On Fox News, Meghan Kelly interview Herman Cain’s campaign manager, Mark Block, and pressed Block on his charge, made yesterday, the Governor Perry’s campaign (in the form of GOP strategist Curt Anderson) leaked the sexual harassment story to Politico. Mr. Anderson emphatically denied the charge, and Block was able to watch clips of Anderson’s interview. Mr. Block, in turn, said he now accepts Anderson’s denial even as he (Block) stands behind what he said yesterday.
This is as incoherent an explanation as what Herman Cain has said on abortion, trading GITMO prisoners for hostages, appointing Muslims to a Cain cabinet, and his knowledge of a sexual harassment settlement agreement. It simply makes no sense. Mr. Block is pretending to reconcile two opposite claims.
If the Cain campaign is not the most amateurish of any presidential campaign in decades, I’m open to suggestions as to which ones were worse.
This is beyond embarrassing; it has now entered the land of Saturday Night Live parody. And that’s never a good place for a presidential campaign to be.
This is what you get when a major political party allows candidates for the presidency to participate in media-driven game-show style faux-debates with 60-second timers. 'Jeopardy' has more credibility. n nI thought Cain was over when he called for an electrified "It will KILL you!" fence along the 2,000 mile border with Mexico. He did serious damage to whatever image the modern GOP thinks it has. n nI wonder if Mr. Cain will show up to have a real debate with Newt Gingrich on Saturday. Please let THAT be the end of what has become more distastefully distracting than Anthony Weiner. n n
I'll accept that challenge and nominate the Perry campaign as a contender. nConsider just two examples. n n(1) After carefully waiting and planning its emergence onto the national stage, the Perry camp marched a woefully unprepared Perry into the debates, resulting in a humiliating performance and doing irreparable harm to the critical first impression of an anxious and wide-open base. What happens in the next debate? See Id. And the one after that? See also Id. n n(2) Anxious to “reset” the campaign, Perry develops a bold tax plan that is likely to bring him the kind of attention he sorely needs. He even secures a few nice endorsements for the plan. Then, just as he begins to roll out this big new policy prescription, he naturally tears the scab off of the heretofore fading Birther Controversy, with predicable consequences. n nAs for the Cain campaign’s recent meltdown amid sexual harassment allegations, at least you can understand the strategy of obfuscation and misdirection + time. I can’t discern any such logic within the Perry campaign. Can you?
The GOP campaign has gotten way too out in front of its actual vote counting. n nBut JEOPARDY would be soooo awesome!!! n nHERMAN CAIN: I'll take Rising Superpowers for $50 Alex. n nALEX TREBEK: This important Middle Eastern nation is poised to become a regional nuclear power. n nHERMAN CAIN: What is China??!? n nWe kid! We kid!
We would pause in our Washington DC-New York jet-setting first class cocktail party to briefly consider whether Michelle Bachman can exploit this unpleasantness to elevate her own profile but does she have a field organization on the ground in critical primary states either?
I'm really glad that Contentions is allowing comments again, though the previous format was more familial. n nSome of the best posters on the Net were Contention folk. n nAs a right-of-center voter, I will be very surprised if President Obama is not re-elected. n nHe has the advantage of being only partially blamed for current SOTU. And the other advantage of an equal-to-or-greater-than fixed position as competitor after competitor emerges. n nIf he wins a second term, it will be nearly as historical as his first. n nConservatism is a hard sell, no doubt, but the current crop of candidates (Romney is outside of this, really) are simultaneously wet and dry. n nWhat have Republicans planted to get these pickins?
Mutiny: n nWhatever one thinks of the Republican field, I respectfully disagree that conservatism is a hard sell. That is a myth that the left perpetuates. Roughly 40% of the US identifies as conservative; about the same id as moderate; only 20% id as liberal. When Republicans nominate principled conservatives, they tend to win — liberty, individual rights and responsibilities, limited government, free market capitalism, etc., are winning positions in this nation. Democrats, including Obama, constantly try to either hide their beliefs behind empty slogans or cloak their statism in the verbage of conservatives, running toward the "center". n nNeed recent proof? Compare the size, strength and positive outcome of the Tea Party movement with the Occupy fringe. n nI would relish a campaign in 2012 with a solid conservative against Obama. When it comes time for my state's primary, I will be voting for the candidate I believe can best articulate the clear distinctions between conservatism and the statist left.
Thanks for the reply, spaklaw. n nI think we may be thinking of two different definitions of Conservatism. n nConservatism advanced as the better path to national debt, Medicare and Social Security management, is not a hard sell, but it strikes me as a substitute for a more direct conservatism –Tea Party’s brand, I suppose- which advances these two programs as contra-Constitutional. Either they are or they aren’t. And if they are not, then an honest conservatism is nigh-on impossible to advance. n nStill, I’m with you in that I would relish an unabashed and hope filled conservative candidate.
