A Change In Tactics

The latest GOP debate on the economy took place in New Hampshire earlier tonight. It displayed a change from the direction of previous debates. Herman Cain played a much larger role. The Pizzaman has seen his poll ratings rise rapidly in the wake of his performance in the previous debate and his victory in the Florida straw poll. His larger role seems to have come at the expense of Texas Governor, Rick Perry, who has fallen from the graces. Perry underwhelmed again and seemed widely ignored by the other candidates. He also made no attempts to take control of the debate or issues, which may or may not have been a bad thing, given his previous mediocre performances.

The key thing about Perry is that he still hasn't fully released his economic plan:

Mr. Perry is set to deliver his first major policy speech of the campaign on Friday in Pittsburgh, on energy and jobs. When pressed for specifics, he said, “I’m not going to lay it out all for you tonight.” Asked about Mr. Romney’s lengthy economic plan, he said, “You know, Mitt’s had six years to be working on a plan. I’ve been in this for about eight weeks.” Asked if he might accept a budget compromise that could involve raising revenue, as President Ronald Reagan did, Mr. Perry suggested that he would not.

The problem with this is that he comes across as unprepared. This was a debate on economics and Perry is withholding his plan for campaign speeches? Please. You're on a national stage in an important primary state, you have to deliver the goods. I have no idea who is running Perry's campaign, but they have failed miserably.

In the meantime, Cain has received the most attention from the other candidates:

Later, when Jon M. Huntsman joked that Mr. Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan — which calls for reducing the individual and corporate income taxes to 9 percent and introducing a 9 percent national sales tax — sounded more like the price of pizza, Mr. Cain shot back that it “didn’t come off a pizza box, no.”

Bachmann also poured it on:

Bachmann said Cain’s plan wasn’t a jobs plan, but a proposal that would give Congress “a pipeline in a sales tax.”

“When you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details,” she said.

Cain is convinced that his simple tax code will spur economic growth, but there are just too many concerns with it. It's also the only thing he has brought to the table thus far in terms of getting this economy going. As I've said in the past, the flat tax won't work because it'll put an immense burden on the poor who can barely make ends meet as things stand now. A flat tax will reduce their purchasing power and they will have to make tougher decisions about their consumption. Broadening the tax base has a similar effect.

Simple can be good, but simple won't necessarily work.

Romney seems to understand that:

“I have had the experience in my life of taking on some tough problems,” Romney said. “And I must admit that simple answers are always very helpful but oftentimes inadequate. And in my view, to get this economy going again, we’re going to have to deal with more than just tax policy and just energy policy, even though both of those are part of my plan.”

His approach seems much more pragmatic and with a stronger expectation of what Washington is going to be like. Cain, Perry, and Bachmann have all portrayed themselves as somewhat of Washington outsiders, but their problem is that they don't know how Washington works. Romney has the experience of working with liberals in Massachusetts and had to work with them to accomplish some of his initiative, which is what it's going to be like in DC. This is not even getting into his private sector experience.

We've already had like 4-5 debates and doesn't appear like a new candidate is going to enter nor does it appear that further debating is going to change the landscape of the primaries. Right now, it's pretty clear who should be the nominee and it isn't even close. In the long term, you have to look at the person who makes the most sense; this time it's Mitt Romney.