Calling Herman Cain a “jive talking huckster” — one who has somehow fooled conservatives into taking a shine to him — is not only silly, but it’s condescending, to boot. Like him or hate him, believe he’s informed and polished enough to lead the nation or not, the fact of the matter is, Cain — by dint of being a business outsider interloping into GOP politics — was able to force the notion of a serious tax-code overhaul into the current GOP primary discussion, perhaps even influencing the Perry camp’s decision to propose a flat tax plan.
At a time when the current President was touring the country claiming everyone needed to pay their “fair share,” the move to make reforming the tax code a central part of his campaign was very shrewd on the part of Cain people: as Obama demagogued “loopholes” in the tax code and the necessity for everyone to have “skin in the game,” introducing a Fair or Flat Tax plan, and pointing out how such plans are truly meant to promote a kind of tax-rate equality while simultaneously stimulating business and investment (and so employment and revenue) is in fact a clearly-articulated bit of free-market conservatism — and as such, it resonates when juxtaposed with class warfare and the regressive leftist notion that wealth is somehow static and a zero sum game between those who have it and those who might not.
As I’ve noted here on several occasions, I would happily support a Perry, or a Bachmann, or a Santorum or even a Gingrich (whose ideas I often like but whose political pragmatism I distrust); too, I would happily support a Cain, because I recognize that whomever we nominate will have to face Obama in a debate setting, and Cain’s ability to win over crowds, along with the optimism and can-do spirit he exudes, is a perfect foil against an entrenched government class whose only real function these days seems to be divining ever new ways to strangle productivity and punish success and hard work.
Cain has caught fire precisely because many outside the day-to-day political grind — which includes those of us who simply follow it — are looking for the anti-politician; they want someone whose pro-growth ideas they can trust, not someone who will tell them what they want to hear now, then go to DC and settle into the status-quo.
While Mitt Romney or Chris Christie have joined Obama and Pelosi and Reid in sympathizing with the “frustrations” of anarchists, Communists, socialists, Maoists, Marxists, and anti-Semitic wannabe-“reformers,” Cain has quite forcefully and without dithering or checking the political winds denounced the “Occupy” movements. In fact, while many GOP candidates have tried to keep neutral and not risk seeming devoid of compassion — we feel your pain, drum circle! — Cain has echoed the sentiments of Sarah Palin, yet another “unelectable” conservative our right-side opinion leaders allowed the left to destroy:
“The American dream, our foundation, is about work ethic and empowerment, not entitlement,” she said. ” In fact, the nation’s dividing line today is how you answer this question: Are you entitled to other people’s money? The Wall Street crony capitalists, the Obama Administration, the leftist politicos, big union bosses and the occupiers, they all say, ‘Yes!’ The rest of America says, ‘No!’”
She said President Barack Obama and the Occupy Wall Street protesters share the same vision of feeling entitled to other people’s productivity and money.
Cain’s business background and personal story mark him, as it did Palin, as a product of the American Dream many of us preach, but few who follow politics seem to believe in any more.
Cain’s lack of “polish” — his inability to lie effectively and efficiently, or to blunt in a smooth fashion a hit piece that was designed to create a problem in defending oneself — is, we’re now told, the very thing that makes him unsuitable for office.
And yet that formulation simply reaffirms the desire, on the part of people who’ve spent the last several years riding TEA Party coattails, for a groomed politician, a member of the very establishment status quo that they spend so much time railing against otherwise.
Too, the idea that Cain can’t handle the job because he’s not yet fully-versed on all topics plays to the notion of a President as kind of wise king or emperor. But that’s not what the presidency was designed to be — and it’s rather surreal to watch people talk about their support for the Constitution, then turn around and demand that the Chief Executive be more than merely a principled candidate with a proven track record of large-scale executive successes, and the ability to listen, to assimilate information, to surround himself with capable people, and to make the kinds of executive decisions that protect our liberties, allow our economy to grow and thrive, and protect our sovereignty.