I’m not a registered Republican and the only reason I’m a registered Conservative is that the Democratic Party became a malign force sometime during the recent past. n nI think what conservatives can’t see, though, or refuse to acknowledge is that the American middle class was helped –maybe even unnaturally inflated- by Democratic and/or liberal policies. n nConservatism, before being a hard sell, necessarily requires an intellect confident enough to acknowledge irreversible facts and astute enough to gain approval for working those facts to national advantage. n nGingrich maybe the only current Republican candidate who would qualify. Do you think he's electable? n nSOTU is about a lot more than this upcoming election. Without a governing coalition, little can be accomplished. n nAs George Will said a long time ago, we're philosophically conservative but operationally liberal. n nAnd I think Americans stopped living conservatively for a while now. High personal debt is just one indication.
Cain by the way is on Hannity still claiming Curt Anderson and the Perry campaign did the leak, relying on a Forbes piece–but in doing so he continues to contradict his own early stories that this came at him as a big anonymous, non-sourced surprise/fabrication in 2011; since Cain says over and over that he gave details to Anderson of the NRA problems in 2003/4 (if only of one very non-anonymous complaint).
I'm really tired of the GOP eating its own. The accusations are anonymous and the stories are so light on facts that it borders on the absurd. And quite frankly the fact that Cain doesn't have a professional "team"around telling him how to "manage" this is fine with me. Let the story come out as it will but in the meantime perhaps the right of center blogs and outlets could refrain from jumping on the liberal media's bandwagon and doing their job for them and wait until we have solid facts to work with. nAnd maybe I'm losing my perspective on the value of a dollar these days given that billions is now considered chump change but a $113,000 settlement between two women seems perfectly in line with an organization paying off a nuisance lawsuit.
Blame this on the Tea Party and their fascination with inept, inexperienced and incompetent candidates like Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller, etc.. Could you imagine throwin Palin into this mix that would drag down even further.r nr nHerman Cain, if he’s not Mitt Romney’s stalking horse to takeout potential conservative rivals, is then exactly what he appears to be a faux conservative with a veneer of affability covering a corrupt and unpleasant little SOB. r nr nThe GOP chairman and other candidates need to condemn his smearing and slandering Rick Perry and his campaign. Any knowledgable Republican (Cain a Clinton supporter and new to the Party) may not know it, but the liberal Democrat media routinely does this to GOP politicians and candidates.r nr nTo have this all go away Cain should allow the women to speak. What’s he afraid of — the truth?
Cain a Clinton supporter and new to the GOP? Can I have some of what you've been smoking? Look friend, go to Youtube and look up the video of Cain taking Clinton on at a Hillarycare Town Hall back in the 90's.
Typical "establishment Republican" assessment of a candidate's FITNESS to run. Make cetain and check the Margins n his campaign literature while you are at it. You people are so out of touch you just don't GET IT! The voters are NOT looking for some slick same as usual candidate typically turned out by the RNC RINO FARM. You gave us very sophisticated campaigns by the likes of Dole, two Bushes, and McCain…now how did THAT go for the party or the Nation? We want SUBSTANCE…were you comatose during the 2010 elections and the Tea Party rallies?
We want quality candidates. We want a president who actually knows that China has nuclear weapons. We want one who is not going to respond to false accusations by making false accusations of his own. We want one who can actually stand up and debate. And we want one who can win against Obama. We need to get serious about the election.
I wouldn't call Dole's or McCain's campaigns particularly sophisticated. McCain squandered his independent reputation and never drew blood from Obama. Dole managed to be accused of hating milk.
This is EXACTLY what most politicians and the MSM do not get……__The electorate is FINISHED with polished, practiced, political machine candidates. What a novel concept…..judging a candidate on past performance and future plans, and not being turned off by a human "sound-bite" misstep.
But note friend, that the real BASE of the Party, Rush,Sean, even Newt and some polls showing Pubs are finally waking up to the Left's lying smears time and again, do not care about these smears and are standing up because in the next 12 months, the DNC-WH smears of every , EVERY Pub will fill media with the media's love and approbation. If Pubs,Indies,Reagan Dems, Libertarians and TEAS do not stand up against these smears, the Dems will win by default. Newt is my guy but if Cain wins, he will get all support and my family's.
Well said. And a Cain/Gingrich, Gingrich/Cain ticket would please me to no end.
If they are what you consider your "real base", good luck and thanks for the E-Z Pass!
Amazing that we expect so much from a contender, and so little from the current occupant of the White House. n nAnd there is no person that is going to have the full knowledge or understanding to withstand any media scrutiny that is out to play GOTCHA. n nJust look at Obozo, our clown in chief, when he is off the teleprompter. n nAnd is it really more important to know minutiae, or to have core values. I'll take core values everyday, and there are lots of so called geniuses, that have no common sense, no values, but they can recite the encyclopedia for you, or tell you all the names of world leaders. n nAnd would those playing the GOTCHA games do so well if the tables were turned??? n n nI like the idea of a businessman running the country. nI like the idea of a man that rose from poverty, on his own, facing hurdles running the country nI like the idea of a conservative Black man running the country. n nI abhor a half white man, with no American values sitting in the White House wanting to spread the wealth to his buddies, and as Solyndra unravels, there is still hope that we may see the first perp walk of a sitting president. And it would be poetic justice to see the current occupant have his public housing switched from the White House to the Big House.
