Texas Gov. Rick Perry may get the second chance he's asking Iowa voters to give him.

As Perry starts his 42-stop bus tour through Iowa, his campaign claims the momentum is building.

Nationally, Perry's poll numbers are anemic at best. But pollster Scott Rasmussen says he will release a new poll Thursday that shows Perry's poll numbers in Iowa are up slightly.

Rasmussen tells Fox News that means Perry could capture a lot of undecided voters in the Hawkeye State come January 3rd.

The campaign is hoping barnstorming across Iowa over the holidays will showcase what Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan calls their best asset-- Perry's "unrivaled ability to personally connect with Republican voters in traditional retail campaign venues."

Polls and history say 50-percent of the 120,000 likely to caucus in Iowa are undecided, or could change their minds.

Sullivan insists, "The momentum is real, and we believe our strong Iowa grassroots organization, Iowa media efforts and Perry's retail campaign skills will make us even strong heading into the January 3rd Iowa caucuses."

Perry has several ads playing on TV and radio in Iowa. And a strong debate performance at the Fox News debate in Sioux City would be big. (read more)

Some 2012 GOP presidential candidates were quick to react to the announcement from Atlanta businessman Herman Cain that he his suspending his campaign. Here is a look at their statements.

"Herman Cain provided an important voice to this process. His ideas and energy generated tremendous enthusiasm for the conservative movement at a time it was so desperately needed to restore confidence in our country. I wish Herman, his wife Gloria, and his family all the best."

-- Rep. Michele Bachmann (read more)

Herman Cain has declared he will make a major announcement about the future of his campaign Saturday.

"Tomorrow in Atlanta I will be making an announcement but nobody is going to get me to make that prematurely," he said at a town hall in Rock Hill, S.C. "That's all there is to that. Tomorrow we're going to be opening our headquarters in Northwest Georgia. We will clarify, there's that word again, clarify what the next steps are."

His speech in Rock Hill was his last public appearance before meeting face-to-face with his wife at their home in Georgia Friday night -- their first meeting since allegations of a 13-year affair with Ginger White surfaced Monday.

"I am reassessing because all of this media firestorm stuff. Why? Because my wife and family comes first. I've got to take that into consideration. I don't doubt the support that I have. Just look at the people that are here. We got to look at what happens to contributions and we've got to look -- we've got to re-evaluate the whole strategy." (read more)

The latest Des Moines Register poll shows Herman Cain at 8 percent among likely Republican caucusgoers, a steep drop from 23 percent when the poll was last conducted in late October.

Ginger White's allegation of a 13-year extramarital affair was made public on Monday, and the immediate impact on Herman Cain's candidacy was apparent in the polling results. From Sunday through Wednesday when the data was being collected, bad feelings about him doubled.

While 22% listed the businessman as the candidate they most wanted to see in a two-day rolling average of Sunday and Monday results, that dropped to an 8 percent average for Tuesday-Wednesday.  (read more)

"We're in it to win it," Herman Cain's chief of staff told the campaign's Iowa operation on Thursday.

Mark Block dropped by the Iowa headquarters around noon to talk strategy: getting events set up for the candidate in December, moving resources to keep the campaign going forward. Block chatted with the team of four paid staffers for around three hours.

Block's "unequivocal message," Iowa communications director Lisa Lockwood told Fox News, was that the Cain train is still moving "full steam ahead." 

"We have a whole list of potential surrogates here on his behalf as well," said Lockwood, who said the campaign currently has 899 precinct captains. 

"Hoping to hit 999 by end of week!" she said. (read more)

The girls are at it again.  The three eldest daughters of Republican presidential Jon Huntsman have put together a tongue-in-cheek song, teasing their latest satirical work with a Tweet Wednesday night that read, "Spotted: Herman Cain rolling up in style to the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester with a 6 car motorcade... jamming to this."