What I’m seeing out of a lot of those right-wing opinion-makers who’ve continued to step up their attacks on Herman Cain — many of who are decidedly not conservative, incidentally, but simply play to that crowd in, say, the pages of the Washington Post or NYT — is a bit of bald-face projection for having convicted a man too early and too publicly, and then realizing that, in their zeal to join the pile-on, Politico had made them its bitches.
And no post-hoc defensiveness is going to change that.
I haven’t endorsed Herman Cain. But watching supposed conservatives use the occasion of a rank political hit job to attack one of their own rather than the media culture that allows for and promotes such obvious partisan attacks, has been depressing.
This was once a serious country, and conservatism was once a serious movement.
****
related: Rich Lowrie, architect of 9-9-9, answers questions.
Dan Riehl can be a real asshole sometimes. I’m not the first to notice this.
Dan is outspoken. I like that about him. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with him.
I like Dan, but when you compare these two posts, which one is the more serious and substantive position?
Thank you Jeff for saying what you said so well.
I cannot think of anything to add to this. We’re definitely on the same page, and most likely in the same paragraph.
The Founders never envisioned a professional political class running this country. Yet, when capable people like Cain come along, some people whine that he isn’t good at being a professional politician. They really need to wake up.
There’s a story embedded in the inclusion in the 9-9-9 plan of elements of both the Fair Tax and Flat Tax proposals. I don’t know whether the attempt to draw in, as Cain puts it, lovers of each of these schemes is wise or no, but I do recognize why Cain wants to do it. He served on the Kemp Commission in the middle nineties, and watched up close how proponents of the Fair and Flat taxes fought like cats and dogs, or Hatfields and McCoys, even though their aims were strongly overlapping. He, like I at the time watching that drama from afar, was appalled. These fights become absurd after a short while, because they paralyze action through division, and the troubles the nation faces aren’t addressed. Cain is determined that the troubles will be addressed, so in hopes of mollifying both parties, he blends. As it appears today, he has only succeeded in prompting grumbling from both camps.
Great post, Jeff.
Nice turn of phrase, cranky.
DrewM at Ace:
Incomplete ≠ serious.
The glottal in Gene Robinson’s voice is like fingernails on a blackboard.
JHoward, if I cared what Drew had to say …
From the link to the piece on Rich Lowrie.
Are all people in the press who are allowed to opine on business and finance so stupid as to not have any notion of what competition does? Any company that decided to “pocket the tax savings” by keeping its prices high would be eaten alive by their competitors who didn’t do so. And if he thinks that they all would keep the prices high, that’s BS, somebody would take that low hanging fruit and beat their competitors to a bloody pulp grabbing for all the market share just there for the taking. Stupid, stupid, press. You only get away with that crap with Government assistance ala “crony capitalism”, Obamaism.
Any company that decided to “pocket the tax savings” by keeping its prices high would be eaten alive by their competitors who didn’t do so. A
That’s written, geoff, like someone who’s never run a business. But they’ve read a lot of Dickens or something, and know how evil business folks can be.
I’m not sure any of DrewM’s arguments there hold water. Romney fucked everyone in Massachusetts and probably everyone in the country:
Grabass or no grabass. And if Rick Perry had complaints against him by staffers, do I think they’d be hushed up because he’s white? No, I don’t. I think they’d be hushed up because he’s NOT HERMAN CAIN.
Let’s just hope this does turn out to be nothing more than a disgruntled employee. If Cain starts in on the race card and we end up with the Herman Cain sex tape, I’ll be really pissed.
I went to look at the Drew post and right underneath it, in the same box, is a Friends of Herman Cain ad.
Hello Cain staff! Over here!
I’m not a Cain supporter, but it is truly awful the way they have gone after him and for the reasons you mention, Jeff. It’s statists to the left of me and statists to the right…I’m stuck in the middle again. The middle being anti-statist of course :)
…another “unelectable” conservative our right-side opinion leaders
allowedjoined in with the left to destroy.I don’t generally do “FTFY” to our esteemed host, but this one seemed warranted.
I know motionview, seriously.
