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

[Lord Jim]

Regular readers of this space will recall that some months back, I expressed surprise that this complete unknown was pulling 10% in the GOP preference polls....

In the last couple of weeks, he's been in the 16-18 percent range in a whole series of polls, running neck and neck with Rick Perry, right behind Romney....

TODAY a new poll has come out:

Herman Cain surges ahead, tops Mitt Romney in new poll

Businessman Herman Cain saw Mitt Romney's 23 percent support rating in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll and raised him 4 points to take the lead in the latest survey of Republican White House hopefuls.

The former CEO of Godfather's pizza garnered 27 percent support in the telephone poll released Wednesday night, more than five times the 5 percent support he had in August. Romney's 23 percent remained the same.

Cain, a successful motivational speaker, has been gaining traction in recent weeks as an alternative to Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who is unpopular among many factions of the Republican party despite his near-constant frontrunner status.

Cain is the latest contender to take on Romney after Texas Gov. Rick Perry briefly flirted with frontrunner status before weak debate performances over the past month caused his support to dwindle.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... 03544.html

I would be inclined to dismiss this poll as an outlier, were it not for the fact that, as I just mentioned, recent polls already had him with a really inexplicable percentage of support....

Well, at least this lays the lie to that tired old Liberal canard that Republicans won't support a black man for the Presidency....

Apparently, a substantial proportion of my GOP brethren are prepared to support even a completely unqualified black man for the Presidency....

I guess I'm just old school on this....

I hold to this quaint notion that in order to be a serious candidate for President Of The United States, one should have held at least one major elective or appointive post....Governor, Senator, Secretary Of State; something like that...(Which is why I never considered supporting Steve Forbes when he ran)

Herman Cain is a very likeable guy. He's sharp, he's well spoken, and he's obviously a very good businessman.

None of which, by itself, qualifies you to be President Of The United States.

Herman has said that he can't say what he would do about Afghanistan, because he doesn't have enough information. Okay, fair enough....

Herman also says he doesn't have enough information to know what to do about Pakistan. He doesn't have enough information to know what to do about Iran. He doesn't have enough information to know what to do about "The Arab Spring", the Israeli Palestinian bruhaha, the Chinese, the Russians, the WOT.....

I suspect if you asked him, he would also confess that he didn't have enough information to know what to do about Djibouti or Burkina Faso...

Herman just flat out doesn't have enough information....

The last thing this country needs...the very last thing it needs, given all the challenges we face both domestically and internationally...is a President who needs complete from the bottom up on the job training when he takes Office....

I'd bet that the only one more surprised about his poll numbers than I am, is Herman Cain...

Cain isn't really running a campaign; he's running a book tour...(literally; a couple of weeks ago, he did The Full Ginzberg on the Sunday talk shows promoting his book)

He has raised and spent a pittance on his campaign, and he has no ground organization to speak of. There is no way in hell he is going to get the GOP nomination. Not happening.

So how to explain his sudden burst of popularity?

I think Cain's current popularity can be explained in the same way that Donald Trump jumped briefly to the top of the polls, and a series of other candidates have done so...

It's not about them....

It's about Romney....

There is a certain percentage of the voters in my Party (about 20-25 percent) that just cannot, for whatever reason, reconcile themselves to the idea of Mitt Romney as the nominee...and the occasional high numbers for Trump, Bachmann, Cain etc., reflect a sort of protest, and an unhappiness with Romney....

For those in my party who feel this way, I have three words....

Get Over It....

I've never been a huge Romney fan. In the last election cycle, he was the only Republican candidate that I did not at one time or another consider supporting.

But at the end of the day, this is about defeating a President who is utterly clueless about what to do about the economy, and completely ineffective, and replacing him with someone who is at least marginally better, and who can actually win the election....

Mitt Romney meets that admittedly low bar, and none of the other cast of characters seeking the nomination does...

[Lord Jim]

The Herman Cain Thing also, I believe, is part of a piece that goes to a larger societal phenomena...something that has been going on since the Financial Collapse in September of '08....

The Tea Party, the Occupy Wall Streeters, even the election of of Obama, and the subsequent GOP landslide in the midterms, are all a reflection of a completely understandable anger, and frustration with "politics as usual"....

