The inevitability of a Mitt Romney nomination took a major hit today with Iowa now being called a win for Rick Santorum, a new poll showing Newt Gingrich beating Romney in South Carolina, and Rick Perry dropping out of the race and endorsing Gingrich.  Add to that the fact that if Gingrich performs well again tonight in the last debate before the South Carolina primary and this race is far from over.

CNN, Fox News and Politico are all reporting that Texas Governor Rick Perry will be dropping out of the race today.  Politico is also reporting that Perry will be endorsing Newt Gingrich today before the debate tonight.

In a just released poll from Matt Towery's Insider Advantage, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now leading in South Carolina.  In a Politico poll it is also being reported that Gingrich is 'in striking distance' of Romney.

This is certainly not a good day for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who is watching his strong grasp on the nomination slip away one piece at a time.  It is also being reported that former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum will now be called the winner in the Iowa Caucuses as a recount now shows that Santorum won by 34 votes.  This race is far from over as Gingrich continues to get a bump in the polls everytime he debates

A new poll just released from the American Research Group shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich surging back into a statistical tie with frontrunner Mitt Romney in the very important South Carolina primary to be held on January 21st.  It also shows Texas Congressman Ron Paul picking up ground and by himself in 3rd place. 

Mitt Romney-29%
Newt Gingrich-25%
Ron Paul- 20%
Rick Perry-9%
Rick Santorum-7%
Undecided-7%
Jon Huntsman-1%

+ or - 4% Margin of Error

This poll clearly shows that the party as a whole, at least in South Carolina, is not content with Mitt Romney as the nominee. 

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Texas Governor Rick Perry is suspending his campaign immediately after his fifth place finish in the Iowa Caucuses held yesterday.   I had thought Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann would be the next casualty but Perry beat her to the punch. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-rick-perry-suspend-campaign-20120103,0,7870108.story

I want to begin by stating the obvious that WeArePolitics has been publishing a great number of articles regarding Herman Cain and his candidacy.  That being said, I have made WeArePolitics an open forum for supporters of all candidates to express their views without fear of any editting except for obvious grammatical ones.  We have published several pro-Ron Paul articles, a few for Newt Gingrich and even  one for Gary Johnson and have tried to post up-to-date polling information regardless of who the candidate is who happens to lead that poll.  This practice will continue in an unbiased manner whenever articles are sent to me at bill@wearepolitics.com from candidates as well as their supporters. 

I have been a supporter of Herman Cain's before Herman was an actual candidate as I wrote my first article supporting him in the 11th Hour Magazine well over a year ago when he told a crowd in New Orleans that a 'potential dark horse' could be running for the Presidency.  Those of us who have met Herman and supported him for Senate here in Georgia all held our collective breaths in hopes that he would in fact run.  Thank God that he has.

As in all Presidential campaigns, or any political campaign for that matter, candidates are scrutinized to minutia and properly vetted, sometimes fairly, sometimes not.  The last 48 hours has shown the viciousness of the media and their unfair bias against Conservatives as they have gone for the jugular vain of Herman Cain and have blindly followed a Politico article accusing him of sexual harrassment over ten years ago.  CBS News has asked in a poll today 'Can Herman Cain's Campaign Survive?" and in another story "Is Herman Cain Taking Scandal From Bad To Worse?"  The funny thing is they are failing to report that since the 'scandal' has hit, the Cain Campaign has raised at least $300,000 and in another report $350,000 making it the single biggest campaign fund raising day in Herman's Campaign history.  People are fed up with this treatment of candidates and are showing it by supporting Herman when he needs it the most.  (I strongly urge all supporters to do likewise and donate whatever you can afford to make sure that Mr. Cain will be the nominee of the GOP.)

This should show us all a very important thing and that the Obama Administration, and it's minions in the media,  are petrified that Herman Cain can become our nominee and will be able to beat the Socialist agenda of Obama with sound, common sense principles that people can support and understand.  The more they attack, the stronger we should be in our support of him. 

Herman speaks without notes and does it from the heart.  I've been priveledged to see him speak at least five times in person and had conversations with  him at many other occassions.  Does he make mistakes?  You bet.  He's human.  But he knows there's 50 states rather that 57 and I can bet that he would never bow to a foreign leader nor leave Prime Minister Netanyahu wondering if the United States does in fact have Israels' back against Iran or any other terroristic state.  We can't say  that about our Commander-In-Chief right now can we?