But hey, I’ve got some payday loan stuff.
LMC, if there was anything like that in Perry’s background, he wouldn’t be a Texas politician and everyone would know about it.
This is, after all, the state that gave politics LBJ. “Let’s make the sonofabitch deny it!”
I’m on your side with this one, chief. In fact, the biggest service Cain and Sarah Palin have done this election cycle is push the conversation toward limited government and fiscal responsibility and away from central planning via expanded federal powers.
Well, the SCOAMF did his share to discredit Keynesian economics as well. Credit where it’s due, I suppose.
Yes, exactly that. Add in a quantifiable track record of saving sinking ships and you have the reason I’m on the Cain train and have been from the get-go.
Totally Herman Cain’s fault. That I’m Politico’s bitch.
LBJ schtupped Doris, so we’re told, and ’twasn’t a problem back in the day.
LMC, also Bachmann and Perry self-eliminated. No remaining threat to Mitt “It’s His Turn” Romney. If either of them nears the top spot in polling again, I’m confident the smear factory will open again.
Well, I guess self-eliminating helps with the urges… but it’s just not as satisfying, dammit!
Well said Jeff.
I like James Taranto’s take.
As for Drewm’s piece at Ace of Spades . . .
Drew misconstrues the SuperPAC’s ad as playing the race card against Perry. I take the “High Tech Lynching” ad as correctly identifying the media and left’s obsession with tearing down black conservatives. If Perry’s campaign was the source of the leak, that doesn’t necessarily implicate a racist mindset as much as a cynical and opportunistic use of the left and media’s race obsession to take down a rival.
NOW it comes out that Cain didn’t sign (and may not even have known about) the agreement!
Why does the “pragmatic right” remind me of Brave, Brave Sir Robin?
I have endorsed Cain. He’s my guy, for what it’s worth($0.02).
There’s things I don’t like, the national sales tax most prominent. I’ll admit I find his apparent naivete dealing with the media a little distressing. I agree it’s good he’s not a polished lying politician, but he should know the press is not his friend and be more circumspect in dealing with them.
I really don’t like that Cain pointed the finger at Perry in the heat of the moment. Two reasons; 1)it seems he is throwing allegations without proof in response to defending allegations without proof, devaluing both positions, and 2)the eventual winner of the primary must be able to gain the losing candidates voters, and competition between them must not descend into personal animosity as it has.
Still, I think Cain is the man the country needs, a principled man from outside the Washington establishment.
Having said all that, I’m voting for the republican against Obama, and hope we make big gains in congress. Worst case it’s Romney, but like McCain before him, I will hold my nose and pull the lever.
If Romney is elected, we will still have time to reform the republican party into something more Representative of the TEA Party.
If Obama is re-elected, we, and our children, are doomed. It’s the difference between a strategic retreat, and annihilation in the field.
There is this Tom Huntsman guy. I hear he looks great in a suit. Did you know he speaks Chinese?
NOW it comes out that Cain didn’t sign (and may not even have known about) the agreement!
Cain has said as much from the beginning, I believe.
Rush just identified the scandal: It’t the lack of a cover-up that’s the crime here.
How weird is it that the Democrat media seeks to determine the country against Herman Cain and yet succeeds in determining the country for Herman Cain? I mean, the weird is that though it arrives through a door the Democrat media didn’t see, they’re still driving the process, albeit in a direction 180 degrees from their intention!
Yes, Ernst, but now there’s evidence (and a news media reporting the evidence) indicating Cain’s innocence, now that a “scandal” exists. Doesn’t matter that the “scandal” has been proven not to be a “scandal”. The media has a “scandal” to discuss. Herm’s got the label “accused sexual harrasser” and it’s not going away…
New bumper sticker idea:
We are all sexual harassers now
Foldgarb pronounces: Cain . . . amateur!
Creasepant intones: Cain . . . contradictory!
Sagbreast inveighs: Cain . . . belabored!
Presssuit bescolds: Cain . . . incoherent!