Yeah, Cain doesn't lie like Clinton and those on the left conveniently forget their support for a man that abused a young intern, raped another woman, attempted the rape of yet another, lied to the country over and over again, paid off NOW to keep it quiet, committed perjury, obstructed justice, was disbarred and didn't go to jail only because the judge didn't think it good for the country. n nCompared to Clinton, whatever Cain did is peanuts – and the fact that he doesn't handle it well is refreshing – shows he isn't an arrogant, cheating politician used to being a sneaky, oily lying politician. n nAnd if you don't understand that you have been doing this to long.
Those are my two choices: sneaky, oily, lying or fumbling and inept? My friend, ineptitude is never refreshing. Especially not when the stakes are this high.
Idea. Let's go for the greatest campaigner in the last several decades (at least). Let's make him president…oh, wait a minute…we already did that with Obama. Well, that didn't work out so well…did it? Maybe we should take other things into consideration as well. Nutty idea I know. Maybe not elect a socialist this time…
Well, the last few "professional campaigners" who have actually won have given us a string of mediocrity to rival Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Harrison, and those other guys in that era that nobody remembers, so what is your point?
The point is that the "professional campaigners" on the other side will slice and dice this coterie of fumbling amateurs and feed the pieces to the sharks. Americans may be looking for a new kind of leader to take us in a new direction, but we are not charmed by ineptitude nor will we tolerate clumsy incompetence indefinitely. Cain and his entourage need to get their acts together and fast.
Has there been a worse presidential campaign? Well, if you judge by expectations versus results, Giuliani's has to be the worst in a generation, being the front-runner for a year and ending up with one delegate. n nIf you judge by the most gaffe-prone self-immolating candidate then Joe Biden is probably the winner with Palin a close runner-up. And that's ignoring candidates who were never taken seriously like Keyes, Forbes, Tancredo, Gravel. n nWhat's a more interesting question is whether there's ever been a worse campaign manager than Mark Block who seems to have no interest in making his candidate look good.
As a Cain supporter I'm not real happy about the way this has been handled by his team. HOWEVER, let's not lose sight of the fact that this is no more than re-arranging the deck chairs. n nThere has not been enough information provided by anyone over the past week to justify printing anything. We have two allegations that by the comments of the BOD of the NRA were insignificant enough to be handled by managers without senior managment involvement. At least one was settled 3 months after Cain left the NRA, did not bear his signature and by all indications did not involve him in any way (beyond the allegations). n nBy every other indicator Cain is an effusive, enthusiastic, transparent, honest and joyful person. In the absurd gender-maligned period of the 90's when sex discrimination and sexual harassment extortion was new and poorly defined there is no doubt that there were baseless cases settled because it was cheaper to settle than prove the claims meritless. n nUnless there is more merit than now apparent, Cain is by far still the best candidate to fix what is wrong in America. n n
Effusive, enthusiastic, transparent and joyful are all excellent qualities, but I don't see how any of those traits qualifies one to "fix what's wrong in America." I find most Cain supporters have difficulty articulating, first, what makes Herman Cain a conservative and, then, why his grasp of our myriad problems and what it will take to fix them is at all superior to the other candidates. Care to give it a try?
Herman Cain's amateur hour campaign is not in the least bit ready for play at this level, but then neither is Mr. Cain. I'm tired of his silly gaffes and constant need to back-peddle and "clarify." I'm wary of all the things he apparently doesn't know (and the fact that he also apparently doesn't feel the need to educate himself and get up to speed on the important issues of our day). And I really hate it when he glosses over something by telling us he'll address it when he's president. That's just plain insulting. n nI think Herman's problem is that he never was serious in the first place about getting the nomination or becoming president and had tossed his hat in for other reasons. I'm sure his surge to the top of the polls was a surprise to everyone associated with his campaign and now they're like the proverbial chasing dog who never really expected–or even wanted–to catch the car. n nIf Cain and his people go up against the Obama-Chicago machine, they'll be cut to ribbons.
With all of Cain's 'missteps " I grant You . nHe is still 1000 Times more qualified to be President than Obama . nWho has never held a real Job in His Life much less filled out a P& L statement . nSorry 7.6 Years as a far leftist Community Org. makes him worse than unqualified . n(Creating Havoc at Chicago Banks ) . Humnnn ? nHe has moronically replaced Capitalism with ""Social Justice "" . nNeed we forget Obama was the least Scrutinized man ever who ran for President . nThere were 27 major issues in Obama life Not even Fox News ask those Questions . nEven three years later Obama is still getting a pass from the media . nTo date the Media now in 6 Months has not ask him about the Mexican Mob's Gun deal ? nWhy because the main steam media is totally consumed with what Cain and what women said 9-10 years ago ,