Politics: Newt?s Not Here, Man

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Politics Newt's Not Here, Man Cain and Gingrich are making the wrong campaign moves, and winning. Why? By David Weigel Posted Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011, at 07:10 PM ET On Nov. 5, with just five non-holiday Saturdays left till the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain will be in Texas. Let the other candidates flip pancakes and stockpile antifreeze in Iowa. Gingrich and Cain will be in Houston for a "modified Lincoln-Douglas debate" about entitlement spending. The room seats only 1,000, and tickets start $200, with the proceeds going to the Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC. Is this a weird scheduling decision? No doubt. That's not to say it will hurt Cain or Gingrich. Check the polls: Gingrich has recovered some of his old intra-Republican popularity. Cain is now the front-runner in Iowa and in a bunch of later primary states where voters know the candidates mostly through debates and Fox News hits—forums where these two shine. Both candidates are doing even better than they were before they converted their campaigns into full-service book tours. Just look at their schedules. On Aug. 13, Herman Cain lost the Ames straw poll handily, coming in fifth place. He left Iowa with polls showing him in low single digits. On Aug. 18, he officially launched his 9-9-9 tax plan. On Sept. 24, Cain won the Florida Republican Party's quadrennial straw poll. On Oct. 4, he released his memoir and started his book tour. Over the next two weeks, four Iowa polls were released, and Cain led in all four. But Cain himself wasn't in Iowa. His first post-straw-poll visit to the state came on Sunday. The ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Republicans' Ridiculous Complaints That Obama Is Taking Troops Out of Iraq Too Soon Steve Jobs' Final Obsession—the Apple TV—Nearing Production Too Young for Gen X, Too Old for Millennials: My Generation Is Generation Catalano!	Advertisement
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