I mean, who among us hasn’t held a door open for a woman?
he’ll just have to ride it out – it helps him a lot that Perry is a shriveled husk of the man he was a few weeks ago and Wall Street Romney gives everyone the wiggins whenever he says the word “sexual”
it also helps him that most people understand that American journalists are racist losers
I went to look at the Drew post and right underneath it, in the same box, is a Friends of Herman Cain ad.
A couple of days ago, one of the Ace-crew put up their monthly “so, who d’ya want to as the R nominee” poll. The results were roughly 35% each for Cain and Perry, with Newt at 15% and Romney at 10%.
I find “pissing off fully half of your readership” to be a curious business model — one that even the notoriously “difficult” Mr. Goldstein hasn’t used. I suppose it drives traffic in the short term (like AllahP’s transparent “let’s start an abortion argument!” posts), but in the long term…
I think the most important result in the Politico piece is not a destruction of Cain; pollling suggests that they’re not having any luck with that.
I’d still vote for him even if there were credible reports that in 1989 he opened a national meeting by removing his trousers, revealing a abnormally large and turgid member with a minature American flag attached to it, and led the assembled in a particularly spirited rendition of the National Anthem. In fact, it’d be awesome and I’d find a way to vote for him twice.
So the Politico piece hasn’t necessarily scared-off those of us who would’ve voted for Cain in the first place. What it has succeeded in doing is bringing a certain amount of clarity to the conservo-pundit arena. It’s convinced me to pay little to no attention to certain voices on “my side”, none of whom are named Herman Cain.
My defense of Cain during this kerfuffle has nothing to do with whether I will vote for him: I’m still undecided.
But to use his lack of polish when facing Politico’s unprincipled attack as an index for Cain’s readiness for office?
No different than judging Sarah Palin on the Couric interview. Which many “conservatives” pretty much did, consciously or not.
they’re still driving the process, albeit in a direction 180 degrees from their intention!
Well, some chase you into the net, and some shoot you when you run off in the other direction. The only way to win is not to play.
I think the field is what the field is, polling wise, and it isn’t going to change unless something stunning happens(one of the accusers comes up with a stained blue dress for instance)
Romney will never get more true support than he has now. The “electable” parrots my think they will get enough of the nose holders to win, but I’m afraid they underestimate the mood of too much of the base that feel the way our friend McGehee does. Personally, I think Romney the least electable because of that.
If we can convince enough of the “Romney is the most electable” crowd that it’s just not true, and they need to throw their support in for the clear front runner, instead of clinging to their childish demand we must give ours to Romney because it’s “strategic“, we win.
Sure. Hence “can be” and “sometimes.”
It’s not as if I accused him of something I’ve never done.
Here’s what, to me, is nonsensical about this whole dust-up. Politico wants me to be upset that a person running for political office might have done something some may consider inappropriate of a sexual nature. In other words, acted like a non-trivial and possibly over-average number of people also running for political office.
Once again, the leftist writers at Politico confused the prudish, pearl-clutching conservatives in their heads with real people. They wrote a thinly-sourced story about (whispers) S – E – X. They expected the dextrosphere to erupt in prudish pearl-clutching. We didn’t, and they’re confused.
Jeff Goldstein difficult? Only if you’re a knave or a fool.
Knavery and foolishness tends to excite the cockslapping urge.
Oh, and by “strategic” I meant “pragmatic”
That wasn’t a knock on you McGehee. Just me putting it on the record.
?
There’s a campaign season on, the nation is facing an election, one possible result of which could be the nomination of this man to the run for office, and we’re not supposed to play? That doesn’t make sense on its face.
“Dan Riehl can be a real asshole sometimes. I’m not the first to notice this”
Who among us has not dropped trou and exposed our darker side?
I denounce myself.
In Riehl’s piece, there’s yet again someone in comments bemoaning Cain’s stupidity in handling this, as if there is any “this” needing to be handled, that anyone can verify.
If I were an establishmentarian New Class Ruling Party elitist, I couldn’t think of a better way to strangle the tea-party movement than having the Republican party nominate Mitt Romney.
