Political campaigns spark any number of public opinion polls, but here's some food for thought.

The non-partisan Clarus Research Group asked Republicans: If you could have dinner with one of six GOP presidential candidates, who would you pick?

Herman Cain was the top choice, with 29% saying they'd like to dine with the former Godfather's Pizza CEO. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich was the choice of 22%, followed by ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with 17%.

The poll result "is a good indication of Cain's personal likability," said Ron Faucheux, president of Clarus. "Although it may just be an indication that Americans like pizza."

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The Republican best known as "Joe the Plumber" will formally launch his campaign for Congress tonight, for an Ohio seat long held by Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher gained fame in the 2008 presidential campaign when he questioned then-candidate Barack Obama about his tax plan. Wurzelbacher, at the time an employee of a plumbing contractor, was then touted by GOP nominee John McCain as a kind of a middle-class everyman.

Lucas County Republican Party Chairman Jon Stainbrook told the Associated Press that Wurzelbacher will be able to raise the money needed for a high-profile campaign.

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Updated 3:42 p.m. ET

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is getting some big-name sports, music and political celebrities on board for his election bid in a new music video that remakes an MC Hammer song.

Giants closer Brian Wilson, wearing an orange T-shirt that says "Fear the Mustache," is among those touting a full term for Lee, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Gavin Newsom's term when Newsom became California lieutenant governor. The election is Nov. 8.

Former 49ers cornerback Ronnie Lott, ex-mayor Willie Brown, Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am, and Hammer also make cameos in the video, which is a remake of Hammer's hit, Too Legit to Quit.

The political lyrics, excerpted after the jump, make fun of Lee's physical stature and his facial hair.

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GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is ratcheting up the attacks on Mitt Romney, calling his rival a "fat cat" and urging him to make public his tax returns.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the candidate will "take a look at the question of releasing tax returns during the next tax filing season."

She said Perry's campaign shouldn't "lecture anyone on disclosure," arguing that the Texan is not fully telling the public about his taxpayer-funded travel.

Perry regularly makes public his income tax returns, going back to the 1980s. He and his wife, Anita, paid $51,000 in federal taxes in 2010 on adjusted gross income of $217,447, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Perrys' income stands in contrast to Romney's net worth, which is $190 million to $250 million based on his federal financial disclosure report.

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Updated 3:50 p.m. ET

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is proposing a flat income tax rate of 20%, personal retirement accounts for younger people and a balanced federal budget by 2020 as part of a sweeping economic plan he unveiled today.

Perry, speaking at a South Carolina business, says his "Cut, Balance and Grow" plan will spark investment by businesses and help Americans across the board.

The plan "neither reshuffles the status quo or expands ways Washington can reach into your pocketbooks," the Texas governor said.

Perry's proposals come as he lags Herman Cain and Mitt Romney in national polls for the GOP nomination, and they mark a new phase in his campaign as he launches TV ads in Iowa and beefs up his staff with veterans of previous presidential races.

President Obama's re-election campaign ties Perry's economic proposals to a 59-point plan offered by Romney. They "are guided by the same principle: They would shift a greater share of taxes away from large corporations and the wealthiest onto the backs of the middle class," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is making it clear to Florida and other states that they will pay a price for flouting party rules and front-loading the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

"There is no discretion. There is no coming back. There is no kumbaya that's going to happen. They're going to lose half of their delegates, and that's a pretty serious penalty," Priebus told ABC News.

Setting the GOP presidential nominating calendar has been a chaotic affair, sparked in part by Florida, Arizona and other states jockeying for more clout in the process.

Over the weekend, Nevada agreed to push its GOP caucuses to Feb. 4, and New Hampshire is likely to soon set its first-in-the-nation primary for Jan. 10.

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Updated 12:11 p.m. ET

Herman Cain likes to tout his unconventional campaign for president. Now, the Republican atop national polls for his party's nomination has a new Web video that is, well, unconventional.

For much of the video, Cain's chief of staff Mark Block speaks directly to the camera and touts how "we've run a campaign like nobody has ever seen."

Toward the end of the ad, Block casually takes a drag from a cigarette before blowing out the smoke, the words to the song I Am America cues up, and Cain's picture appears.

What's the meaning behind the video, which has gone viral on the Internet?

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If you think the GOP presidential debates have been lacking, a Tea Party group offers something different.

The Texas Tea Party Patriots will host a "modified Lincoln-Douglas debate," with Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain confirming their attendance.

Bill O'Sullivan, treasurer of the group, told National Review Online that the recent debates have been "superficial" and "frustrating."