Their riff on Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" is titled "Huntsman's Back."  It starts, "We're bringing Huntsman back... The rest of them is one big circus act."  It goes on to call out other candidates in part with this, "Herman Cain, we like your pizza, but you can't explain, how 9-9-9 will get us back in shape."  And later, "Hey Mitt, what are you gonna say (Romney clip) 'I believe that abortion should be safe and legal.'  Tell us Newt, what's your game? (Gingrich clip) 'Mickey Mouse games.' Rick Perry, what's your stance?  (Perry clip) 'I stepped in it man.' " (read more)

Evangelical Christians may forgive the personal indiscretions of GOP presidential candidates, but Family Research Council President Tony Perkins says that does not mean they will vote for them. Perkins claims voters, "want to know they are electing a politician with character, not character as a politician."

Perkins told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that while Evangelicals embrace the idea of forgiveness, there is a difference between accepting an apology, and "placing your trust in him as president and Commander-in-Chief."

In Perkins' view, Herman Cain's lawyer Lin Wood may have done the candidate real damage with social conservatives on Tuesday, when he said Ginger White's claim of a long term affair was "a private consensual matter" and "beyond the scrutiny of the public."

Perkins said an apology would be a good idea if these allegations are true, but it may not be enough for the Atlanta business man. "I think at this point there are so many allegation that have been made, it might be beyond the ability of Herman Cain to pull this out," said Perkins. (read more)

MIAMI --Appearing at the iconic Miami restaurant and perpetual campaign stop, Versailles Cafe on "Calle Ocho," presidential hopeful Herman Cain spoke to about 200 supporters, mostly Latino, Wednesday on a range of topics, including an important foreign policy issue among the crowd: Cuba.

"Freedom for Cuba now!" Cain said to cheers after someone yelled at him several minutes into his remarks, "What about freedom for Cuba?"

"We should not only continue the pressure on Castro, but put more pressure on Castro," Cain said to cheers. "And I also believe that the best way to get the solution is to talk to people that know most about the issue."

The recently embattled Republican presidential candidate, however, may want to catch up on his linguistics before that discussion.

"How do you say 'delicious' in Cuban?" Cain asked while chewing on a croqueta -- a fried Cuban delicacy of potatoes and meat -- and enjoying a cup of famously strong Cuban coffee.

Cubans, of course, speak Spanish. "Delicioso," obliged an audience member. (read more)

Herman Cain froze when asked if he agreed with how President Obama handled Libya, saying, "I've got all of this stuff twirling around in my head" during a sit down with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board Monday.

Cain started to say he did not agree with the president and then stopped himself saying, "No, that's a different one." About twenty seconds later he asked for further clarification, "Specifically, what are you asking me that I agree or not disagree with Obama?"

Eventually, Cain said that he would have done a better job assessing the Libya opposition "but might have caused us to end up at the same place." He also said he did not support Qaddaffi killing his own people and "would have supported many of the things they did to have stopped that."

Cain stressed that because he is a businessman, he is a much more deliberate "decision maker". "Some people want to say as a President you're supposed to know everything-no you don't." Cain says he was not trying to "hedge" on the question but he doesn't want to answer questions unless he has all of the information and in the case of Libya he wasn't privy to the same information. "That's my nature as a businessman; I need to know all of the alternatives." (read more)

We're one year away from the 2012 elections, but votes cast in the coming days will say a great deal about the political direction of the nation as Americans prepare to pick a president. Even as Republican candidates continue to audition for their party's nomination, it's the voters who will take center stage this month.

The biggest drama in this November's off-year elections fittingly comes from Ohio. The same state that could make or break President Obama's re-election hopes a year from now will see voters go to the polls on Nov. 8 to cast judgment on the president's signature program - a health law that requires all Americans to purchase private insurance or be enrolled in a government program.

Other states have passed similar measures to the proposed amendment to the Ohio state constitution that would prohibit any such insurance mandate from being imposed on the residents of the Buckeye State. But the stakes are higher in must-win Ohio. If the president sees voters in the king of swing states still riled up about the biggest accomplishment of his term, it will be a disquieting sign for him and his fellow Democrats. (read more)