And if I were a progressive establishmentarian New Class Ruling Party elitist, I couldn’t think of a better way to lock in the gains of the last four years and end the risk of a backlash than by seeing Romney win out over Obama.
Sdferr, I think she meant “don’t play their game“.
The way I read it anyway…
It seems to me that people demonstrate already — by their contrary action, increasing their support — that they aren’t playing the game Politico had in mind — consciously — if that were the proposition.
Romney will never get more true support than he has now. The “electable” parrots my think they will get enough of the nose holders to win, but I’m afraid they underestimate the mood of too much of the base…
Romney gets support from the inside-the-Beltway crowd who depend on him to keep the rest of us from upsetting their apple cart. He also gets support from those who vote based on who has good hair. Neither of these constituencies can produce the energy and the motivated bodies to get out the vote. For every Bascom committed to holding his nose and pulling the lever marked R, there’s one of me who will spit and pull the lever marked None of the Above. And neither the Bascoms nor the Squids are going to be cheerfully knocking on doors and handing out literature.
“Romney is electable” is a bald-faced lie. If nominated, he will waffle his way through the debates, get beaten over the head with RomneyCare, and have the rug pulled out from under him by the media, just as they did with McCain. His support will be lukewarm, and a significant number of Tea Partiers will stay home on Election Day, or follow me to the polls to vote for Mike Rowe and Joe Paterno.
And when Jeff comes out swinging for the OUTLAW! Party, all bets are off.
Romney just isn’t electable. Assertions to the contrary should be stamped out like cinders, lest they cause some real damage.
John Bradley,
Do you know how much coffe out the nose hurts? Warn a brother next time before you post something like:
Ernst, I agree with your first paragraph(#46), but for the second, I think the progressive establishmentarian New Class Ruling Party elitist would be happiest keeping Obama.
They think Obama has the best chance against Romney, and he’s who they want to run against, but they don’t want him to win.
Exactly. The MSM will love Romney. Right up until the time they don’t.
sdferr people don’t seem to be playing the game. The right punditocracy is.
It really would have been better for Cain if he’d have come out the day the story broke and said something along the lines of “we know what Politico is trying to do with this anonymously sourced set of allegations utterly lacking in specifics and we refuse to be a party to it.”
Well, I think so anyways. The smart set probably thinks that’s the worst thing to do because it would just get the CFM angry.
Putting it on the record, by the way, so that should someone try to reach out to Mr Riehl and form an alliance based on the assertion that I’ll attack people who have previously supported me, and aren’t a sociopathic cad or the most pseudo-intellectual order for doing so, I can point out that it was nothing personal. I don’t choose who is right or wrong based on their party affiliation, is all.
RAAAAACIST!!!!!1!!
Not a problem, Jeff. At least, not for me.
Today.
But I had a cable guy in yesterday and another one is coming next week so who knows who I’ll be an asshole to then?
And if he thinks that they all would keep the prices high, that’s BS, somebody would take that low hanging fruit and beat their competitors to a bloody pulp grabbing for all the market share just there for the taking.
Case in point — BofA annouces come January there will be a $5/mo charge for using one’s debit card. Hew & cry ensue with customers looking to move their accounts to another bank. BofA is sure Chase, Wells Fargo, et al, will follow their lead …
Chase & WF blink … see as they may get a whole bunch of new customers if they do NOT charge that $5.
BofA is now backing away from the charge.
heh.
I had thought there was some implication that Politico had some clever double-game in progress, where they truly intended to drive otherwise marginal Cain supporters into his arms, making him the vulnerable, deeply flawed nominee, an easy take down for Obama — or something along those lines. I think that on the contrary, people aren’t choosing to support Cain simply because Politico and the establishment ruling class are opposed to him, but because looking harder at him, they like what they see, and find him a more than adequate representative of their considered views.
But, it’s 100% darker. More ‘authentic,’ if you will.