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GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul says he has raised more than $2.75 million in his latest "money bomb," mostly in small-dollar contributions from thousands of donors.

Paul's latest online fundraising event, which began Wednesday and ended at noon today, brought in money from all 50 states and resulted in a total of 44,527 donations. The average donation was $61.92 while the median was $25.

"This money bomb's success conveys that Ron Paul's supporters, whether independent or loosely organized, are poised to dig in deep and back him" even in troubled economic times, said Jesse Benton, Paul's national campaign chairman.

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GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is beefing up his national campaign team and will launch his first round of campaign ads in Iowa.

Veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio, former Bob Dole strategist Nelson Warfield and polling strategist Curt Anderson -- all veterans of presidential campaigns -- will join the Texas governor's team.

STORY:  Debates vs. ads

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told the Associated Press that the staff changes have long been planned and are "a natural progression as we head towards election days." The first-in-the nation Iowa caucuses are slated for Jan. 3.

Despite making a big splash when he joined the GOP field in August, Perry has fallen in recent national polls on the race. He averages 12.5%, well behind Herman Cain and Mitt Romney, according to the surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics.

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Updated 3:50 p.m. ET

Bachmann campaign manager Keith Nahigian has issued a statement in response to a memo from former New Hampshire staffers about their mass resignations:

The unauthorized news release was sent by a person who doesn't even work for the campaign and has never had authority to speak on behalf of the campaign. We are not responding to comments made by a person who was not even a staff member in New Hampshire. Our focus is on Iowa.

Our original post begins here:

Five former staffers on GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann's New Hampshire campaign team issued a joint statement today explaining the reasons for their mass departure, blaming it on tensions between them and the national staff.

The ex-New Hampshire staffers say unequivocally that they resigned en masse after "much soul-searching" because they no longer had faith in the Minnesota congresswoman's national team, according to Minnesota Public Radio. National Journal has the entire statement.

Among the gripes of the New Hampshire aides: National staffers were "rude, unprofessional, dishonest and at times cruel" to them. They were also "abrasive, discourteous and dismissive" to New Hampshire residents, who were treated as a "nuisance."

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Updated 4:34 p.m. ET

Today it's about dueling GOP presidential endorsements as Rick Perry touts the backing he's getting from Steve Forbes and Mitt Romney boasts support from former New Hampshire governor John Sununu.

The endorsement by magazine publisher Forbes comes as Perry prepares to unveil his flat tax proposal tomorrow in a South Carolina speech. Fox News is reporting that Perry will propose an optional 20% income tax with an individual deduction of $12,500.

The flat tax was the centerpiece of Forbes' two White House bids, and he helped Perry draft his proposal.

"The tax code simply has become more monstrous and the economy remains stalled," Forbes said in recent interview with Fox News. "With firm leadership ... this will be a winning issue. People hunger for it."

Forbes said in the interview, which is posted on the Perry campaign website, that the flat tax stands in contrast to Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan because it does not contain a national sales tax.

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Americans have a message for the Founding Fathers: Let's pick presidents by popular vote.

A new Gallup Poll shows a strong majority of Americans -- 62% -- favor getting rid of the Electoral College. And for the first time, Republicans now agree with Democrats and independents that the popular vote should stand.

"Americans show relatively little attachment to this unique invention of the country's Founding Fathers," Gallup's Lydia Saad writes. "Those who advocate abolishing the Electoral College often do so on the basis that the system puts undue emphasis on a small number of swing states."

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GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain reportedly is raising $1 million a week in October as he climbs public opinion polls.

Cain campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon cited the million-dollar figure to NBC News.

We won't know for sure about Cain's October fundraising until the next set of campaign finance reports are sent to the Federal Election Commission in January. Still, that's a lot of money for someone who was lagging behind rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in August.

Cain now is leading Romney by an average of one-half of a percentage point, according to the recent national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.

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Updated 1:42 p.m. ET

The Massachusetts health care law signed by then-governor Mitt Romney in 2006 includes a program that allows illegal immigrants to get medical treatment if they don't have insurance, according to a news story out today.

The Romney campaign is blaming Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, the Republican's successor, for making it easier for illegal immigrants to obtain care.

The Los Angeles Times story could be troublesome for Romney, who has repeatedly had to answer questions about the Massachusetts health care law as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination. Additionally, Romney has been attacking GOP rival Rick Perry as weak on illegal immigration because Texas grants in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants -- which Romney has called a "magnet."

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner says the newspaper article points out that Massachusetts established "just the kind of illegal immigration magnet Governor Romney claims to oppose."

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