The body politic is PISSED OFF with the current state of affairs in this country and keeps shouting:

WE WANT SOMETHING ELSE!

Since because of the way the system is set up there is no viable third party option, as I've said before, the electorate will probably keep tossing the in's out and the outs in until somebody finally starts righting the ship...

I think the odds are excellent that next November Romney will be elected President, while the GOP loses it's majority in the House, and takes control of the Senate.

[BoSoxGal]

Romney isn't distrusted by the GOP faithful for his politics or Romneycare; he's distrusted for being Mormon.

And honestly even though I think it's a ridiculous religion, it is really no moreso than any other and it's plain ugly prejudice to deny him the nomination based on his personal religious beliefs.

[Long Run]

2008 was about finding a president who could put together a sentence, without too much effort. Articulate was more important than demonstrated competence (though the W struggled with both). I think 2012 will be about demonstrated or perceived competence, and Romney projects that. If I had a business that needed turning around, Cain would be at the top of the list of people to talk to. But the idea that someone with no real government leadership experience can win, in the Republican primary, in this time where competence is the key, is hard to fathom. The Democrats might chase celebrity status rather than picking a solid choice (e.g., Obama over HRC), but it has never happened with the Rs. I agree with the assessment: Cain is the "anyone but the inevitable Romney" choice of the moment.

[Lord Jim]

Romney isn't distrusted by the GOP faithful for his politics or Romneycare; he's distrusted for being Mormon.

I agree and disagree...

For some it's his religion, (though I saw a poll recently that showed that more Democrats than Republicans would be disinclined to vote for a Mormon) but for others it's a belief that he somehow isn't conservative enough; that he changes his positions too easily and can't be relied on....

I know I'm very much in the minority on this in the current absolutist political environment, but I personally see the ability to change ones positions as a virtue....

To me it means that you're a pragmatist, and willing to reach compromises, rather than an adherent to an inflexible ideology that you will cling to, come hell or high water, consequences be damned....

(Ronald Reagan was very much in that mold. As Governor of California, during one budget fight, he swore up and down that he would never accept any sort of tax increase, he said that on that issue his "feet were in concrete". At the end of the day, when they finally reached a deal, he held a press conference where he began with the statement, "Ladies and Gentlemen, that sound you hear is the sound of concrete breaking around my feet.")

[Sue U]

You egghead elitists! It's simple: Americans love pizza! Pizza is what the people want! Pizza and beer! Cain/McCain (Cindy) 2012!!!11!1!!!!

[BoSoxGal]

Given that more Americans wanted to have a beer with Dubya than with Al and voted accordingly, I am inclined to agree with you.

But then there are folks like that guy in the Fux News video you posted, who give me hope that intelligent discourse isn't entirely dead.

[Lord Jim]

Pizza and beer!

There are certainly worse things....

I am of the opinion that every time Romney's religion is publicly attacked, it actually helps him....

It causes people who would ordinarily be attacking him to rise to his defense....

(When that cretinous yahoo preacher attacked him last week, I saw even James Carville defending Romney)

It also creates a sort of sympathy factor, and gives Romney the opportunity to take the high road and say things no one can disagree with, and show that he isn't thin skinned...(I thought the way he handled that last week was brilliant; he didn't respond directly and act like he was hurt; his calm, well reasoned response, " We should remember that decency and civility are values too. Poisonous language does not advance our cause. It has never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind.” was spot on.)

[Sue U]

Oh, here's your problem:

Chafee says Romney ‘a different person’ as he woos GOP base
October 12th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes

R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee says former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney is “a completely different person” as a presidential candidate than the man who was once a fellow member of the Republican Party’s moderate wing in the Northeast.

“It’s the same thing I saw with John McCain, and I saw with George Pataki and with Rudy Giuliani,” Chafee told WPRI.com during an interview at his office Wednesday.

Referencing a speech on foreign policy Romney gave last week at The Citadel, Chafee said: “The appeal you have to make to the Republican primary audience – that’s just alien to what’s in our best interests as a country.”

