Herman Cain handily wins Florida GOP straw poll

  

Herman Cain, former Godfather's Pizza CEO, followed a strong showing at this week's GOP debate in Orlando by joining most of his fellow Republican presidential candidates in addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition and the Conservative Political Action Conference, in the same Florida city.

One of those meaningless straw polls followed.

But, wait. This one was different. Cain won. He took nearly 40% of the 2,567 votes cast, far outpacing the purported front-runners, Govs. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. That's a real PR setback for both losers and sets the stage for much media questioning of Perry about his stumbling campaign.

Romney had claimed he wasn't trying to win the straw poll, even though aides worked the phones, e-mails and aisles for him.

But Perry made an all-out free-breakfast-come-talk-with-me effort. And he lost, rather big-time, to a man who is the favorite of many conservatives, although a longshot to become the GOP's nominee.

Much of the GOP race attention has been focused on the Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em routine that's....

Fox News/Google GOP debate becomes most-watched of the year -- on TV and the Web

The partnership between Fox News and Google/YouTube for the latest GOP presidential debate Thursday night proved very popular with both TV viewers and Web users.

Fox News racked up the largest ratings for a GOP debate yet this year, with 6.1 million total viewers, and 1.7 million in the target demographic: adults 25-54.

That's a big bump up in total viewers and in the advertiser-approved demo from the last debate, a partnership between CNN and the Tea Party Express on Sept. 12. That one gathered just under 3.2 million total viewers, and just over 1.1 million in the demographic.

The MSNBC/Politico debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Sept. 7 did 5.4 million viewers, but matched FNC in the demo, with 1.7.

Going back to the last FNC debate -- a partnership with the Washington Examiner -- in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, that drew nearly 5.1 million viewers, with 1.4 in the demo.

To find the target demo dipping below 1 million, you need to go back to the....

GOP debate: Rick Perry vs. Mitt Romney, plus Gary Johnson and some dogs

  

If you believe pollster Frank Luntz's focus group in the post-game analysis on Fox News, Mitt Romney did himself a lot of good in Thursday's two-hour Fox News/Google GOP Debate, held in Orlando, Fla.

Nine candidates faced questions from FNC anchors Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly, and from citizens via YouTube and text messages: Gary Johnson, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman Jr.

Baier mentioned Google had provided Fox News with a new "boop" sound to indicate a candidate had run over time, since the former bell raised the ire of dog owners (and apparently the volume of their pets' barking).

Speaking of dogs, former New Mexico Gov. Johnson, who hasn't been in a debate since the first one in May, got in the line of the evening, quipping, "My next-door neighbors' two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration."

It got a lot of laughs even though some people swear they've heard Rush Limbaugh tell the same yarn.

Not to be outdone in the canine arena, Georgia-born businessman Cain criticized....

Prepping for tonight's GOP debate with Megyn Kelly of Fox News

   
Megyn Kelly may have graduate and postgraduate degrees, but the homework never ends.

The anchor of FNC's daytime "America Live" news show, is preparing to grill GOP candidates as part of the panel for the Fox News/Google GOP Debate, starting at 6 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, Sept. 22.

It'll be carried on Fox News Channel (along with Fox News Radio and Fox News Mobile) and live-streamed on YouTube.com/FoxNews and FoxNews.com.

"The most challenging part of this process," Kelly says on the phone while driving home from work earlier this week, "has been the two-hour meetings we have in the morning from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., because none of of my colleagues has a 1 p.m. show.

"Honestly, you should see my morning -- wake up, feed my baby, take care of my son, try to get my house in order, try to get my kids in order, get out of the house, get to the office, do two hours worth of debate prep, try to squeeze in enough prep for the 10 guest interviews I have to do between 1 p.m and 3 p.m."

Before Kelly turned to journalism, joining FNC in 2004, she earned a B.A. in....

Gary Johnson added to Fox News/Google GOP debate

 

Gary Johnson has just been added to the roster for the Fox News/Google GOP presidential debate, set for Thursday, Sept. 22, in Orlando, Fla.

The event also features the eight usual participants from the last GOP debate on CNN on Sept. 12 --  Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman Jr., Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Plus now add the former New Mexico governor, who hasn't been in a debate since the first one, a Fox News debate in South Carolina on May 5.

Johnson is included over the objections of the cosponsoring Florida Republican Party, because he fit the criterion set by Fox News. That is to have at least 1% of the vote in the most recent editions of the five national polls that included him: Fox News, CNN, McClatchy-Marist, ABC and Quinnipiac.

Still no Thaddeus McCotter, as we noted here.

