Does Michele Bachmann's Iowa victory make it tougher for Sarah Palin to get into the race?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The race for the Republican nomination for president is finally starting to get interesting.
Tt looks like it's shaping up to be a three-way race among Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann - whose campaign was fueled by her victory in the Iowa straw poll. Texas Congressman Ron Paul also remains a player following his strong second place finish in Iowa.
And now - the big question mark remains whether Sarah Palin will decide to make a go for it.
The half-term, dropout governor of Alaska managed to steal the spotlight in Iowa on Friday when she made a surprise visit to the state fair. Palin says she thinks there's "plenty of time" to jump in the race... and there's "plenty of room for more people."
Maybe so - but she said all that before Bachmann went on to win the straw poll.
It's worth pointing out that there's a lot of overlap between Bachmann and Palin supporters. Both charismatic women are tea party favorites who appeal to anti-Washington and Christian conservative voters.
And it's no small feat that Bachmann won the straw poll in Iowa, a key early voting state. The Iowa caucuses have been known to catapult politicians to the White House. Does Barack Obama ring a bell?
This all means that the clock is ticking for Palin to make up her mind. Working in her favor: Palin remains near the top of the pack in the polls... and she would be the best-known Republican in the field if she decides to do it.
Also - by waiting until the fall to jump in - Palin could spare herself months of media scrutiny and sparring with the other GOP candidates.
Here’s my question to you: Does Michele Bachmann's Iowa victory make it tougher for Sarah Palin to get into the race?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Are you buying what Texas Governor Rick Perry is selling?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is officially a candidate for president, we thought it would be a good time to spin through some of his greatest hits here in the Cafferty File.
In a column for The Daily Beast, CNN political contributor and fellow Texan Paul Begala said Perry, who "threw his hair in the ring" this weekend, will say or do absolutely anything to win.
That includes calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme, and saying both it and Medicare are unconstitutional.
Perry has also flirted with secession and presided over the execution of one of his constituents who was probably innocent.
In questioning Perry's intellectual capacity for the job, Begala points to his very mediocre grades at Texas A&M, or as Begala calls it, "this cute remedial school we have in Texas."
One of the things Perry likes to talk about is how Texas leads the nation in job creation. But Paul Krugman in The New York Times calls this so-called economic miracle a myth.
Turns out the Texas unemployment rate is higher than in states like Massachusetts and New York and one in four Texans doesn't have health insurance. That's the highest rate in the nation.
Krugman writes that the idea of a Texas miracle comes from the economic effects of population growth. Because the population has been growing faster in Texas than the rest of the United States, job growth is also higher there than in other states.
And, because the rapid growth in the Texas workforce keeps wages low, lots of companies want to move production there.
Almost 10% of Texan workers earn minimum wage or less. There's a joke down there about Texas job creation that goes, "Sure, Perry has created thousands of jobs. I'm working three of them."
Here’s my question to you: Are you buying what Texas Governor Rick Perry is selling?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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