WEDNESDAY MAY HAVE SEEN THE FINAL NAILS DRIVEN INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF HERMAN CAIN.I could be wrong, but it looks like only a matter of time before this campaign breathes its last.
Things got rolling at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner this morning where Cain said various factions were out to destroy him and his campaign. Then at his next stop at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria, VA the wheels came completely off, as tempers flew, effectively sending Cain's campaign to the graveyard. It's all over but the shouting. Dana Milbank at the WaPo reports:
In Wednesday morning, he raised the paranoia dial another notch. “There are factions trying to destroy me personally, and this campaign,” he announced, revealing this conspiracy to a group of technology executives at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson’s Corner. At his next stop, a Hilton hotel in Alexandria, the amiable candidate finally blew his stack – and the scene quickly escalated into violence. It began when a reporter asked Cain if he would release his accusers from their confidentiality agreements. “I’m not going to talk about it,” Cain snapped, “so don’t even bother asking me all of these other questions that y’all are curious about. Okay? Don’t even bother.” “It’s a good question,” the reporter pointed out. “Are you concerned?” asked another. Evidently, Cain was. “What did I say?” he hissed at the reporters, then attempted to break through the pack, shouting: “Excuse me. Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!” At that, his bodyguards began throwing elbows and shoving the reporters and photographers. “Stand back! . . . Do not push me! . . . Pushing is against the law!. . . Watch out!. . . Get a grip on yourself!” In the melee, a young boy and his father were shoved up against a wall.The thing that bothers me most about this whole affair is Cain losing his cool today. His anger belies a defensiveness that does not bode well for him to become president. When he lost it, it was ugly. If all that's not enough, Steve Deace, Christian talk show host in Des Moines, Iowa today said Cain made awkward and inappropriate remarks to a female staffer at the station recently .Deace is quoted as saying
"Like awkward/inappropriate things he’s said to two females on my staff, that the fact the guy’s wife is never around…that’s almost always a warning flag to me,” Deace wrote. “But I chose to leave that stuff out [of the opinion piece] and make it about his record and not the personal stuff." Pressed about what exactly Cain said to the employees of his show, Deace responded by describing how he himself treats his staff. “Many a man has been done in by the inability to control his urges,” Deace wrote. “I am no different and just as vulnerable as any other man, which is why I put safeguards around me and hold myself accountable to my wife and other men in my life. Especially since I have very talented employees that happen to be women. I go out of my way to treat them like my sisters. For example, I wouldn’t tell them or any other woman I am not married to nor related to how pretty she is.”Deace is clearly conservative, Christian with higher standards than most people in government. Still it appears Cain's suggestive behavior may be a long-standing pattern which cannot be overcome in time to save his candidacy. The American people are in no mood, no mood---with its extreme concerns for the economy and jobs---to be sidetracked by sexual scandals and innuendos in the White House over the next four years. I defended Cain over the past few days, but now I sadly now do an about face for no other reason than his massive and frightening show of temper at the Hilton today.
Cain's downfall, if it plays out this way, is a tragedy. Mr. Cain, via focusing national conversation on his ideas, has served his nation well.
ReplyDeleteI think, from the beginning, Politico had some strategic objectives:
1. encourage the original accuser to go public
2. encourage others to come forward and complain about Cain
3. fluster the inexperienced candidate, then write articles about his nefarious "shifting story".
Michael Walsh at NRO http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/281883/return-whipsaw-michael-walsh :
"First, posit the existence of a “story” as defined by Politico’s editors — doesn’t matter whether it’s true, relevant, or even recent. ... In the Kafkaesque world of the Left, Josef K. is always guilty of something, with the media happily acting as the Committee of Affairs."
William Jacobson, of Legal Insurrection http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/11/creating-complaints/ :
"A good way to ruin a departing [stock] broker is to create customer complaints which go on the broker’s record and create hiring and licensing problems. So what the firm does is start calling customers and asking questions like 'were you happy with Joe,' ... and so on and so on. Out of hundreds of clients, some percentage will be unhappy and start complaining, and then those complaints get entered into the system, and voilĂ , an otherwise clean broker now has 5-10 hits on his record, no one will hire him, and the regulators hold up his license transfer.
And that pretty much is what Politico did to Herman Cain. The original thinly attributed and fairly vague article was an attempt to smoke out people who had a gripe about Cain, to create complaints from people who never before complained.
[...]
Now Cain isn’t fighting just the two people who complained at the time, but a diffuse group of ever expanding complainers who gain strength from numbers. The volume of complaints is what now matters...."
Our nation cannot is a place in which an inexperienced Barack Obama can skate to election, yet an inexperienced Sarah Palin or Herman Cain have no chance of election; have no chance of getting through the pitchforks and torches of the media. Who is more virtuous: Sarah Palin, or, say, John Kerry? Herman Cain, or Hillary Clinton?
An inexperienced candidate ought be allowed to fail b/c voters see a more accomplished and experienced candidate. The inexperienced candidate ought not automatically go down due to media trickery; due to not having a Carville or a Rove on their team, in order to defeat media trickery.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteIf Cain goes down it's because of losing his cool big time today and what might be considered a long-standing pattern of making attractive women feel uncomfortable.
In that case, the American people are of no mind to elect a man to the WH who's behavior might become a distraction from the pressing issues at hand. It happened with Clinton and was huge distraction for months.
I have been concerned about several statements Cain has made that seemed very poorly thought out. He and/or his team should surely have thought that these allegations and innuendoes would all come to light during the campaign. Did his pride get in his way? Did he think he would be immune to the media's framing of his character?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Mitt Romney is still on track for the nomination, and Obama will defeat him. As I've said before, I hope I'm wrong.
At any rate, our hope is not in anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For that I'm very thankful!
I hope you're wrong too fraydna, but don't think you are. Obama will be re-elected. We can hope we take the Senate so that things will be a little different. Yes, our hope is not with anyone on Pennsylvania Ave. Amen.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're wrong too fraydna, but don't think you are. Obama will be re-elected.
ReplyDeleteNow, CUT THAT OUT!!!
I have way too much experience with despair and depression, but it's still a solid year until the election. We haven't even had our first primary yet.
So, NO!!! The science has NOT been settled.
He will be re-elected only if we let him, and I have no absolutely intention of letting that happen.
One thing that means is that if the GOP nominee is not one I would have preferred, I am NOT going to get in a funk and just sit the election out (as apparently some did when McCain was the nominee).
As far as I'm concerned, the fat lady has NOT sung yet. With a year yet to go, I do NOT consider that as groundless optimism, but a recognition of a lot of hard work ahead.
Ok. I feel better now. Hope you do. :-)
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Hope you're right Paul. There is time and a lot can happen. However, this is what we both think from this time and prospective.
ReplyDeleteI won't sit out the upcoming election, either. I voted for McCain and this time around will vote for ABO (anybody but Obama), whoever ends up being the nominee.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I hope I'm wrong, and Paul, thanks for the perspective and the reminder that many unexpected things could happen in the next year.