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-- Kate O'Hare

Media critic Kate O’Hare is a regular Ticket contributor. She also blogs about TV at Hot Cuppa TV and is a frequent contributor at entertainment news site Zap2it. Also follow O'Hare on Twitter @KateOH.

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Photo: Gary Johnson addressing "tea party" supporters in May in South Carolina. Credit: Richard Shiro / Associated Press

Bush on 9/11: 'This is what war was like in the 21st century'

  
No president knows what will happen one moment after taking the oath of office, and that's especially true of wartime presidents.  

Abraham Lincoln surely never thought he'd be the man to shepherd a divided nation through a bloody Civil War. Franklin D. Roosevelt came into an economic crisis and then, after a fateful December day, wound up managing the United States in a conflict that spanned the globe.

George W. Bush intended to be the "education president," continuing with reforms he'd started while governor of Texas.

But while sitting in an elementary-school classroom in Florida on Sept. 11, 2001, listening to a lesson, he was given the news that a second airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.

The United States, clearly, was under attack.

On Sunday, Aug. 28, two weeks before the 10th anniversary of that day (in other words, today), National Geographic Channel premieres "George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview," a one-hour documentary on the former president recalling the events of that day, and the days afterward, with clips and photos.

"Sept. 11 is a monumental day in our nation's history," he says, "a significant day, and it obviously changed my presidency. I went from being a president that was primarily focused on domestic issues to a wartime president. It's something I never anticipated nor something I ever wanted to be."

Later, aboard Air Force One, with spotty communications and only intermittent access to TV reports, Bush and his staff received conflicting stories about what was happening. But doing nothing was not an option.

"I was experiencing the fog of war," says Bush. "We didn't know....

'Piers Morgan Tonight' loses Christine O'Donnell, finds viewers

  

Last Wednesday, former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell objected to a line of questioning and walked out of an interview on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," where she was a guest to promote her nonfiction book "Troublemaker."

If O'Donnell intended to use the kerfuffle to boost sales of her book, apparently it didn't work, but it did have a positive effect on Morgan's numbers the following day.

The 9 p.m. Eastern talk show led CNN's lineup on Thursday, both in total viewers and in the advertiser-appproved target adults 25-54 demographic. "Piers Morgan Tonight" drew 809,000 total viewers and 241,000 in the demo. It landed a close third for the night behind MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show."

Both placed well behind Fox News Channel's "Hannity," which drew in just more than....

Sarah Palin's noncampaign campaign-style video 'Iowa Passion'

  

Sarah Palin has a new video out.

President Obama headed to Iowa on a bus tour shortly after the Ames Straw Poll, but it wasn't a campaign trip, he said. Sarah Palin took her "One Nation" bus tour to Iowa shortly before the Ames Straw Poll, but it wasn't a campaign trip.

Well, we know at least Obama is actually running for reelection -- and we wouldn't be a bit surprised if his shiny new buses showed up again then -- but if Palin isn't....

Fox News viewers win cable-ratings argument, as Obama and Boehner talk debt ceiling

  

In a news conference on July 11 -- which in debt-ceiling-debate time seems to be a hundred years ago --  President Obama answered a reporter's question on public skepticism about the value of raising the national debt c eiling by saying, "The public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs of how a Treasury option goes."

Whether or not Americans were paying attention then, they sure are now, especially if they watch Fox News Channel.

Among those tuning into cable news to see the president's latest speech on the debt ceiling at 6 p.m. PT on Monday, FNC viewers outnumbered those watching competitors CNN and MSNBC by a comfortable margin.

Over 3.5 million watched the president's address on FNC, with a slight uptick to 4 million for....

Tim Pawlenty's use of 'Miracle on Ice' footage reportedly upsets ABC

Tim Pawlenty was right to align his campaign with that of the underdog USA men's hockey team that upset the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics. But ABC Sports thinks he was wrong to use footage from that historic game in his latest commercial.

According to the Des Moines Register, ABC will soon be sending the Pawlenty campaign a cease-and-desist letter because the Republican presidential hopeful not only used the network's copyrighted footage but included a soundbite of Al Michaels' famous line, "Do you believe in miracles?"

“It’s a violation of our copyright and exclusive proprietary rights,”  Louise Argianas, director of rights and clearances for ABC Sports, told the Register.

Argianas added that because Pawlenty's 30-second spot used Michaels' voice, she would also have to notify the announcer's agent. The ad began airing Wednesday in Iowa.

Pawlenty campaign spokesman Alex Conan told the Register and media organizations that the campaign believed the footage in the ad was protected under "fair use."