least five more debates against his GOP rivals, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Perry tells "Fox News Sunday" that he prefers other types of campaigning.

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Perry, Romney contrast in style, substance (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Campaigning just five miles and a few minutes apart, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry showed first-in-the-nation primary state voters just how starkly different they are.

Romney, who leads the state's polls, has spent years campaigning in New Hampshire and has a home on a nearby lake, held an hour-long town hall meeting Friday outside Manchester. Perry, a much newer presidential candidate on his sixth visit to the state, filed his official paperwork to appear on the state's presidential primary ballot, met briefly with voters at a restaurant and gave a boisterous speech to social conservatives.

Romney held private meetings in Manchester and spent the evening taking questions from voters, covering fiscal policy, the environment, defense, even NASA funding. He largely ignored his Republican rivals and went after President Barack Obama.

"The president's philosophy," Romney said, "is extraordinarily misguided. What they have done over the last three years is every time they've seen an area they thought needed addressing, they put more government in, and what it did was it caused the private sector to retreat."

Romney is far ahead in the polls in the state. His organization is long-running and stable, and he faces challenges for the support of conservative voters.

Perry, his chief rival in money, staff and organization elsewhere in the country, spent his time defending his debate performances and campaign trail mistakes, and attacking Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, and businessman Herman Cain.

Romney "has been on opposite sides of a lot of issues. He was for banning handguns. Now he's Mr. Second Amendment," Perry said during a radio interview at the Barley House restaurant across from the New Hampshire Statehouse. "Governor Romney in his book initially said his health care plan would be good for America. And then he took that sentence out when the book came out in paperback. So the issue is, Who are we really going to trust to stand up every day and be consistent? I have been consistent."

In a spirited speech at the socially conservative Cornerstone Action's banquet, Perry cracked jokes, talked baseball, quoted from Proverbs and waved his one-page flat tax filing form in the air.

Romney is businesslike, calm, usually careful. Perry is aggressive, spirited and pointed in conviction. They could hardly provide New Hampshire voters with two more different candidates to choose from, in style, focus or substance.

Romney came to his town hall surrounded by a few of his longest-serving and most influential advisers, business leaders and political operatives. He opened his remarks with an anecdote about his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, to describe why the economy is in trouble.

"He said there's nothing as vulnerable as entrenched success," Romney told the crowd of about 100. "His idea was that some groups of people or companies or nations become so used to their success that they become complacent, they become fat, lazy, and other upstarts are able to rush past them."

Romney has worked hard in New Hampshire for months, almost since he lost his bid for the 2008 nomination. He's focused relentlessly on his economic message, a pitch that plays well with independent-minded voters in the state. He avoids the social issues that tripped him up last time, including abortion and gay marriage.

While he was on message during his appearance on the trail, his campaign was left to deal with yet more accusations that he had flip-flopped on a major issue important to conservatives. It's a charge left over from the last campaign, and one he's been unable to shake.

On Friday, Democrats seized on comments he made in Pittsburgh, where he said he wasn't sure what was causing global warming — remarks they portrayed as a shift from a previous position, though Romney had said as much before.

Perry, by contrast, is on his sixth visit to the state since he announced his presidential run in mid-August. He's far behind in the polls in New Hampshire and probably will focus on the caucuses in Iowa and the primaries in South Carolina and Florida. He arrived, as always, accompanied by a few of personal aides and a sizable security contingent.

His central message is his job creation record in Texas.

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Perry: Obama's lost standing on foreign policy (AP)

WASHINGTON – GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry says President Barack Obama hasn't listened to his commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that's cost him credibility as commander in chief.

Obama has announced that U.S troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year, effectively ending the war that began under the administration of President George W. Bush.

Perry tells "Fox News Sunday" that making those plans public endangers troops still in Iraq. The Texas governor says Obama has "lost his standing" as a commander in chief.

The president has said the death of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and the end of the Iraq war are reminders of America's renewed leadership in the world.

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Cain and Romney statistically tied in new Des Moines Register Iowa poll (The Ticket)

(Chris Carlson/AP)

Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are statistically tied for the lead in Iowa's Republican presidential primary race, according to a new Des Moines Register poll of likely caucus-goers in the state.

The Register survey, long considered the most reliable of Iowa polls, finds the former Godfather's Pizza executive with 1-point advantage in the state, leading the former Massachusetts governor 23 percent to 22 percent.

