Romney shows big lead in N.H. GOP poll
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are running 1-2 among likely Republican presidential primary voters in New Hampshire, a poll released Monday indicates.
The poll by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College gave Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, 38 percent and Cain, a Georgia businessman, 20 percent. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas came in third at 13 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry was well down the list with less than 5 percent.
The poll results indicated support for the two front-runners is soft, with only 10 percent saying they "definitely" will vote for Romney and 6 percent committed to Cain. Further, only 14 percent of those surveyed are "very satisfied" with the field of GOP candidates.
Despite that, the poll showed 72 percent predict Romney would beat Democratic President Barack Obama.
"The real significant finding in this data is not so much who the front-runner is at this point -- Gov. Romney has been the front runner in this field for a while -- but who is not in the top tier," said Patrick Griffin, senior fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. "With Herman Cain showing surprising strength as the 'Romney Alternative' and a compressed primary schedule, Gov. Perry may be running out of time in New Hampshire. There is a lot more riding on this Tuesday's debate for Romney, Cain and Perry [in that order] today then there was yesterday."
The Republican presidential hopefuls will debate economic issues Tuesday at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
The poll is based on 648 telephone interviews conducted Oct. 2-6. It has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
Romney calls Perry 'desperate'
NEW YORK, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign says a video by rival Rick Perry calling him a flip-flopper shows his desperation.
The Texas governor's video depicts the former Massachusetts governor as the inspiration for President Obama's healthcare reform and as a serial flip-flopper who shouldn't be president, The New York Times reported Monday.
Perry's video showcases a clip of an old "Meet The Press" segment in which the late Tim Russert interviewed Romney asking him if the health plan is working in Massachusetts, "why wouldn't you apply it to the rest of the country?"
"I would," Romney said.
The video ends with Romney saying "there are a lot of reasons not to elect me," and President Obama in voice-over saying "he's right."
In response the Romney campaign called Perry a "desperate candidate" who has a "problem with the truth."
"In trying to deflect attention from his liberal in-state tuition policy for illegal immigrants, he has resorted to repeated dishonesty, distortions, and fabrications about Mitt Romney," Romney communications director Gail Citcho said.
The Democratic National Committee weighed in on Monday when it unveiled a Web site, whichmitt.com, where visitors may take a Romney quiz. Each question offers two statements ostensibly in opposition with each other but in each case the answer is that Romney uttered both, the Times said.
A poll of likely New Hampshire Republican voters released Monday showed Perry dropping far behind Romney and indicated they think Romney would beat Obama handily.
Huntsman: Nuclear-armed Iran unacceptable
HOOKSETT, N.H., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman told a New Hampshire crowd Monday he would use military force to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"I cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran. If you want an example of when I would use American force, it would be that," Huntsman said to a crowd of about 150 people at Southern New Hampshire University in Hooksett.
The former Utah governor, U.S. trade representative under President George W. Bush, and ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, said his foreign policy stance required fixing the economy at home, streamlining the military and standing tough against Iran and Pakistan, Politico.com reported.
Huntsman said America must plan for strength in an "Asia-Pacific century."
"Our interests are best served when America leads. But to lead abroad, we must regain strength at home," Huntsman said.
Regarding the relationship between the United States and Pakistan, Huntsman said "certain realities" needed to be acknowledged.
"This is not a relationship based on shared values," Huntsman said. "It is transactional at best."
Huntsman said he would like to refocus the military out of its 20th Century Cold War infrastructure, Politico.com reported.
"We still have remnants of a top-heavy, post-Cold War infrastructure. It needs to be transformed to reflect the 21st Century world, and the growing asymmetric threats we face," Huntsman said.
"For example, counter-terrorism needs to be a much larger part of our foreign policy. We must be prepared to respond to threats -- from al-Qaida and other terrorist cells -- that emanate from a much more diverse geography, including Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Pakistan and the Asia-Pacific," he said.
"This includes standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel as they manage a host of new challenges brought on by the Arab Spring, along with more familiar challenges, such as a hostile Iran, which will continue to be a transcendent challenge of the next decade," he said.
He said he would also strengthen relations with India, pursue agreements with Japan and Taiwan and wrap up the multilateral Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, which he said would open markets in Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, boosting U.S. exports. He called on Congress to pass pending trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama this week.
Huntsman also criticized former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, whose foreign policy, laid out Friday, called for increased military spending, including more Navy ship building so the United States could patrol the seas in world hot spots.
"Simply advocating more ships, more troops and more weapons is not a viable path forward," Huntsman said. "We need more agility, more intelligence and more economic engagement with the world."
Romney responded at a Veterans of Foreign Wars campaign stop in Milford, N.H., saying, "This is not a time for America to pull back on our commitment to a strong military."
Huntsman called for bringing back U.S. troops from Afghanistan during the next year.
Journalist admits 'crime' in D.C. protest
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A journalist writing for The American Spectator acknowledged committing a crime during a weekend protest at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Patrick Howley, listed on the conservative news and political magazine's Web site as an editorial assistant, wrote that he had infiltrated a group of demonstrators associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests and was part of a smaller number of the group who charged into the museum after guards tried to block the entrances Saturday afternoon.
The museum was shut down for the rest of the day following the incident, in which a museum spokeswoman said protesters pushed a guard against a wall as they tried to enter the facility. Linda St. Thomas said as many as 200 protesters tried to enter the museum at the Smithsonian but were told by security guards they could not come in, The Washington Post reported.
She said another guard used pepper-spray before Washington police and U.S. Park Police were called. Witnesses told the newspaper more than a dozen people has been sprayed.
In a post on The American Spectator Web site, Howley said he joined the rush to get past the guards "for journalistic purposes." He said he sneaked past a guard initially, and was hit with pepper spray as he ran toward an exit after he was shoved into a wall during a shoving match between a security guard and a demonstrator he characterized as a "fanatic."
In the post, which was subsequently taken down, Howley wrote that he infiltrated the protest "in order to mock and undermine [it] in the pages of The American Spectator."
Eventually, he said, he "ducked through the confused tourists and raced out the exit."
"As I scrambled away from the scene of my crime, a police officer outside the museum gates pointed at my eyes, puffed out his chest, and shouted: 'Yeah, that's right. That's right.' He was proud that I had been pepper-sprayed, and, oddly, so was I."
