The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Meanwhile, on the Cain Campaign …

Posted on | August 10, 2011 | 7 Comments

DES MOINES, Iowa
Because of my late return from Monday’s event in Council Bluffs — I didn’t get back here until nearly 3 a.m. Tuesday morning — I decided to skip the road trip today, and only made one brief outing to the state capitol where I saw the Rick Perry supporters. So I missed the Herman Cain campaign’s Tuesday travels, but my former Washington Times colleague Susan Ferrechio, now with the Washington Examiner, caught up with the “Common Sense Solutions” bus tour:

Cain attracted a large crowd in Cedar Falls, with more than 100 people crowding into a hotel conference room to hear the former Godfather Pizza CEO talk about his plans to turn the economy around and create jobs by cutting taxes and reversing some of the policies put in place by the Democrats, including the health care reform law. . . .
These days, Cain is doubling his efforts here, campaigning non-stop across the Hawkeye State this week with three and four stops each day. . . .
“Some of the other folks may outspend me,” Cain pledged, “but they are not going to outwork me.”

Ferrechio’s story is mainly a harsh bummer, full of doom-and-gloom poll numbers purporting to show Cain’s Iowa support in the single digits. Meanwhile in Davenport, Ed Tibbetts of the Quad City Times reports:

Saying his rivals are trying to “stack the count,” Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain urged supporters in Davenport to “crank it up a notch” before the straw poll Saturday.
“Some of the other candidates, they’re going to be busing folk in, having them parachute in, anything they can do to try to stack the count,” Cain said in a speech outside the Masonic Temple in Davenport. “We’re more concerned about the intensity of our supporters. We want you to be there because you want to be there.”
The straw poll, a fundraiser for the state GOP, has long been seen as an organizational effort for presidential candidates, with campaigns, particularly those that are well-funded, paying for the tickets of supporters and busing them to Ames for the event.
Cain later told reporters he wasn’t suggesting the other candidates were doing anything illegitimate but that his approach is different.
“If they want to do it that way, that’s fine,” he said. “I prefer for my supporters to be there because they want to be there. And I happen to believe they’re going to turn out in big numbers.”

And in Cedar Rapids (not to be confused with Cedar Falls) there was a reunion of sorts:

Cain was introduced to a crowd of about 80 people by Keith Lacie and his son, Gunnar. Lacie began working for Godfather’s Pizza, the company Cain once owned, more than two decades ago. Lacie started sweeping the restaurant floors, and now, owns two Godfather’s Pizza stores in Cedar Rapids.
“I used to work for Herman Cain. Now, I want him to work for me,” Lacie said, endorsing Cain’s candidacy for president.

Wednesday the “Common Sense Solutions” tour continues across the north side of the state, with stops in Clear Lake, Rock Rapids and Okoboji. I’m still trying to catch up with Tim Pawlenty’s campaign, and he’ll have a rally in Ames at 7 p.m. Wednesday, so I’ll figure to go to that. During the day, I’ll probably drop by Iowa GOP headquarters and do some research leading up to Thursday’s Fox News debate.

Today’s most eye-catching Iowa headline is from Craig Robinson of TheIowaRepublican.com: “Perry’s South Carolina Announcement Is A Slap In the Face to Iowa Republicans.” Some readers have been upset by my use of “The Phantom Menace” to describe Perry’s campaign strategy, but as Robinson explains, many Iowans feel that the Texas governor has dissed them.

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Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa, Herman Cain

Comments

  • MrPaulRevere

    Council Bluffs is a wonderful town. I made a couple of trips up there to visit lady friends and the casino’s back when I was predisposed to that sort of activity. The buffets were world class. I highly reccomend it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    Intensity is the most important thing in the caucuses, but this is an all-day barbecue the top candidates are putting on for their supporters for free, and paying their $30 entry fees to vote, and giving them a ride.  This tends to give an edge on Cain’s reliance on intensity, if indeed he isn’t going to be busing them in.

    We haven’t long to find out, in any event.

    ~~~~~~~~

    This is what concerns me about Perry – his political team may understand Texas perfectly, but they don’t seem to have thought things through.  I suspect Perry’s plan from the time he became truly interested was to get in after Ames so he didn’t have to rush to build an organization in the state and spend his whole first quarter of fundraising’s take on buses and barbecue for a straw poll that not only shows NO positive correlation to winning either the nomination or the general election, but it only shows slightly better than even chances to win the Iowa caucuses.

    He never stopped to consider how this would affect Iowa voters.  He assumed since he declared after Ames, he would be forgiven for not competing.  But it was too clever by half – especially making his pre-announcement in another early state on the same day.

    We’re going to be up against clever, ruthless people with gobs of money and the power of the Presidency next year.  We can’t afford the self-inflicted wounds.

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