Lee, I think your average progressive establishmentarian New Class Ruling Party elitist would like to see some kind of economic recovery before SCOAMF totally destroys the credibility of the Democrat Party. Romney is a good place holder (e.g. he won’t undo Obamacare, and Green Energy is Big Business now) who gives them somebody to blame for the problems they’re responsible for.
The slow way is the sure way.
“RAAAAACIST!!!!!1!!”
Oh, lighten up.
…DAMMIT!
CNN is running a live feed for the lawyer’s statement: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/cvplive/cvpstream3
“Romney is a good place holder (e.g. he won’t undo Obamacare, and Green Energy is Big Business now) who gives them somebody to blame for the problems they’re responsible for.”
I’d agree but for the probability that congress is going to have major TEA Party gains. I think Romney is going to have to track right if elected.
I really doubt the proggs want all three branches of government in the hands of Republicans. The chances of them actually rescuing the economy, and getting all the credit, are too great.
The party of Stoopit? Surely you jest? The new majority members in congress will coalesce and recaucus around the newly formed tea party party and the republicans and the dems will both become also rans as the Tea Party party pulls us back from the brink. New leadership – and the remnants of the republicans will be relegated to the back bench begging for attention and hoping they aren’t indicted. The democrats will be mostly indicted or suddenly resign.
Once the tea party reaches velocity, exactly why would they want to continue being called republicans? Excess baggage that must be shed.
You should see the Perry people coming after me on Twitter. It’s astounding how intentionally ignorant they remain about the settlement, the time line, etc.
My blind support of Cain makes me like an Obama supporter.
Stephanie, cheers! There are many skilled rhetoricians, potential statesmen of the first order coming up through the ranks of the Republican political leadership I believe. Naming names, there’s Sen Marco Rubio, Gov. Scott Walker, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Atty Gen. Cuccinelli and Sen. Mike Lee, just to call out a few. There are many more, I have no doubt. Things are going to be looking up, and soon.
My blind support of Cain makes me like an Obama supporter.
Their blind belief in the media narrative makes them like Obama supporters. I’d say you’re even.
Besides which — didn’t you just give kudos to Perry in the previous post? What gives?
That’s what I told them, Squid. They reacted rather viscerally. Complete with old, incorrect assumptions about how settlements and sealed agreements work, and armed with the “HE HAD 10 DAYS” trope — though we now know that he STILL doesn’t know what specifically was alleged.
Ouch. That would leave a mark… if they could see it.
As a Russian friend of mine is wont to point out, half of the population is deficient in intelligence, thus having IQs of less than 100. I think that accounts for many of the TRVE BELIEVERS!!! on all sides who turn a blind eye to any information that disturbs their narrative.
Link
To add to newrouter’s link there, The Hill:
Press conference is live now.
Accuser won’t give specifics of incident. Decided not to relive it. Settled early. Never got to the point where litigation was considered. No details about monetary settlement. No details about physical v. verbal. Can’t recall if any witnesses.
So what the hell is this news conference about? Nobody knows. But I’m sure it will be HUGE news.
Lawyer now says Cain knows of specific instances from a written filing in 1999. But then he says it was filed internally, and Cain has said he recused himself.
The lawyer says that this was NOT a severance agreement; it is inaccurate to say that this was a settlement of a sexual harassment complaint.
There’s the story.
Now we’ll have to see what comes of that allegation.
The lawyer says that this was NOT a severance agreement; it is inaccurate to say that this was a settlement of a sexual harassment complaint.
What’s left? A how-can-I-miss-you-if-you-won’t-go-away proceeding?
what a racist cooze
I’ve decided something utterly gratuitous and vanishingly unlikely, but if it ever came to pass somehow that somebody thought they had a reason/excuse/angle on me for sexual harassment, I’d be inclined tell them to spell it out under oath or take a hike.
It’s death by 10,000 paper cuts. Find that man an analgesic cream!
Bitch got away with extortion then?
she definitely made it to where if the primary was tomorrow I’d vote for Mr. Cain
I really couldn’t have said that for sure last week
Quote of the Day: “So now I’m thinking her claim was trumped up.” Ace. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/323371.php
Better late than never.