If Herman doesn't get the nomination, you can also bet that I will work equally as hard for the nominee who gets it in his place, but we have to ask ourselves one question about  Cain and the other candidates who are in the top tier and have a legitimate shot at the nomination:  Who has the best potential of beating Obama comes November, 2012?  Mitt Romney has the anchor of Romneycare being a model for Obamacare that will be the albatross around his neck; Rick Perry unfortuately couldn't debate Porky Pig and come out looking like a winner; and Ron Paul thinks Iran would be a responsible nation if they had nuclear weapons and makes Obama look like General Curtis LeMay when it comes to the defense of our nation.  Of the rest of the field, only the other Georgian in the race former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be a formidable candidate.  Am I breaking Reagan's 11th Commandment about speaking poorly about other people in the GOP?  I don't think so.  I'm being realistic.  We have too much to lose in the 2012 Presidential election to sugar coat the truth.

As I said when I started this article, WeArePolitics will continue to report on all of the other campaigns when there is newsworthy items or supporters want to offer their points of view.  I however, have pledged and will pledge again, my support of Herman Cain to be the GOP nominee.

The "big buzz" today in Washington is a Politico story alleging that Herman Cain sexually harassed two female employees. The allegations date back to the 1990s during his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association and were settled out of court.

During an interview today with Fox News, Cain acknowledged that he had been falsely accused of sexual harassment, and said the allegations were proven false. Cain categorically denied that he sexually harassed anyone, calling the charges, "totally baseless and totally false." But he left open the possibility that the National Restaurant Association may have settled the cases, saying, "If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn't even aware of it and I hope it wasn't for much."

With all the issues out there vying for attention, this story speaks volumes about the media's bias. (Remember Journolist?) As it turns out, the "journalist" who broke the story on Herman Cain has a history of publishing hit pieces, including one headlined, "Is Rick Perry Dumb?" Maybe that is what it takes to succeed in Washington media circles, but it hardly qualifies as journalism.

Our economy is struggling with persistently high unemployment. Our government is running record deficits. Islamists are scoring victory after victory overseas. The meaning of marriage is under assault. (More on that below.) Yet today the media are in a frenzy about unproven, decade-old allegations.

Apparently, someone in the Rick Perry campaign is finally starting to get the idea that the Texas governor just flat sucks when it comes to debating.  According to USA Today,  it appears that the Governor will start skipping some of the GOP debates that are upcoming after the next debate scheduled on November 9th in Michigan.

This is a 'great' strategy that has worked for some of our past Presidential candidates including President Harding who did all of his campaigning from his front porch.  It worked for Presidents McKinley, Garfield and Harrison as well, although Perry's campaign actually says that taking time away from the debates will get him more time out with the people.  The problem with the new Perry strategy is that even if he gets the nomination, he has to face President Obama in a head to head debate.  If he can't defend himself and debate amongst members of his own party, how can we expect him to hold his own against Obama?  We sure don't need another John McCain wandering around the debate stage looking clueless.  This election is an opportunity to take back the White House for decades to come.  We can't blow it by sending someone to a gunfight with a slingshot.   

The New Hampshire Secretary of State's office is reporting that Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has filed for the New Hampshire primary by mail after all five of her NH campaign staff resigned less than a week ago.  So far, Bachmann is the only candidate to file by mail as almost all other major candidates have either filed in person or sent a staffer to file for them.  According to the SOS, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman have all filed in person while Herman Cain and Ron Paul sent campaign staffers.  Texas Governor Rick Perry has failed to file as of yet.  

If Bachmann doesn't pull at least a second place showing in Iowa she's history.  Based on current polls, Iowa is a two man race between Romney and Cain with the rest of the field lagging far behind.  I will say though, that I think Iowa will pump at least another month's worth of life into former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum's campaign as I think he will probably finish ahead of most of the other candidates. 

Tax reform is again taking center stage. Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his economic plan today, which he calls "Cut, Balance and Grow" -- cut federal spending, balance the budget by 2020 and grow the economy.

The centerpiece of Perry's plan is a new voluntary 20% flat tax on personal and corporate income. The plan preserves the most popular deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes for families with incomes under $500,000. It also eliminates the capital gains tax and the death tax.

Perry is also proposing serious entitlement reform, including personal retirement accounts for younger workers. You can read more about Perry's economic plan here.

Yesterday, Newt Gingrich previewed his economic agenda in an op-ed in Iowa's Quad-City Times. Like Perry, Gingrich is calling for a voluntary flat tax, but with lower rates of 15% for individuals and 12.5% for corporations.

The leading Republican contenders have all laid out broad economic plans. Mitt Romney's plan largely favors reforming and flattening of the existing code, while Gingrich and Perry are backing a flat tax. Herman Cain has proposed a combination of low flat taxes and a low national sales tax, with the ultimate goal of transitioning entirely to a national sales tax.

I'm not taking a position on the flat tax versus the national sales tax. But jumpstarting the economy is a crucial issue that deserves serious debate. Consumer confidence is down yet again. Housing prices are down. Wages are down. Unemployment is up. Inflation is up. More and more Americans are losing hope.

A recent poll found that 69% of voters think America is "in decline" and 57% don't believe that today's children will have a better life than their parents. We need bold reforms to dramatically spur growth so the economy can create millions of new jobs.