Nothing describes the current and unfortunate state of the Republican Party more than a simple fact: the dumber Herman Cain appears, the higher he soars in the polls.
To put it more kindly, there seems to be a positive correlation between ignorance and popularity in GOP primaries.
Cain’s answers to allegations that he sexually harassed two female employees in the 1990s have been, uh, “evolving” for a couple of days now, from absolute denial to a Clintonesque technicality that has him now admitting he knew there was an “agreement” but not a “settlement” of the matter. He seems to be unaware that folks in the media might actually be keeping track of his obvious and various obfuscations.
In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Cain, the Tea Party favorite, is b-l-a-c-k, which means of course that after all these years of conservatives accusing liberals of always playing the race card vis-à-vis criticism of President O
bama, they now are free to deal from the bottom of the deck in support of Herman Cain. Ann Coulter, herself not always playing with a full moral deck, told Sean Hannity:
If you are a conservative black, they will believe the most horrible sexualized fantasies of these uptight white feminists.
Charles Krauthammer, the George Will of Fox “News,” asked Cain if race had anything to do with all that sexual harassment stuff, to which Cain replied,
I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it.
Cain has a peculiar habit of believing things without evidence. You may remember this statement he made about Occupy Wall Street three weeks ago:
I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration.
Now, I suppose it’s not all that surprising that a man who attaches little significance to evidence as necessary to support beliefs would be wildly popular in a Republican primary. After all, Republicans brought us supply-side, trickle-down economics.
But while it is not surprising, it is disturbing. This morning Joe Scarborough made much of the fact that Cain didn’t appear to know that China had been a nuclear power for some 50 years now, suggesting that Sarah Palin would trounce Cain on a foreign policy edition of Jeopardy. “He makes Sarah Palin look like Averell Harriman,” Morning Joe said.
Cain has tried to preempt any attempt to ask him “gotcha” questions about foreign policy by admitting up front he knows very little about the world. His “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” comment is all the rage on the right. His o
bvious confusion about what “right of return” means in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hasn’t hurt him at all. In fact, as Michael Steele said this morning, all that kind of stuff endears him even more to the base of the Republican Party.
But criticizing Herman Cain’s graspless understanding of foreign policy issues sort of suggests that he does better closer to home. Nope. He is just as clueless when his mind aimlessly wanders into domestic policy.
He has no clue what his position is on abortion, and his 9-9-9 tax plan (or whatever its current configuration is) is just as ignorant as his saying that China is “trying to develop nuclear capability.” His unfamiliarity with the neoconservative movement—which was largely responsible for the Iraq War—is much worse than not knowing the names of the leaders of foreign governments.
All of which, and more, serves to demonstrate that Herman Cain is not a serious presidential candidate because he has never taken the time in his life to take national and international issues seriously enough to actually learn much about them.
But the fact that so many Republicans do take Cain seriously says more about them than him. And what it says is really, really scary.
Fortunately for the GOP, Mitt Romney will rescue the party from silliness, but at a price: conservatives will have to gamble that his policy positions today—which have been re-tailored to fit a Tea Party electorate—will remain his policy positions tomorrow.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
sekanblogger
/ November 2, 2011Amazing. The more he wobbles around and shows his ignorance, the more arrogant he becomes. Along with that arrogance comes boatloads of money. Just like Palin, the crazier the candidate is, the more conservatives dump money on them.
I guess Palin’s followers liked being defrauded, just like Cain’s are enjoying it. In the end, they will blame us evil libs, while ignoring the obvious.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 2, 2011See John’s comment below and follow the link to Jonathan Chait’s take on Cain. It appears that despite the poor economy, there are enough financially well-endowed and gullible conservatives in the country to spread the wealth to phony presidential candidates.
Duane
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McKnight John
/ November 2, 2011Duane,
I like the comment that said, “Cain’s campaign is what happens when the dog catches the car.”
And this article:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/11/everything_is_working_out_for.html
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 2, 2011John,
Very witty comment.
Chait, as usual, is dead on, isn’t he? He made a point that may—if Cain can escape the sexual harassment charge relatively unscathed—prove to make Cain an even richer man via more book and speaking tours:
Duane
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Randy
/ November 2, 2011I am no Cain fan – I personally think Newt is the most qualified and best man for the job – Republican or Democrat. However, your man Obama was pretty ignorant when he took the job… and you did not seem to care about that.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 2, 2011John has taken care of your Newt claim pretty well, Randy, so I will focus on your “Obama was pretty ignorant when he took the job” claim.
Funny, I, and I think Obama, would agree with you up to a point. In a real sense, no one is prepared to lead the free world, and no one is especially prepared to lead the free world all by his lonesome.
But Obama and Cain couldn’t be more different and you know it. Cain has shown little knowledge of anything, and I mean anything. His time on the Fed in KC was apparently limited to his skill in organizing and running meetings. He has no apparent native curiosity, Randy, and it shows.
Mr. Obama, while somewhat ignorant about being the world’s honcho, nevertheless demonstrated during the campaign that he was familiar with how the world works—and he held political office and learned a little about how politics works, too.
In short, Cain doesn’t respect the job enough to even bother to learn rudimentary things one might need to succeed beyond selling a few more books and upping his speaking fee or possibly landing a job on Fox after this charade is all over.
Duane
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King Beauregard
/ November 2, 2011And of course the obvious question must be asked: if Cain knows so bloody little about anything, how does he form his opinions? The guy has no basis for even believing what he believes.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 3, 2011He has supposedly been doing prep in his car or something, with some aide or advisor feeding him facts to memorize for the debates. But if that’s the case, then his learning curve doesn’t have much of a bend in it because his debate performances don’t demonstrate he knows anything about anything, as you say.