Ron Paul trailed in third place, with 12 percent support. The remaining 2012 hopefuls were in single digits, including Michele Bachmann (8 percent); Rick Perry (7 percent); Newt Gingrich (7 percent); Rick Santorum (5 percent) and Jon Huntsman (1 percent).

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

Cain's popularity has soared in the state, in spite of the fact he's done little actual campaigning there. But Romney's numbers are equally surprising, given the ex-governor has visited the state just three times since launching his second White House bid this spring.

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Irresponsible Romney: 'We Don't Know What's Causing Climate Change' (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The problem with politicians is that for far too many of them, science is subject to convenience. Take for example the words of former Massachusetts governor and the most likely GOP nominee for the 2012 presidential election.

According to the Huffington Post, Mitt Romney told a group of supporters at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh: "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us. My view with regards to energy policy is pretty straightforward: I want us to become energy secure and independent of the oil cartels."

Sometimes when I read a quote from a politician, I literally spit expletives at my computer screen. The fact is we do know what's causing climate change. To say otherwise is a blatant lie, aimed at a constituency that thinks absolutes can be fudged.

I will give you that Al Gore's plea to save the snows of Kilimanjaro is a bit weak. I've never been to Kilimanjaro, and if I ever go, I doubt the snow will be my favorite part of the experience. Gore appealed to outdoorsy people, but my idea of roughing it is a hotel where room service shuts down at 8 p.m. So for the climate change skeptics who say that Kilimanjaro's snow and the plight of polar bears is no big deal, let me just say this: Earth is the only planet we know how to live on.

If the scientists are wrong, we're out a few trillion dollars, but friends, if they're right, that's the ballgame. Oh, Earth will be fine. George Carlin was right. Earth will shake off our existence like a minor head cold. But I'm sort of fond of humanity. Climate change is happening now. It's threatening our existence now. Scientists aren't political, but politicians aren't immune from science. Neither are the rest of us. Mitt Romney is irresponsible. He should apologize and drop out. We deserve better.

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White House adviser: Can Romney make tough calls? (AP)

WASHINGTON – A White House adviser say Mitt Romney has "moved all over the place" on issues from abortion to gay marriage over his career and might not have firm enough convictions to make the tough decisions as president.

David Plouffe (pluhf) jokes that if Romney thought "it was good to say the sky was green and the grass was blue to win an election, he'd say it."

Plouffe, who was Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, notes a new Iowa poll showing Herman Cain leading with 23 percent support, and Romney next at 22 percent.

Plouffe tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that Cain "seems to have tapped into something." Plouffe says lots of voters still are "looking somewhere else" beyond Romney and he wonders whether the early front-runner can turn that around.

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Cain, Romney in tight Republican race in Iowa: poll (Reuters)

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Republican White House hopefuls Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are in a tight race in Iowa, which kicks off next year's presidential nominating contests, according to a closely watched opinion poll published on Saturday.

The poll conducted for The Des Moines Register showed Cain, a conservative businessman, with the support of 23 percent of Republicans surveyed. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had 22 percent, and Texas Representative Ron Paul 12 percent in the race to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has stumbled in debates and on the campaign trail after a fast start, scored only 7 percent support.

The Iowa caucuses will take place on January 3, the first of the state-by-state contests to choose a party presidential nominee.

The poll showed Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann fading after running neck and neck with Romney in the June Iowa poll. Bachmann dropped to 8 percent and fourth place in the new poll.

Neither Cain nor Romney has spent much time campaigning in Iowa. Romney, who has just four paid staff and a consultant in the state, has rarely visited Iowa since a second-place finish in the caucuses in 2008 wounded his campaign.

Iowa has a large bloc of conservative voters distrustful of Romney's past support of abortion rights and a Massachusetts healthcare overhaul that was a precursor of Obama's federal law.

Cain's surprising rise has been achieved with a small organization in states that hold early primaries and caucuses.

"One thing I've noticed in my short two months with the campaign is that the more people see of Mr. Cain, the more they like him," said J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for the campaign.

Romney's campaign declined to comment on the poll results.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who has spent more time in Iowa than the other candidates and visited more than 70 of Iowa's 99 counties, received just 5 percent support in the poll. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who has lagged consistently behind his rivals, received 1 percent.

The Iowa Poll was conducted Sunday through Wednesday and was based on telephone interviews with 400 Republican likely to attend the caucuses. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

In 2008, the poll correctly predicted wins for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the Republican contest and Obama, then a senator, in the Democratic caucus.

(Additional reporting by Kay Henderson in Des Moines; Editing by Greg McCune and Peter Cooney)

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