I'm Just Not Getting This Herman Cain Thing...

[BoSoxGal]

Here are some Mormon missionaries:



They always travel in pairs. Known to ride bikes, but more often seen walking. Often wear backpacks in their travels; always worn on both shoulders, never just slung over one. Missionaries are always male; the young female Mormons stay home waiting to marry a returned missionary.

[Lord Jim]

Ok, I'll bite, why?

That's the "uniform" that male LDS Church members generally wear while performing their missionary obligation....

Commonly referred to as Mormon missionaries, most LDS Church missionaries are single young men in their late teens and early twenties and are assigned to a mission of the church which is usually far from the missionary's home. LDS missionaries serve voluntarily. They do not receive a salary for the work they undertake; most are financially supported by themselves or their families. Throughout the history of the church, over one million missionaries have been sent on missions.[2][3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary ... _Church%29

[Gob]

You can tell they are new, haven't got flat noses yet.

[loCAtek]

In my neck of the woods, the Mormons have gone casual. Oh, they still wear a suit and tie, but they'll be seen with the jacket off, and their sleeves rolled up; presumably to conceal their true identity.

[Lord Jim]

It reminds me of an old joke...

The Pope is sitting in the Vatican, when a Cardinal runs up breathlessly to him and says:

"Your Holiness, I have good news and bad news"....

"Yes my son, please give me the good news first"....

"Your Holiness, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior has returned to the Earth, and he wishes to speak to you"

To which the Pope replies:

"Well, that is the greatest news in the whole of human history! What could possibly be the bad news?"

"He's calling from Salt Lake City..."

(ETA: The way I heard it originally was, "He's calling from Tel Aviv"...."He's calling from Mecca" also works.... )

[Lord Jim]

I think it was Peggy Noonan who drew this analogy...

That Mitt Romney was the "safe" guy that your mother always wanted you to date, but you had to go out and party, and date all the "bad boys" first...

But at the end of the day, you wound up with the safe guy....

In terms of the GOP Nomination, that's what's going to happen here....

[Gob]

To be honest Jim, my mother was always dead opposed to me dating guys, good or bad.

[Grim Reaper]

Seems to have a firm grasp on world affairs:

I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States... we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

[quaddriver]

Missionaries are always male

au contraire.

since 1974 Pres Kimball set in motion boys AND girls and it is no longer limited to utes. Old people who join or never did a mission may do so.

(my set of last visits had the usual 2 bratty snots, a guy about my age and some female about 30)

and if the missionaries visit the home of a woman with no man present, a female missionary must attend as well. So it does not degenerate into some sort of sex-fest.

[quaddriver]

In my neck of the woods, the Mormons have gone casual. Oh, they still wear a suit and tie, but they'll be seen with the jacket off, and their sleeves rolled up; presumably to conceal their true identity

the actual mode of dress is set at the fine detail level by the local stake pres or bishop.

I for one have NEVER seen a suit jacket. In the winter (which we get dooseys of) they wear nearly identical winter coats, over the white shirt and single color ties. multi color ties are something I have never seen and the shirts can come long of short sleeve. since they are known to pitch in with yard work when walking by to 'break the ice', in the summers (of which we also get dooseys of) the short sleeve white shirt is a given.

[Sue U]

Seems to have a firm grasp on world affairs:

I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States... we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

Hahahaha, Herman Cain! Is he the only person on the planet who doesn't know the Chinese have had proven nukes since 1964? And if he's going to talk about aircraft carriers, he should have at least done a quick google to find out that their only operational carrier (operational just since this past August) is an old Soviet scrap heap. (They own another old Soviet carrier that they have turned into a luxury hotel. Such naval ambitions!)

[Lord Jim]

Well, it looks like there may be more shoes dropping...

Chuck Todd of MSNBC reported this morning that there may be a third woman who complained about Cain....

Cain is also now claiming that they have been able to trace the initial tip about the story to the Perry camp....

That would not at all surprise me, but it should be noted that this comes from Herman Cain....

And lately any resemblance between what comes out of his mouth and the truth is purely coincidental.....


The next thing that's going to happen of course is that one or more of these ladies is going to go public and hold a press conference...(I saw a report that said one of them wants to do this, and her lawyer is working with the NRA to try and get the non-disclosure requirement in the agreement waved...)

This thing is just going to drag on and on, so long as he remains in the race....

The thing Cain should do at this point is himself request that the full details of these charges and the settlements be released. If in fact they are just silly things as he claims, like "I put my hand under my chin and said to the lady, 'you're exactly the same height as my wife'" than he could put this behind him. The fact that he hasn't done this really makes it look like there's more to this than he has claimed.

Cain is his own worst enemy. He's a natural born motor mouth, who has never met a camera or a microphone he didn't love...You put those factors together with the hyper exhaustion that comes from the frantic pace of a Presidential campaign, and stupid things are going to get said...

He needs to get the whole story out, then shut up for a while and let the chips fall where they may.

[Long Run]

Last election cycle, many of us commented on how strong the Democratic field was in the primary. The R field was so-so. But this year, the R field is even worse. The guy who can best articulate the conservative position is unelectable (Gingrich). Assuming Romney gets the nod, he (or any of these other candidates) will be the weakest nominee in memory, and there have been some tepid nominees in the past -- Bush senior was an oh well kind of candidate, Dole created no energy, McCain created the wrong kind of energy. There are some strong Republican politicians out there, so it is hard to fathom how it comes down to Romney, Cain, Perry and Gingrich. Maybe more than anything else that explains the Cain thing.

[Lord Jim]

I think the main reason the more electable "big gun" candidates took a pass on the race is is the same reason that the top tier Democrats didn't jump in in '92....

During the time frame that they would have really needed to make a decision...six months to a year ago...the incumbent President didn't look as vulnerable as he does today. I think there was an assumption that the economy would recover at least somewhat between then and election day, ( which appears increasingly to look like it's not going to be the case) and you add that to Obama's billion dollar war chest, and the task looked pretty intimidating...

Another factor is that running for President is a very grueling and unpleasant thing to do, and becomes more unpleasant with each election cycle....

I think this is a shame for our electoral process because I'm certain that over the years it has discouraged many quality people on both sides from getting in the race....and the problem is only getting worse....

This is why Alan Simpson never ran, and a President Simpson would have been a great benefit to the country.

[Sue U]

it is hard to fathom how it comes down to Romney, Cain, Perry and Gingrich.

Not in the least. The Republican Party is having a full-blown identity crisis as a victim of its own kulturkampf. It is reaping what it has sown.

[Long Run]

I doubt that Sue. And lest you think it is an R issue alone, note the stalwart D selections from as recent as 2004:

Howard Dean, whoop!
John Edwards, whoops!
John Kerry, snore.
Dennis Kucinich, anyone need verbal pipe bomb?
Al Sharpton, ditto.
Dick Gephardt, again?
Bob Graham, who?
Joel Lieberman, remember when he was D?
Carol Moseley Braun, okay enough already.

[Lord Jim]

Don't forget Mike Gravel...

[Sue U]

Oh, I don't think it is an R problem alone; you are quite right that the Dems went through the same thing after the repudiation of Al Gore and the fumbling of '04. And I think what makes Obama weakest is that he has failed to recognize (or at least to embrace) what he represented not only to his own party, but to the GOP opposition in 2008. To both his credit and his detriment, he has spent the last 2.5 years trying to be himself rather than play the role he needs to fill. And that is not really a strategy for political success.

[Gob]

I'm hearing reports Perry was pissed on stage the other day, that's him out surely?

[Liberty1]

Not pissed, but a little "out there". He never had much of a chance anyway with his position on illegal aliens