Chafee recalled that he used to share many of the same views as those men, noting that he and McCain were the only two Republican senators who voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and that the Arizona senator “was good on climate change, he was good on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

“And I heard George Pataki, who was a three-term governor of New York, and was good on immigration, who attracted all sorts of Latino votes, he was good on the environment – and Rudy Giulini, he was mayor of New York City,” Chafee said.

“But when I heard them with national ambitions, it was a different person – a completely different person,” he continued. “It’s true in all their cases. And to hear Rudy Giuliani talking to a Republican primary audience is just – and that’s true with Mitt Romney. You just get pulled so far off.”

Chafee and Romney were both New England Republicans in 2006, the year Chafee lost his U.S. Senate reelection bid in Rhode Island and Romney declined to run for a second term as governor of Massachusetts. But their paths diverged in 2007 as Chafee left the GOP while Romney made a bid for the party’s presidential nomination.

Chafee endorsed Barack Obama over McCain in 2008 and may do so again next year.

Chafee’s father, the late John Chafee, was a Republican governor from 1963 to 1969 and U.S. senator from 1976 until his death in 1999. He also served as President Nixon’s Navy secretary from 1969 to 1972.

http://blogs.wpri.com/2011/10/12/chafee ... -gop-base/

Rather than go with a "sensible moderate Republican" approach, Romney has been trying to appeal to the GOP's insane wingnut base and they're just not buying it; they want ideological purity and, above all else, simple sound-bite solutions to highly complex problems.

[Rick]

Well there were actually 9 previous presidents that held no prior elected office.

More if you include those that held only cabinet positions...

[Long Run]

Well there were actually 9 previous presidents that held no prior elected office.

Nice U.S. History point. However, Eisenhower was the last one, over 50 years ago, and his prior military service was very political and he demonstrated supreme governmental administrative competence (he oversaw perhaps the largest government operation in history -- WWII, ETO). If someone came forward with similar experience, they could be taken seriously. However, even excellent CEOs do not have the experience that translates into what they will encounter as POTUS -- it is a total crapshoot whether they will be good politicians, let alone good presidents.

[Liberty1]

I've listened to Cain off and on on the radio for years, always liked his positions and personality.


Well LJ, I understand you are a traditional republican. Cain is a Conservative, there is a difference. This and the fact that he is not a politician are specific reasons why his is getting so much support.

I've always heard people over the years that we need to just get rid of all the DC pols and replace them, it's basically inacting this thought at the highest level. He won't play the DC game and that's a good thing.

[Sue U]

BTW, did you see the SNL sketch where "Romney" is endorsed by "Christie"? That about says it all, right there.

[Rick]

I think it's all a crap shoot.

I also think this poll is just yanking someones chain...

[Lord Jim]

Well there were actually 9 previous presidents that held no prior elected office.

Yes, and I specifically said major elective or appointed position, in order to cover that....

Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe, certainly qualifies as a major appointive position....

Jim Baker never held elective office, but he served as Chief Of Staff to the President, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary Of State; he would have been fully qualified to serve as President.

Ditto Colin Powell, who served as Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, and Secretary Of State....

[BoSoxGal]

I'm listening to Fresh Air Here & Now on NPR right now; they are discussing OWS and the conversation turned to how Romney adopted the OWS language in the most recent debate: 'I'm concerned for the other 99%'.

He's trying to play both sides. Wonder how that will serve him?

[Lord Jim]

He's trying to play both sides. Wonder how that will serve him?

I suspect it will serve him well...

It worked like a charm for Obama in 2008...

[dales]

"I think it's all a crap shoot...."

Sez it all for me.

[Lord Jim]

He won't play the DC game and that's a good thing.

You know Lib, we had a President once who ran on a platform bragging about the fact that he "didn't know anyone in Washington".....

His name was Jimmy Carter....

How'd that work out?

[Sue U]

I'm listening to Fresh Air on NPR right now; they are discussing OWS and the conversation turned to how Romney adopted the OWS language in the most recent debate: 'I'm concerned for the other 99%'.

He's trying to play both sides. Wonder how that will serve him?

Hahaha, last week he was trying to tell us he's middle class just like the rest of us.