Herman Cain Under the Bus? ‘No Wonder We’re So Well and Truly F–ked’

Posted on | November 9, 2011 | 62 Comments

“I write for money. And so far, nobody’s offered to pay me to save the world.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, May 5, 2008

Mike Hendrix at Cold Fury has an excellent round-up about the argument among conservatives about how we should react to the accusations against Herman Cain. And in that round-up, Mike cites Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom:

We’re living through an attempted coup. And our major worry seems to be how well Herman Cain’s staff is handling suggestions that he once made a pass at a woman. Who waited 16 years to hold a press conference about it.
No wonder we’re so well and truly f–ked.

Indeed, and we can boil the argument down to its essence: What is the object of the game? To win. Period, end of sentence.

Our Guy is in a fight, getting pounded like hell by our common enemy and, instead of sitting around wringing our hands about the niceties of tactics, we ought to be jumping into the fight and pounding the hell out of Our Guy’s attackers. Whatever the ultimate fate of Our Guy, we cannot rally people to our cause by appearing to be weak.

Weakness is not an attractive quality, in politics or anything else, and it is an error in political combat to worry about making the “smart” argument when what is needed is a winning argument, or at least a gesture of solidarity and a show of force that lets our opponents understand that we’re not a bunch of gutless weaklings.

Nothing is more dangerous in political punditry than the temptation to be “smart” rather than being strong. Granting the intellectual’s natural desire to be seen as insightful and consistent, there are times in politics when pragmatism and strategic necessity require the pundit to suppress such concerns long enough to make the crude and cynical calculation: “How can we win?” or even, “Never mind winning, how can we inflict maximum damage on our opponent in this fight?”

Understand that I do not mean to accuse anyone of insincerity in their arguments, or of trying to curry favor with the proverbial “Georgetown cocktail party circuit.” Quite the opposite, I suspect some conservative intellectuals have succumbed to the same error that I attributed to Conor Friedersdorf in May 2008: Insufficient cynicism:

If you want to save the world, join the Peace Corps or become a missionary. If you want to be a professional journalist, stick to the facts, mind your grammar, hit your deadlines, and try to write something that somebody might actually want to read.

Nobody’s paying me for the correctness of my opinions, OK? Everybody’s got opinions and any random reader’s opinion about the Herman Cain controversy is as valid as my own, except for the fact that I’ve spent a hell of a lot of time covering politics and have known Herman Cain since 2007.

Maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe Cain is guilty as hell and would be, as Ace says, a “godawful candidate” for Republicans to nominate. But it occurs to me, if it occurs to no one else, that beating the GOP Establishment with this “godawful candidate” would signify that the conservative grassroots aren’t going to be shoved around anymore. And I do not accept the argument (frequently made by the “smart” pundits) that Mitt Romney would be a safer nominee than Cain.

Romney is the “prevent defense” candidate, the guy who expects to win by playing not to lose. Perhaps that’s the smart bet, but my gut hunch it that a charismatic populist like Cain would be more likely to defeat Obama than the bland centrist Romney.

Your mileage may vary, and it would be wrong for me to take it personally when other people refuse to go along with my gut hunches. Maybe other people do take it personally, so it was amusing to see that Mike at Cold fury called attention to a rare foray into pure politics by Dr. Helen Smith, cross-posted at PJ Media, where she wielded the knife against fellow PJM’er Andrew Klavan:

Bulls–t. What Klavan is advocating is political suicide.

Read the whole thing. For the InstaWife to be calling b.s. on Klavan is the kind of internecine feud where it’s always more fun to be a spectator than a participant. “Let’s you and him fight,” as folks say down home. And speaking of fun . . .

My elbowing of Ace of Spades caused some commenters to start trashing Ace, which wasn’t my intention and isn’t helpful. While it is my general belief that anyone who disagrees with me is wrong, this is not the same as saying that anyone who disagrees with me is a bad person. So I felt the need to clarify in a comment:

Look, I’m not hating on Ace. I love Ace. I just think he’s as objective about Herman Cain as I am, which is to say, not at all.
So here we have two admittedly subjective reactions: Me, who was pumping the Cain campaign before there was even a campaign, and Ace who never really took to Cain, even when Cain was looking like a winner. Readers are free to make their own judgments, but there is no reason to demonize Ace just because you love Cain and, by the same token, there’s no need for anyone who hates Cain to demonize me.
Our subjectivity — so long as we ‘fess up to it — should not detract from your enjoyment of our blogging as sheer spectacle. People need to lighten up and get over the victory-or-death fanatical view of the primary campaign, which is probably going to seem pretty damned silly in retrospect if, when all is said and done, we find ourselves in August trying to convince America that Mitt Romney is The Only Hope to Save America.
Long ago, in one of my first dust-ups with Conor Friedersdorf, I explained that his basic problem was a deficiency of cynicism. What makes Conor such a pain in the ass is that he is so damnably earnest about politics. You cannot write coherently about politics if you’re going to be a 100% True Believer. You’ve got to dial down your passion and try to appreciate politics as a game, a sort of bread-and-circuses pageant ginned up to fool the people into believing that our government is genuinely democratic. Understanding the extent to which the process is controlled by insiders and influenced by the media, who think of regular voters as a bunch of dumb rubes whose choices can be manipulated almost infinitely, you realize that the best you can reasonably hope for is a chance to f–k up the plans of the Elite — e.g., by ensuring that Elite-anointed candidates like Dede Scozzafava, Charlie Crist and Mike Castle don’t get elected.
To quote my personal hero, Eric Stratton, “Don’t think of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.”

Cynical? Of course — and proud of it, because I write for money. And don’t you get your money’s worth? Hit the freaking tip jar!

UPDATE: Linked by Republican Redefined and by William Jacobson at Legal Insurrections — thanks!

Category: Ace of Spades, Cold Fury, Dr. Helen, Protein Wisdom

Comments

62 Responses to “Herman Cain Under the Bus? ‘No Wonder We’re So Well and Truly F–ked’”

Herman Cain Supporters Versus Cain Haters - Pick a Side? | REPUBLICAN REDEFINED
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:27 pm

[…] I guess Stacy’s been catching hell in the comments over at his place for “hating” on Ace. I suppose there’s something funny about getting hated on for hatin on someone for hating on Herman Cain. I count three degrees of separation there – maybe four if you count the hating the media does on Herman and the rest of the field just for having that (R) next to their names. Either way, here’s Stacy’s response/clarification… […]
ThePaganTemple
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:44 pm

I’m still curious about something. Has anybody here ever attempted to initiate a sexual relationship with a woman whom you have just met and whom you barely know, by either

A. running your hand up her skirt and attempting to fondle her vagina
B. Attempting to pull her head down to your crotch.

Because where I come from, there’s more often than not quite a few steps between a man and woman introducing themselves to each other, and doing either one of the two, or both. Very seldom does one hear of a man saying “Hello, my name is ______ ______” and then just cavalierly reaching over and start grabbing and groping. And when I say there’s usually something else between the two, I’m not talking about a discussion about the price of pizza. And another point, whatever it was that led to the grabbing and groping, it was more than likely consensual, or it would have never made it to the grabbing and groping stage. Just saying.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:44 pm

Liberals have Michael Moore, who is literally pouring out of his elastic pants while shouting to spoiled communists. And we’re fretting about being proud of a self-made, crazy smart black man who at least says what most of us are thinking, just without all that CNN friendly nuance. Never mind him being President, we seriously can’t just be proud of him? We’re worried that saying “This is what being Conservative can do!” because then someone else might not get to be President? When did we forget that the President at most is an example of what this country is producing as leaders, not what pedantic policies we’re most “push-up-our-glasses” about?
» The worst thing anyone could do is falsely accuse someone of … working for Politico - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:45 pm

[…] Robert Stacy McCain is right that joining in the contrived on the Cain campaign is damaging: Weakness is not an attractive quality, in politics or anything else, and it is an error in political combat to worry about making the “smart” argument when what is needed is a winning argument, or at least a gesture of solidarity and a show of force that lets our opponents understand that we’re not a bunch of gutless weaklings. […]
Joe
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:53 pm

I have seen it attempted at a few parties (yes alcohol was being served in a cavelier manner). Universally it has not worked out well (generally the guy is lucky if he is just slapped, but I have seen a few who were summarily stomped by a pissed off boy friend).
Joe
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:55 pm

Stacy, This is a great article. I am glad Herman is fighting back.
Joe
November 9th, 2011 @ 4:56 pm

And Pagan, those reactions never came 16 years later. More like 1.6 seconds or less later.
steve benton
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:01 pm

It’s terrible Cain is being dismissed for the wrong reasons. He should be dismissed for his 9-9-9 plan, not because some lying women are trying to wipe him out.
CalMark
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:03 pm

Bravo! Well said!

Republicans love to eat their own, to show the Georgetown Cocktail Set (yes, I went there, RSM) to show how smart and wonderful they are. ENOUGH!
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:03 pm

“My elbowing of Ace of Spades caused some commenters to start trashing Ace…”

How can you trash an Ewok? They’re hairy, smelly little things. Sure, you could anger one by poking it with a longbow, but not trash one.

And Goldstein is exactly right. But that’s the cross conservatives have had to bear for decades. It’s the GOP versus conservatism almost as much as it’s the GOP versus Democrats. Principles have been getting swallowed for years which is why we are where we are. But just remember, at least we have the lesser of two evils on our side, right? So, victory?
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:06 pm

Epic post, RSM. The only thing I’d add is that it’s just as important – I’d argue that it’s much more important – to win the ideological war(s) as it is the 2012 election, although losing the latter might seriously hinder efforts to win the former.

I can excuse much of what “our side” has been doing concerning Cain and the 2012 election, even some of the petty stuff, but Jeff Goldstein brilliantly alludes to the really serious dysfunctions within our ranks, and when people who are ostensibly on our side feed those dysfunctions, that’s not excusable.
smitty
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:12 pm

What is irritating about the anti-Cain sentiment in the blogs is that they’re carrying the MSM water. More WTF? than FTW!
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:23 pm

Since I sense an anti-ACE reaction coming someone has to steal his stuff now this is the kind of campaign ad Perry needs more of.
Susan Ally
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:32 pm

Imagine where we’d be today if Michelle Malkin set up Hot Air with Jeff Goldstein at the helm. I have never understood why right bloggers do not link to Jeff Goldstein more often; the man is full of Protein Wisdom! He is open about who he is, he is consistent, his arguments are sound and solid, he understands the Left better than most all right bloggers and he survived the hellfire lefty freak Deb Fisch who hideously stalked his child.

Yet the big boy of the day is some closeted whiner crying day-in and day- out about godawful Conservative candidates.

Yeah we are F&cked
David
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:38 pm

Has anyone called Conor ‘Conor FreakinDork’ yet? If not, I’d like to claim it. Stacey is right. Conor is so sickly ‘earnest’. That’s what’s so disgusting about him. He uses that earnestness as a replacement for an actual argument.
Adjoran
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

Excuse me.

See, I was under the impression that our process kicks off in Iowa in eight weeks. Until then, HOW did Squirmin’ Herman Cain become “our guy”? He’s not “our guy” until a majority of Republican delegates say he is.

Until then, he is only TRYING OUT, competing to BECOME “our guy.” The primary campaign is part of the vetting process, as is all the problems and crises which pop up along the way.

Just because you have an emotional investment in the guy doesn’t mean the Party as a whole does.

Oh, he’s being attacked by the “other side.” Your evidence for that is the presence of Gloria Allred, I presume – an entity drawn to the spotlight of any kind like a lost moth. So what if he is? Whoever wins the nomination is going to face the nastiest campaign since 1828 from Obama, who has no hope except making “our guy” toxic to independent voters. If Cain’s being tested, let him be.

Naturally, since he has already lied his butt off about this stuff, some of us – who weren’t sold on either his policies or his attitude yet – have pretty much decided he’s not going to get our support in the primaries because of that.

Maybe you are in denial like a battered spouse. That’s not my problem. I defended Cain from the time the report first broke UNTIL he started spouting a bunch of unbelievable and contradictory garbage. He couldn’t keep his story straight from one interview to the next. But a guy doesn’t lie to me repeatedly trying to cover his own butt and get my respect or my vote.

Now, in 2008 our duly constituted, open, and fair democratic nominating process made John McCain “our guy,” didn’t it? And where was Robert Stacy McCain when the chips were down and the Obama train was rolling across the country? In the darkened corner of some sleazy dive, making out with Bob Barr.

RINO.
Wilbur Post
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:56 pm

Remember, the media told us this stuff was unimportant a few zillion times between 1992 and 2000. I’m taking our erstwhile intellectual betters at their word (this one time.)

And by the way, nobody drowned in Herman Cain’s hotel room.
Charles
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:58 pm

The Pagan Temple asks a good question, but the better question is why you would attempt that move in a car on the street in front of your office with a perfectly good hotel suite you paid for waiting.

http://www.leftbankofthecharles.com/2011/11/did-gloria-allred-sex-up-herman-cains.html

I am also coming to understand what Cain means when he says he was exonerated when the other woman’s charge was filed back in the 1990s. If sexual harassment violated association policy and he wasn’t fired or reprimanded, he was exonerated.

As far as jumping into the fight, it’s the Battle of Bunker Hill. If you march the whole militia out onto the peninsula you may defeat the grenadiers (accusers) but the Royal Navy (MSM) may still cut you to pieces. Still, one admires Joseph Warren and Prescott, Putnam and Stark all died in their beds.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
The Camp Of The Saints
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:07 pm

J’Accuse!: The Besmirchers Of Herman Cain…

Thoughts and quotes / links to commentary on the situation with Herman Cain and his accusers… -One of the reasons I did not post last night was that I wanted to watch the whole press conference and then surf the Interweb seas on a ship made of in…
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:23 pm

Perhaps the best thing Mr Cain could do is switch parties and get back onto the plantation. They WILL teach him his place or else./sarc
CalMark
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:25 pm

Whoa. Easy there.

Cain is “our guy” the way Santorum, Gingrich, and Bachmann are. They’re “our guys” because they’re running as unapologetic conservatives.

Romney and Huntsman are not “our guys” because they are running as unapologetic “work with the Democrats” moderates. Notice: none of them ever gets attacked.

There’s strength in numbers. Democrats circle the wagons when a leftist is attacked, and there are things they won’t do–as Republicans/”conservatives” do regularly–to their own.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:26 pm

Let’s face it, Jeff Goldstein is smarter, more insightful, better understands the deeper dynamics, compared to most people on our side, especially those who tend to be more antagonistic toward him. Some of the people on our side just as easily might have been working for the local Chamber of Commerce or the Hospitality Institute.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:42 pm

I’ve never understood why conservatives are content to be merely better than “they” are when we need to be better AT it than they are.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

I thought I read somewhere today that Bialek lived in Axelrod’s building, good grief.

This all an accurate preview of what we’ll be seeing from the pond scum of Team Obama all throughout 2012- expect the worst I guess
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 6:57 pm

The media is part of the other side, Cain isn’t my guy either but he is one of our guys what you characterize as lying I find to be ineptness similar to the many avoidable kerfuffles he’s got himself into these past few weeks. The attacks on him by The Winston Smith media are unprovable the fact that they are given any credence at all is despicable. Whether Cain falls or marches forward is of little concern to me, this is an opportunity to wage war on the media and those they serve. Those who consider Cain a rival or even a fool lose sight of the fact that he is not the enemy “them, the others, the left” are.
Bob Belvedere
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:00 pm

That Old Leftist Magic
Has Got Me Under It’s Spell…
Bob Belvedere
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:01 pm

Conor is an ideological conservative. All ideologes are earnest – it comes with the territory.
JeffS
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:11 pm

“Our“, huh?
JeffS
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:14 pm

Well said, Stacy. Fact is, Cain is fighting back. Screw the media, and their leftie masters. Or possibly RINO idiots. YMMV.
Bob Belvedere
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:15 pm

Ann Coulter has the details in her latest column. Her intro:

Herman Cain has spent his life living and working all over the country — Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, D.C. — but never in Chicago. So it’s curious that all the sexual harassment allegations against Cain emanate from Chicago: home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod. Suspicions had already fallen on Sheila O’Grady, who is close with David Axelrod and went straight from being former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief of staff to president of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), as being the person who dug up Herman Cain’s personnel records from the National Restaurant Association (NRA). The Daley-controlled IRA works hand-in-glove with the NRA. And strangely enough, Cain’s short, three-year tenure at the NRA is evidently the only period in his decades-long career during which he’s alleged to have been a sexual predator. http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2011-11-09.html
First, They Came for Mel Bradford : The Other McCain
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:15 pm

[…] of this is prelude, of course, to talking about the recent attempt to throw Herman Cain under the GOP bus.Nuh-uh. Not on my watch, not if it is within my power to prevent it, and certainly not on the […]
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:33 pm

I agree with Charles. Pagan, have you ever attempted to seduce a woman in the front seat of a car? It’s not so easy. If she had said Cain attempted this in a hotel room, I’d find her story more credible, although parts of her story still don’t make sense to me. For example, why is she having dinner and drinks with a man she’s asking to help her get a job? If her boyfriend made the hotel reservation, how did Cain manage to convince the hotel management to upgrade her room? If you made a reservation, why would a hotel allow me to change your reservation? I’m not saying her story is impossible, I just have problems with the details of her story.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:49 pm

I’ve seen several instances where somebody would more or less walk up to a woman and say “Let’s f*ck.” 9 out of 10 times, he gets slapped. The 10th time, she goes home with him, usually within 15 minutes.

But again, the reaction is immediate.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 7:55 pm

He hasn’t lied his butt off about anything, except in your universe.

Oh, and that “open” primary process is exactly what made McCain our nominee. Well before Operation Chaos, it was routine for election night coverage to feature Democrats on the tube bragging how they voted in the Republican primary. That’s part of what inspired Limbaugh.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 8:46 pm

On an up note Virginia did quite well yesterday. 68 of 100 seats in the Assembly? 20/20 in the state Senate with a Republican Lt Gov to break the ties. Virginia not only shows the way but perhaps more importantly the how.
Defending Herman Cain, My Brothah from Anothah Mothah, Part I at Haemet
November 9th, 2011 @ 8:52 pm

[…] Stacy McCain lambasts conservatives who fall into the liberal trap of asking how well Herman Cain is handling the sexual harassment allegations, as if he has not repeatedly demonstrated his ability to run corporations and handle crises. The economy is in shambles, Obama has added $5 or $6 trillion to the deficit, Elena Kagan has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, Solyndra took a half-billion of our money, the “stimulus” did not create or save a single job except in fictional congressional districts, negotiations with Iraq fell through so we were kicked out, Iran is developing nuclear weapons, Libya is turning into a Sharia state, the energy grid is so bad that people in New England still don’t have power after a few inches of snow fell on the ground…. […]
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 8:57 pm

While there is no evidence that Axelrod had any hand in this, that is no reason not to suggest he might have. There is at least as much evidence that he did as there is that HC did what is alleged.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 9:09 pm

Right on cue, that Coulter column is a powerful, sobering reminder of what we’re up against.

It also underlines that the Daley/SCOAMF machine probably knows much better than some on “our side” that Cain is a dangerous opponent for SCOAMF. Back when Team SCOAMF was feinting that Huntsman was their biggest threat, some people on our side actually believed that misdirection garbage, which tells you something right there.

Whether the Daley/SCOAMF machine is directly responsible for the Cain take down, or not, their “people” are laughing their asses off seeing conservatives calling Cain a liar and arguing that, because he mishandled his initial response to the high-tech lynching, therefore he won’t be prepared to handle the real oppo storm that’s coming in fall 2o12. Heck, they know we’ve halfway beaten ourselves already and who knows what they have in store for Romney, but whoever concocted the smear campaign didn’t do it to ensure that Cain would be properly “vetted.”
Nice Guys Do Indeed Finish Last - The POH Diaries
November 9th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

[…] personal preference. Some prefer Rick Perry, some really wanted Sarah Palin, while others have been riding the Cain train the whole time. I haven’t really found anyone in the conservative blogging community who has […]
ThePaganTemple
November 9th, 2011 @ 9:45 pm

Seeker, you would probably be amazed at places I have tried to seduce women. But the main point is, I never started out by trying to drag any of their faces to my crotch. That and/or reaching up the skirt would generally come only after steps 1=6 had met with some degree of success. The point being, there would be no way such a move would be legitimately construed as “unwanted advances”.
ThePaganTemple
November 9th, 2011 @ 9:50 pm

Yeah, I’ve known of that too, one guy I knew some years back used to go in restaurants in downtown Phoenix and when a waitress would say “what do you want” he’d say “I want to go fucking”. He was kicked out of every restaurant in Phoenix. His excuse was some supposed movie producer told him to do that as an on-going street audition, or some kind of shit like that. And I’ve known other people, men and women, who seriously said things like that with the intention of having sex, not all prostitutes and johns.

But this is still a little different. In this case, such an action would just be too abrupt to be a realistic scenario.
Clifford Hoelz
November 9th, 2011 @ 10:03 pm

Investigator: Herman Cain innocent of sexual advances
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/16002149/investigator-herman-cain-innocent-of-sexual-advances?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp
Alan Kellogg
November 9th, 2011 @ 10:24 pm

An object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force. So, what stopped Herman Cain 14 years ago, from sexually harassing women?
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 11:16 pm

That is pretty compelling. At least more so than what we have heard from the other side that is trying to knock Herman Cain down.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2011 @ 11:18 pm

Good to see that RSM has got his “second wind”!

This is a historic election….and it will not come easy if we want a Conservative, like Herman Cain, in the White House.

The only easy route, is for us to drop our arms, let Romney win the GOP nomination, and then let Obama win the general….that is the easy route.
Charles
November 9th, 2011 @ 11:32 pm

Also, if you are being driven to an office building where you expect to be given a tour, when the car parks you get out. And allegedly gropey guy is left in a now vacated car by himself.
Mike Rogers
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:00 am

What stopped you from beating your wife?
Mike Rogers
November 10th, 2011 @ 1:02 am

More seriously, why did all the bad behavior start n 1996 and end in 1999. Leopards do not change their spots, especially twice.
Adjoran
November 10th, 2011 @ 3:19 am

One of my best friends from high school used that precise method, pretty much, and with a surprising rate of success. Also, nearly all of his “no” encounters didn’t result in a slap, so he was way ahead of the game.