Oh, Herman, we hardly knew ye. On Oct. 6, I wrote that Herman Cain was ?a genial, harmless dodo.?
I would now like to withdraw ?genial? and ?harmless.?
Continue ReadingThe multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by Cain, combined with his contradictory explanations of what took place, cast a different light on his candidacy for president.
To write about Cain at this point would be needless piling on except for the fact he is, as I write this, still the GOP front-runner. The respected Quinnipiac poll shows Cain at 30 percent and Mitt Romney at 23 percent.
And in a head-to-head race, which primary races usually get down to, Cain leads Romney 47-39, ?coming close to the critical 50 percent mark, even though more Republicans think Romney has the knowledge and experience to be president,? reported Quinnipiac.
True, the poll was conducted Oct. 25-31 and POLITICO?s Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, Anna Palmer and Ken Vogel did not break their story on the allegations against Cain until the evening of Oct. 30.
But what made Republicans favor Cain in the first place?
According to the poll, ?Cain is likable.? I have been writing about the power of likability in presidential races for a long time, and, when you get right down to it, the more likable candidate usually wins the general election.
But primaries can be different. Primary voters tend to be more activist and ideological and more likely to judge whether a candidate is a ?true? Republican or a ?true? Democrat.
Yet in the case of Cain, Republicans may be willing to overlook things like his recent dramatic flip-flop on abortion, not just because they like him but chiefly because they don?t like anybody else.
The GOP field is the weakest in several cycles, leaving the party with the embarrassment of Cain atop the polls.
Why is he an embarrassment? Because he doesn?t just demonstrate a lack of knowledge about foreign, domestic or even civic affairs ? he doesn?t know how a constitutional amendment becomes a constitutional amendment, for example ? but he is proud of his ignorance.
?I?m ready for the gotcha questions, and they?re already starting to come,? Cain told a reporter. ?And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I?m going to say, ?You know, I don?t know. Do you know???
Some Cain supporters say this is part of his down-to-earth charm. But ignorance on the part of a president can be dangerous. It definitely is dangerous that Cain did not know until he was corrected recently that China possesses a nuclear arsenal.
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