-By Warner Todd Huston
Herman Cain wins yet another straw poll of conservative activists. This time at Teacon 2011 held in a northwestern suburb of Chicago. There was no surprise that Cain won the straw poll, but there was some surprise fireworks in the media room and another surprise elsewhere in the Cain campaign as his long-serving Communications Director resigned over the weekend.
Herman Cain was the only candidate that decided to come in person, but to be honest, this crowd was a Cain hotspot even before that. Rep. Michele Bachmann sent in a video address that found favor with the crowd, too. But Cain and she were the only ones to give TeaCon 2011 the time of day.
The results, with over 77% of the vote, put Herman Cain in the lead. And in descending order was Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum — oddly enough President Obama came in next — and Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson came in last.
As Erik Telford said on Twitter, “If you can’t beat Obama in a tea party straw poll, it’s probably time to end your campaign. (cc: Huntsman and Johnson).”
Ouch, indeed.
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Cain Rises at TeaCon 2011: Straw Poll Win, Communications Director Loss, Disagreements With Jack Roeser”
Ron Paul is not serious about running for president nor is he a serious candidate even were he to be so inclined. But serious or no, he is a horrible candidate regardless.
As I sit down to craft this report I just this moment returned from a fundraiser for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich held in a small town called Lake Barrington in the western suburbs of Chicago. 
The American left and its handmaidens in the Old Media spent 24 hours desperately trying to spin Obama’s attempt to schedule a joint session of Congress on the same day as the GOP debate as an example of how the GOP is refusing to work with him. These leftists categorically deny that Obama was simply engaging in political brinkmanship, using his selection of Sept. 7 as a political ploy. But the very night that Obama was shot down by Speaker Boehner on the date he chose for his jobs address, Obama’s campaign sent out a fundraising letter that pretty much proves that Obama intended the whole episode to be the very political ploy his pals in the Old Media tried to deny was happening.
Illinois ended 2010 as the most indebted state in the union. Sadly, not a thing has been done so far in 2011 to make it better. Instead, it will get worse.
Representative Adam Kinzinger made what is in my opinion a principled vote on the pair of resolutions concerning the authorization and funding of Obama’s mission in Libya today. His principles however ran counter to the Republican’s conventional wisdom on this and he was one of only eight Republicans to do so in one case.
With the latest three votes, the Illinois GOP has shown itself to be little else but Democrat lite and has shown that even planks in its own platform are meaningless when it comes to voting time.
Several news sources have been working for days to get to the bottom of a story that might end up revealing that the head of one of Democrat Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s police security details was involved in a racist attack on several black students in downstate Carlinville. Worse, the story seems to be undergoing a political cover up as news agencies are being stymied in rooting out the details.
Last week I 
This is why Illinois politics is called “the combine.” It’s because all too often there doesn’t seem to be a whit of a difference between Republicans and Democrats — not always, but all too often. They even donate to each other’s campaigns. 
Alderman Pat Levar of Chicago’s 45th Ward served six terms on the city council but announced last November that his health was bad enough that he didn’t want to run for his seat again and would retire. This announcement started a mad scramble for someone to fill his seat.