Herman Cain holds debate spotlight in New Hampshire

HANOVER, N.H. -- Businessman Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan was the rhetorical focal point of the Republican presidential debate here on Tuesday, but it was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's clear-cut status as the man to beat that was the underlying takeaway from the latest GOP forum.

After surging from the back of the pack to second place in many state and national polls, Cain was seated next to Romney and made the most of his opportunity in the spotlight by repeatedly referring to his proposal to replace the federal tax code with a flat, 9 percent tax rate on corporate profits, personal income, and sales.

Cain wasted no time in touting the plan and began plugging it in his answer to the first question of the evening. For the next two hours, he barely stopped to come up for air as he repeated his "9-9-9" mantra.

"We must grow this economy with a bold solution, which I have proposed: 9-9-9," Cain said. "And at the same time, get serious about not creating national deficits, so we can bring down the national debt. That would reestablish confidence in our system."

After having previously treated him as an affable, yet largely inconsequential, presence in the race, Cain's rivals acknowledged the new polling realities and attempted to bring him down a notch at the Dartmouth College gathering.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said that Cain's tax plan could not possibly pass muster in Congress.

"How many people here are for a sales tax in New Hampshire? Raise your hand," Santorum said, looking into the audience. "We're not going to give the federal government and Nancy Pelosi a new pipeline -- a 9 percent sales tax for consumers to get hammered by the federal government."

Meanwhile, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign blasted out an email to reporters during the debate that carried the subject line: "'9-9-9' Would Wreck the U.S. Economy."

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"Herman Cain's signature '9-9-9' levies a brand new national sales tax and would further weaken the U.S. economy, leaving American taxpayers vulnerable to skyrocketing rates imposed by future Congresses," the Bachmann press release said.

The new focus on Cain was accompanied by the continued slow fade of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who shot to the front of the polls when he entered the race in August but has fallen just as quickly in recent weeks.

Perry's potential to challenge Romney for the nomination appears intact for the time being, due in large part to his ability to compete with the former Massachusetts governor financially. But Perry once again failed to land a solid blow against Romney and struggled to keep his answers focused.

"We don't need any plan to pass Congress," Perry said at one point. "We need to get a president of the United States that is committed to passing the types of regulations -- pulling the regulations back, bringing this country to go develop the energy industry that we have in this country."

For his part, Romney once again demonstrated a confident stage presence and ease with the debate's focus on economic issues, as each of the other candidates tried and failed to knock the GOP front-runner off stride.

Earlier in the day, Romney picked up the coveted endorsement of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and he continued that momentum into the debate.

"Let me tell you, to get this economy restructured fundamentally on a path to be the most competitive place in the world to create jobs is going to take someone who knows how to do it," Romney said in response to a challenge by Cain that his economic plan is too complicated. "And it's not one or two things."

"I thought it was Mitt's best debate," said Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom. "Rick Perry, I thought, was a non-factor in the debate. The reason he was a non-factor is because he doesn't have a jobs plan. And it must've been difficult to be a candidate with no jobs plan at a debate about jobs and the economy."

Perry is slated to roll out his own economic plan Friday in Pittsburgh with a speech that his campaign is billing as a major policy address on jobs and energy.

Perry's camp has also indicated that it will soon begin running ads in early voting states that challenge Romney more directly.

But with less than three months to go before Republican voters head to the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, the need for Perry and the rest of the GOP field to put a serious dent in Romney's armor is becoming more urgent by the day.

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