Straw Poll speeches call for similar things

AMES - Variations on a theme may best describe the substance of what six Republicans seeking their party's 2012 presidential nomination told Iowans Aug. 13.

They all called for shrinking government, lowering taxes and spending, defending the sanctity of life and maintaining what they called “American Exceptionalism” as they addressed several thousand party loyalists at the sixth quadrennial Iowa GOP Straw Poll in Ames.

In a situation like this, the candidates tend to be careful in what they say because of the intense media coverage, said University of Iowa political scientist Tim Hagle.

“I didn't see any Teleprompters,” he joked, “but most of them are pretty scripted or, at least, are giving speeches they've given before.”

The straw poll speeches aren't so much about changing minds as projecting themselves to audiences outside of the arena, Hagle said.

“They're not talking so much to their supporters at this point – they're here, they've already voted, so they are speaking to the outside audience,” he said. “So it's a matter of getting your people fired up.”

Here are highlights from each of the speakers:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum:

Santorum, who dubbed his campaign “the little engine that could” campaign, took the fight directly to the president.

“This country is in jeopardy of losing its freedom because of one man and one bill: Obamacare,” Santorum warned.

“Obamacare is the single greatest threat to one generation's charge of handing off this country off to next generation freer, safer and more prosperous,” Santorum said.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

Leadership is about more than the sort of fancy rhetoric that convinced Iowans to catapult Barack Obama to the presidency, Pawlenty said.

“Barack Obama came through Iowa four years ago with the big rhetoric,” Pawlenty said.

“Does his big rhetoric put gas in the car? Does it pay the mortgage? Does it put our kids through college?”

The crowd shouted, “No” to each question until Pawlenty asked, “Is it time for Barack Obama to go?”

“Yes,” the crowd shouted.

Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul:

Paul called for shrinking the size of the federal government, reducing burdensome government regulations, and significantly changing the nation's foreign relations and monetary policies.

He also criticized the Patriot Act and airport searches that are taking away citizens' liberties. “You never have to give up liberty to be safe,” he said. Paul touted gold and silver over paper currency and supported eventually getting rid of income and corporate taxes.

Michigan U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter:

The future is now “and the future is you,” McCotter said. He argued the future is not big government, but self-government.

In what sounded like a rebuke of Ron Paul's “bring the troops home” message, McCotter defended American intervention in foreign wars. Although soldiers cannot be brought home “as quickly as our hearts wish,” he said, “they are quite proud of what they are doing … expanding liberty … and we will not abandon the fruits of their hard work.”

Businessman Herman Cain:

Cain sees America as a “nation of crises” – entitlement spending out of control, economic stagnation and amoral crisis.

Most of all, the former president and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, said, there is a “severe deficiency of leadership crisis.”

The business sector is the economic engine of the economy, he said, and called for lowering taxes and making those tax cuts permanent.

“Uncertainty is killing this economy (and) killing this nation,” Cain said.

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann:

Bachmann, who was born in Waterloo, said she represents all the values Iowa Republican voters from the social conservatives to national security hawks including the sacrifice of the five Sullivan Brothers of Waterloo, who all died serving on the same ship in World War II, to the ouster of three Iowa State Supreme Court justices after the panel unanimously struck down a ban on gay marriage.

“I have always been grateful I'm an Iowa,” she said. “I believe it's time we had an Iowan in the White House.”

Newt Gingrich, who was at the straw poll, but not on the program, said he wants to be the paycheck president.

The former speaker of the U.S. House accused President Obama of being the “best food stamp president in history.”

Obama, Gingrich said, has put more people on food stamps “by killing the economy.

“If you walk up to people in Iowa and ask would you rather have food stamps for your children or a paycheck and there's not a neighborhood in Iowa where you wouldn't have a vast majority say I'd much rather have a paycheck,” Gingrich said at the Google/IowaRepublican.com soapbox. “I want to be the best paycheck president in history.”

Josh Nelson of the Waterloo Courier contributed to this story

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