He keeps saying he will hire the experts to tell him what he knows. Okay. But his judgment, as demonstrated so far, is so flawed as to be absolutely frightening.
Let’s face it. Herman Cain’s candidacy is a joke, and a particularly bad joke at that.
Duane
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hlgaskins
/ November 2, 2011“To put it more kindly, there seems to be a positive correlation between ignorance and popularity in GOP primaries.”
No question about it, but I don’t think that Cain has a chance because he’s black in a mostly white party. Romney is unquestionably the more informed of the group but he’s still perceived as a member of a cult by the religious right, and even if proselytizing leaders grudgingly vote for him, many of their flock won’t. Perry is the perfect right-wing candidate who has yet to receive appropriate accolades for his ignorance, but eventually he will. There’s still a lot of time for prepping before shepherds begin to cull their herd, and in the end Jesus will side with Perry.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/president_obama_vs_republican_candidates.html
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 3, 2011HLG,
You know I am a Romney guy, in the sense that I think he will be the last one standing. The nuts will cancel each other out and Romney will skate in, just like McCain.
Cain is dead, Bachmann is toast, and even most conservatives know Gingrich doesn’t have the discipline to be president. The rest of the field is just dreaming, including Huntsman.
One thing I believe, because I know these folks, is that by the time November of next year gets here, Barack Obama will have been so demonized (re-demonized, I should say), that evangelical Christians will camp out at the polls, so eager will they be to vote for Romney against the greater devil.
Duane
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McKnight John
/ November 3, 2011RDG,
I agree with you that Romney will be the eventual GOP nominee. Romney’s the only one who doesn’t look like someone vying for president of the Gypsy Vinyl Siding and Replacement Widow Association. Cain’s unlikely rise as the Tea Party’s favorite non-Romney has turned into a potential Jerry Springer special, leaving either Perry or Newt as the two ideologically compatible alternatives with double digit positive poll numbers. Although it would be entertaining to watch Perry or Newt run a general election campaign, I can’t envision the party’s big money overlords financing “Bulworth : The Conservative Version.”
Even though animus against President Obama will eventually induce the Republican faithful to grudgingly support Romney, his facility for spinning in circles has to create vertigo for social conservatives watching at home.
http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2011/11/mitt-romneys-everevolving-ideo.php
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 3, 2011The point in the Nat Journal article about journalists thinking that Romney’s duplicity is old news is why I don’t like the Dems already campaigning against him, using some of his flip-flops now and thus blunting their force later on.
I think they should take shots at all of the Republicans generally, sort of putting out some of the ridiculous things all of them, including Romney, have said in the primaries and making the case that the party has gone crazy for a brand of conservatism that would make Ronaldus Magnus blush with embarrassment.
Duane
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janereaction
/ November 2, 2011At this rate, the GOP has no candidate. Seems Cain is in the race to make money, and to somehow make Obama look better. Morning Joe said it well: “He makes Sarah Palin look like Averell Harriman.” Cain says the Perry folks are behind the surfaced harrassment details. Now a third woman has stepped forward.
Romney and Son apparently are in business with the old Stanford Financial partners. You may recall that $8.4 billion Houston swindle/ponzi scheme,second only to Bernie Madoffs $15 billion?
So far the charges have not been refuted by the Romney family, but charge that a couple million from campaign donations was put into the new company. His front-runner status may be in jeopardy.
Then you have Rick D.(as in GPA) Perry, who Cain says is the one who let the dogs loose on him and dug up a third harrassment victim. Some people in the Party of Greed may not like the “real Christian” vs. the Mormon “Christian” gotcha stuff. But, as long as Perry keeps talking, he will keep losing.
Surely, Newt is too mean to be President, Bachmann is too extreme for most states, but could probably carry Mississippi. And that leaves Ron Paul. What else they got?
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 3, 2011Jane,
Shhhh. We were saving the Romney connection to Stanford Financial for the general election.
Seriously, I can’t believe Rick Perry, who undoubtedly knows a lot about the matter since it wiped out the savings of many Texans, hasn’t brought it up in one of the gazillions of debates. My guess is it will start appearing in TV ads sometime soon. And if the issue sticks, this could be Perry’s only way—a long shot still—to win.
Duane
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Tony
/ November 2, 2011That “pimp daddy” hat should leave you a clue!!! Look at the mans track record in terms of public service inflence in govt. Is it good/ or bad? Clinton at least served long enough or accomplished enough to have a track record. Clinton economically turned Arkansas around by balancing their budget, did it for the country with a surplus!!! If you can run you can run your ho’s at a surplus, then you are in my man!!!!!
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 3, 2011Herman Cain doesn’t have a track record in public service, my dawg. He brags about not being a politician and all dat.
Clinton, by the way, got to that surplus by a responsible tax increase in 1993 (which he somewhat regretted a year or two later, unfortuntately), which led to those famous surpluses. Yo?
And he did all that and still had time to enjoy, in way or another, his cigars!
Duane
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sekanblogger
/ November 5, 2011Cain actually is a joke. No kidding.
Quoting from “Pokemon”….really. He is.
Watch TRMS:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#45171907
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 5, 2011I almost posted that segment from Rachel! It was fantastic. Thanks for linking to it.
Duane
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hlgaskins
/ November 5, 2011Sekan
It was the best laugh I had in days without tuning in to “The Colbert Report.”
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Jim Wheeler
/ November 8, 2011All in all an excellent and amusing post and discussion, Duane. And the saga yet continues. I can hardly wait for Cain’s press conference this afternoon. Really, you couldn’t make this stuff up- no one would believe it.
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