2012 Presidential Election

When the Republican presidential candidates meet Wednesday evening in Michigan for their ninth debate (it feels like there've been many more than that) the main topic up for discussion is supposed to be the economy.

But is there anyone who expects that the travails of Herman Cain won't be a subtopic?

The former Godfather Pizza CEO's flat-tax plan encountered severe turbulence at the last debate and it is likely to experience more during the encounter at Oakland University outside Detroit.

"The values I learned served me well as governor of Texas and will continue to guide me as president," Rick Perry says in a new ad that begins airing today in Iowa, whose first-in-the-nation caucus is less than two months away.

A new poll by ABC News and the Washington Post has Herman Cain in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

The former Massachusetts governor still leads among likely GOP voters at 25 percent. But Cain is right there in 2nd with 23 percent.

Texans have elected Rick Perry governor three times — with almost 55 percent of the vote in 2010 — but that does not mean Texas’ Republican establishment is falling in line to help elect him president.

Some prominent Texas business executives, Republican members of the state’s Congressional delegation and even university regents whom Perry appointed have lent their money — if not their endorsements — to other Republican contenders, most notably former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

No one seems to be talking about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan this week — including Herman Cain. Instead, he's had to deal with allegations that he committed sexual harassment when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

On Wednesday night, he accused Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign of planting the story. Perry's campaign flatly denied it, and Cain has backed off.

Regardless, some political consultants have seen the invisible hand of opposition research during this campaign season — what's known as the "dark art of politics."

Herman Cain's campaign spent late Wednesday accusing the rival presidential campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry of unleashing the information that he had sexual harassment settlements in his background, an allegation the Texan's campaign has denied.

As Politico reported, Cain called out the Perry campaign directly during a Tea Party event: