The Other McCain

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

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Posted on | November 10, 2011 | 60 Comments

For the past several days, in conversation after conversation, I’ve listened while friends told me what’s wrong with the Herman Cain campaign. Some of these friends are enthusiastic Cain supporters, some are not. And as I told several people who criticized the campaign’s handling of the sexual harassment allegations, “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. Any 24-year-old with a semester of Leadership Institute training could do a better job than they’ve been doing.”

Look, I’m no campaign strategist. But you don’t have to be a campaign strategist to see that, for example, HermanCain.com is without question The World’s Suckiest Campaign Web Site.

Just in terms of doing my job I noticed this months ago, because when you click the “Newsroom” tab on the site, a reporter might expect to find an archive of press releases. What you find instead is some kind of 1996-era “frames” format with out-of-date news articles about the campaign — which doesn’t even include links to the original articles.

OK, so click the “Press Resources” link at HermanCain.com and we find — wait for it — a form you can fill out and request information.

Fill it out. Maybe they’ll get back to you.

If I were the manager of a campaign paying good money for a Web site and somebody provided me with a useless piece of crap like HermanCain.com, either I’d be in jail for attempted murder or else he’d be in jail under indictment for fraud and theft by deception.

There is no excuse for this. I could pick up my cell-phone this very minute and, just from the numbers in my speed-dail, give you the names of six professionals who could design a better Web site than HermanCain.com. Five months ago, Steve Foley of Citizens4Cain published an open letter to the Cain campaign telling them what a wreck their Web site is and . . . no response. 

Nobody home. Nobody cares. Crickets chirping.

When the campaign has failed to fix a blindingly obvious and basic problem like that, months after they’ve been told about the problem, it does not inspire confidence. And this kind of problem — which can be seen by anybody who cares to look — is replicated throughout the Cain campaign’s operations.

People with years of experience in the campaign business keep talking my ears off, telling me stuff the Cain campaign is doing wrong, and I don’t know what to tell them, except that they’re telling me the umpteenth version of the same story I’ve been hearing from everybody else. If I had any influence at all with the campaign, they’d have long ago re-hired Dan Tripp and given him two orders: Kick ass and take names. They’re not listening to me, they’re not listening to Steve Foley, they’re not listening to anybody, and so all I can do is to do my job — I’m a journalist, not a campaign strategist — and try not to worry about it.

The reason I wrote that 500-word rant is because today I noticed bloggers demanding that Herman Cain fire his chief of staff Mark Block:

Herman Cain’s Worst Enemy
— Michelle Malkin

Dear Herman Cain
— Erick Erickson

Cain campaign: We’re sticking with Mark Block
— Ed Morrissey

In Erickson’s post, he writes:

Herman, you said you’d surround yourself with the best people and you’ve surrounded yourself with Class A failures. The problems you are facing are problems of campaign staffing. You’ve failed to live up to your own standard of hiring the best people. 

Which is pretty damned categorical, and which might have more credibility if Erickson’s buddies — “the best people” — weren’t the guys piloting the hopelessly doomed Rick Perry campaign.

Malkin’s complaint, basically, is that Mark Block is a lying scumbag. Having spent a good deal of time covering Republican campaigns, however, I’m willing to attest that “lying scumbag” and “GOP political operative” are pretty much synonymous. The key thing is to hire effective lying scumbags, and the “Blame Rick Perry” move was pure genius. For two or three days, everybody was screaming bloody murder about Block trying to pin the blame on Curt Anderson, which bought Team Herman enough time to come up with a better story.

Guess what? It worked.

But if you’re a conservative who wants to get quoted in the mainstream media this week, hurry up and denounce Mark Block:

Cain chief of staff under fire
Conservative pundits and former Cain staffers are calling for the resignation of Herman Cain’s chief of staff, who they say has damaged the GOP candidate’s credibility.
The calls for Mark Block to resign come as Cain’s campaign deals with sexual harassment allegations that threaten to ruin his candidacy. . . .
“Mark Block has to go,” prominent conservative blogger Ed Morrisey of Hot Air wrote Wednesday morning. “If he’s not gone by tomorrow, no one will take this campaign seriously again — nor should they.”

No expertise is required to identify and criticize the Cain campaign’s errors. Everybody with two eyes and a brain can see it. And yet . . .

Cain’s fundraising surges past $9 million
Herman Cain has raised more than $9 million since Oct. 1, his campaign announced Thursday, more than doubling his cash haul for 2012.
More than $2 million of that total was donated within the last 10 days, as Cain battled mounting allegations of sexual harassment from his time as president of the National Restaurant Association.
Cain only raised $4.7 million from May through Sept. 30, although it was not until his Sept. 24 victory in the Florida straw poll that the candidate began to rise in Republican polls. The campaign has now raised a total of $14.1 million. . . .

For the past 40 days, while the Cain campaign has broken every single maxim of Political Communications 101, they’ve been raising money at the pace of $225,000 a day. If that’s failure, it’s the kind of failure many campaign operatives would kill to have.

Despite everything, Herman Cain is No. 1 in the polls. 

And next time I see Mark Block, I expect him to buy me a beer for calling him an “effective lying scumbag.”

Obviously, it was intended as a compliment.


UPDATE: Someone sent me this:

Free “Beat Obama With A Cain” Ringtone
From your phone:
1. Dial 90210
2. In the text box type in beat Obama.
3. Click Send
4. You’ll need a smart phone and will be sent a link to which they click on and a screen will appear with a choice to download an mp4 or an mp3.

Don’t have a “smart phone,” so I haven’t had a chance to try this. Let me know how it works.

UPDATE II: The proverbial “sources close to the campaign” tell me they’re preparing to roll out a new campaign Web site. Let’s hope it has an archive of press releases, with permalinks.

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain

Comments

60 Responses to “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know”

  1. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 6:45 pm

    It makes me question whether Herman Cain can do it or not.  Dan Riehl thinks it is all a scam so Herman can get a better book or radio deal in the future.  I doubt that.  But I do believe the success of the campaign caught them by surprise.  I would think Mark Block could hire a decent web page guy to upgrade the site (I mean seriously, you could probably get someone really good to do it for $50,000 or less and they certainly have the money to spend more than that). 

    I am glad Herman is fighting these character attacks.  That is a bigger issue frankly than his campaign.  That affects all Republicans (let alone conservatives).  But if the Herminator is serious about running for Potus, he better start showing it with his campaign. 

  2. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

    The smoking ad actually worked.  So I give Mark Block credit for that one.  I did not get it, but a lot of people loved it. 

    But guys, it is time to step it up or get ready to step down. 

  3. Steve in TN
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:04 pm

    When the campaign has failed to fix a blindingly obvious and basic
    problem like that, months after they’ve been told about the problem, it
    does not inspire confidence. And this kind of problem — which can be
    seen by anybody who cares to look — is replicated throughout the Cain
    campaign’s operations.

    And we want as president a guy who thinks this is the way to operate things?

  4. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:07 pm

    It is a legitmate question.  However, he just was in a position to do something like this when everything blew up in his face.  That was a reason the attack was brought when it was brought. 

    But hey, shit happens.  The best time to plant an oak tree is 20 years ago.  The second best time is now.  So do it.  Herman Cain is an executive, so maybe he should be making some executive decisions. 

  5. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:08 pm

    Running for president is a lot of trouble to go through to increase one’s earnings, I’m having a lot of trouble imagining a publishers PR people or a career management team coming up with that.

  6. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:15 pm

    I agree. It makes no sense.  Dan Riehl is just cranky (a few of his followers are down right nuts).  But some of his criticism of Cain is real enough. 

  7. Mike Rogers
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:16 pm

    They ran a guerilla marketing campaign on a shoestring for so long they forgot what they could get once the money rolled in. I do think the campaign needs to separate the roles of chief of staff and chief spokesperson. Block’s quirky smoking ad was priceless, but for measured and bulletproof responses to issues, he needs to remember one of Herman’s sayings: “I don’t shoot from the lip!” let JD Gordon be the spokesperson, and let Block be the master strategist- after, it is working!

  8. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:19 pm

    Crooks and Liars fell for this fake parody Cain site though. 

  9. smitty
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:25 pm

    Call him cranky, fine. But, if sailing in harm’s way, @DanRiehl is the kind of guy you want in your wardroom. If Dan’s got a bone to pick, I’m paying attention.

  10. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:27 pm

    Nerds4Cain has a great idea to combat all the crap the so called ‘smart people’ and the MSM are saying:
    http://www.nerds4cain.com/Blog/archives/1035
    Just say #So?
    Their premise is that Alinsky tactics only work if their targets play the role assigned to them by the attackers.

  11. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:28 pm

    You need to read his criticisms selectively, but he definitely is making some real points that need to be addressed. 

  12. Dan Collins
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:32 pm

    The good news is they have a new blog: http://www.caintruth.com/

  13. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:36 pm

    Rule 1 of Survival on the Blogosphere: Don’t Ever Piss Off Dan Riehl.

    Violate that rule, and it doesn’t matter what the other rules are, you’re fucked.

  14. Joe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 7:45 pm

    I hear you.  Guess what, Herman Cain has pissed off Dan Riehl.  I probably have not helped by giving him shit about it. 

  15. richard mcenroe
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:05 pm

    Remember, Stacy, Groucho won the war in Duck Soup with a bag of oranges.  Block has the ‘stache and the stogie; maybe he’s got the script?

  16. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:11 pm

    I don’t know if “So?” is the best response, but the concept if not getting sucked in is exactly right. It’s right for Cain and it’s right for any center/center-right politician.

    In fact, I’d suggest one step further: Every conservative should memorize, understand, and be able to recite all steps of the Alinsky playbook as any of its tactics are employed. When attacked call out, “That sounds like Rule #X wherein your goal is to Y,” and then proceed to respond however you like while disregarding their given premise. Exposure of these cretinous shills is essential in destroying their weapon.

  17. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:22 pm

    RSM,

    Is the site really that bad? Take your Reporting Fedora off for a moment and put on a Joe Sixpack Beer Hat. Is the content that would guide Joe lacking? Is Cain’s site technically responsive whatever platform is used and easy to read? Is it easy to follow? Is it instructive and clear for people who don’t live on the internet?

    I’m thinking your critique centers too much on the press side of the business and not so much on the typical user/visitor side. I could be wrong, of course, and different folks have different perceptions on style and substance; but Cain isn’t relying so much on the press to get his message out. He kinda seems to be working around it. Perhaps he just doesn’t care so much if he doesn’t simplify their lives one bit.

    Keeping a site “simple” is quite effective. Is it too simple? I dunno. Not really to me. I tend not to hang around politician’s sites except to see where they might be appearing next or how I can donate money. Otherwise, I prefer third-party sources to get critical (as in critique) data.

  18. kansas
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:24 pm

    OT. How come that creepy fuck Alan Grayson is on the front page?

  19. kansas
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

    Checked out Cain’s site. No Alan Grayson. That’s worth something.

  20. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:40 pm

    JD Gordon is the chief spokesman…however, he has been a bit absent since that call to Geraldo…

  21. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 8:48 pm

    Pretty good.  They could jazz it up.  However, the hope is that things die down in a week or two and it becomes unnecessary.

  22. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 9:04 pm

    Gentlemen!  You can’t fight in here.  This is the War Room!

  23. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 9:05 pm

    So, last time around we had a guy who had never run anything real, but was the head of a super duper campaign.  He hasn’t worked out.  However, I’m not sure that a guy who’s run lots of stuff but is running a terrible campaign is much better.

    But enough about Rick Perry.  This post is about Herman Cain!

  24. Republicanmother
    November 10th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

    Thanks for cluing me into what’s been happening on the Cain Train. I’ve been wondering what in the world was going on. Of course, I’m just a spectator: I would never, ever vote for anyone who supported TARP, as I thought that’s what the TEA Party was all about, shrinking government  and lowering taxes, etc. I just see Herman Cain’s past columns, job history and Keynesianism and I see a  “cluster”.

  25. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 9:32 pm

    Remember Dan is a person who looks at the whole for the conservative/ small l libertarian movement and he definitly like to pick fights to on our side strengthen us so we can battle better. He’s a best friend worst enemy type.

  26. CalMark
    November 10th, 2011 @ 9:53 pm

    This year’s candidate pool is imperfect.  Then again, it’s infinitely better than 2008.  Don’t forget that this cycle’s “I PRAY he doesn’t get the nomination” guy (Romney) was considered the most truly conservative candidate last time.

    I’m a Cain fan, but Newt is sure puttin’ on a great show.  Then again, Newt has his own problems with abandoning conservatism at crunch-time sometimes.

    So…pick your poison. 

    P.S. Even Ronald Reagan wasn’t perfect:  he signed a permissive abortion law while CA governor; raised taxes while governor of CA and
    President, and tolerated (maybe even enjoyed?) having a two-faction White House staff who enthusiastically backstabbed each other.

  27. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:02 pm

    You’re still spilling virtual ink on Herman Cain? C’mon … he is sooooooo October 2011.

  28. ThePaganTemple
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:06 pm

    Karl Rove was right, and RSM is just now beginning to see the truth. Either Cain doesn’t really want to be President, or he’s just sucky at doing what it takes to become President. Either one is as bad as the other. Maybe its time to check on the Iowa operation. How many people has he hired for his Iowa operation here over the last week? Or, how many people has he fired there in that time frame. The answer to that question would speak volumes about his true intentions. My feeling is he knows he’s not going to do any better than third or fourth place and he’ll drop out after that, maybe not immediately, but shortly afterward. One things for sure, he’s damn sure got another book deal out of this mess.

  29. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:17 pm

    Just because you’re shorting Cain on InTrade is no reason for us to help you, Mr. Bear.

  30. Reporter Doesn’t Get Cain Joke, and Nobody Gets Why He’s Still at the Top of the Polls | The Lonely Conservative
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:17 pm

    […] States of America. If he gets the job, he’ll be confronted with much more serious problems. But none of this (and more) seems to have hurt him in the least.For the past 40 days, while the Cain campaign has broken every single maxim of Political […]

  31. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:18 pm

    As said previously in the thread, this is a lot of trouble to go through in order to get a new book deal.

    Also, turn your Official Commenter badge in. We’ll have no praise of Karl Rove ’round these parts! 😉

  32. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:36 pm

    Karl Rove? The guy with a whiteboard criticizing a black man?

    If that’s not racist, I don’t know what is.

  33. Anonymous
    November 10th, 2011 @ 10:57 pm

    If Cain wanted a great book pitch he could stay out of the race, observe it and then write an even more interesting book on why he didn’t get in the race.

  34. Bob Belvedere
    November 10th, 2011 @ 11:37 pm

    When I watch Karl Rove, I’m just white and bored.

  35. ‘A Million Miles an Hour’: Interview With Herman Cain Campaign Chief of Staff : The Other McCain
    November 10th, 2011 @ 11:40 pm

    […] the campaign’s strategy, fund-raising and recent news development. Block contacted me after I’d written a post about the many criticisms leveled at the campaign by conservatives, including bloggers who demanded that Block be fired from the campaign. My recording of the […]

  36. ThePaganTemple
    November 10th, 2011 @ 11:48 pm

    He could also be running with an eye to getting an appointment, like Secretary of Commerce or Treasury, or he could be hoping to be the next Fed Chairman. He was on the Board of Governors in the Kansas City Office. But its also easy to see why people would think he’s trying to sell a book, or increase his speaking fees. While everybody else is trying to make a stand in Iowa, he’s going on book tours, once in Tennessee.

    I hope Dan Riehl is wrong, but he makes a good point. Hell, maybe he’s just too old school to understand the importance of maintaining a good web presence. But you would think that a man who spent three years of his life being obliged to travel across the country making speeches on behalf of the NRA would understand the value of campaigning for the Iowa caucuses in person.

    And about Karl Rove, people like to put him down (I have myself over Christine O’Donnell) but he was right about Perry, wasn’t he?

  37. ThePaganTemple
    November 10th, 2011 @ 11:54 pm

    Hell Adobe, any of us could do that. Not only can he write a book about a outsider trying to break through to the inside political establishment, now he’s got a whole new chapter about how the left (or some on the right, or both) tried to lynch him using false allegations of sexual misconduct with white women.

  38. Anonymous
    November 11th, 2011 @ 12:05 am

    Yeah that was brilliant! He should have told Geraldo the answer to all his questions were locked a secret vault in Chicago.

  39. ‘We Make Mistakes. But They Can’t Catch Us.’ « The Camp Of The Saints
    November 11th, 2011 @ 12:05 am

    […] Stacy McCain scored an interview with Herman Cain Campaign Chief Of Staff Mark Block earlier this evening that came on the heels of this posting by Stacy. […]

  40. ThePaganTemple
    November 11th, 2011 @ 12:09 am

    Hey Bob isn’t it high time you got on the Catholics4Mitt train?

  41. Anonymous
    November 11th, 2011 @ 12:16 am

    Of all the defects I see in Cain as a candidate, a campaigner or if he were elected president running for president to get something out of it as an also ran is one I ain’t buying.

  42. Republicanmother
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:04 am

    I’m done picking poisons dude. I’m going Ron Paul as they seem to be truly terrified of him. Then I’m done. That’s right, I’m voting for the Bob Barr equivalent and refused to be controlled by fear. It’s quite liberating, actually.

  43. Republicanmother
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:06 am

    I like what Jerry Doyle said of Karl Rove:
    “yeah he’s the architect of what? The biggest political ass-kicking in 25 years of elections.”

  44. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:27 am

    Yeah, that was a couple of hours out of my life I can never recover.  But there is some cosmic justice: it wasn’t too long after that the Aryan Nation guy broke his nose.

  45. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:38 am

    Remember, you’re fighting for this woman’s honor, which is probably more than she ever did.

  46. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:39 am

    I thought that was just another pile of excrement from OWS.

  47. The Mandingo Strategy « The Rio Norte Line
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:41 am

    […] here and […]

  48. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:42 am

    Tell it to your children and grandchildren if Obama is reelected and finishes the job he started on our economy and standing in the world.

    Tell them how liberated you feel.  Tell them now – don’t wait until after the Obama Death Panel pulls your plug.

  49. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:44 am

    At $4.40 a pop against $100, he’ll have to sell a bunch of contracts.

  50. Adjoran
    November 11th, 2011 @ 1:54 am

    Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in 1927, but some are still following them.

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