Herman Cain = AuH2O?

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My old friend Jeff Kuhner dares to make the comparison:

Like with Barry Goldwater in 1964, grass-roots Republicans are revolting against the Eastern establishment. Mr. Cain has many of Goldwater’s traits – the fire, the intensity, the passion and the willingness to challenge the GOP status quo. Goldwater was unlucky in that he ran in a year following the assassination of President Kennedy. The national outpouring of grief and sympathy made a Democratic victory inevitable. Yet this time, the country is in crisis and the Democrats are poised to be crushed in a landslide.
Mr. Cain’s rise stands as a stark warning to the GOP establishment: Tepid conservatives like Mr. Romney do not have the answers to the nation’s woes.

Read the whole thing.

35 comments

  2. Brilliant link!  So many of us out here in Internet Land have been screaming about Romney’s lack of Conservative substance, but we are, of course, dismissed as peasants.

    Romney is The Establishment’s poster boy.

    Cain is the anti-Establishment.  Mr. Cain will definitely get the small “r” republican votes, like mine.  But he will not get the GOP vote.  Big difference.

    It’s a shame, too.  America needs the fire and enthusiasm Mr. Cain brings, like some kind of resurrected Reagan.  After the mental abuse and limp-wristed “leadership” of President Obama, America needs a Mr. Cain to heal our Nation.

  4. I am growing worried by the MSM starting to focus on Cain.  it is like he slipped into Modor undetected and is soooooo close to destroying the ring. 

  8. I think history doesn’t repeat so much as rhyme. If there’s been a Goldwater figure lately in presidential politics it wasn’t a presidential nominee but a vice-presidential one.

  9. He wants to slash regulations, and if he is really serious about implementing 9-9-9 the only way that would work would be by reducing the size and scope of the federal government, if he intends to get us out of red ink AND pay down the debt.

  16. Romney is real, but in no way, shape, or form a Conservative, tepid or otherwise. Yes, he’s right of Obama, but not by much.

  19. I find the comparison downright scandalous.

    I’m no Ron Paul fan, but if there’s a Goldwater analog in this election, he’s clearly it.

     Cain is about as “anti-GOP-establishment” as Goldman Sachs is “anti-finance-establishment.”

  20. No, Mr. Landivar, the Establishment will treat Mr. Cain with courtesy, honor, and justice.  They will listen to his arguements, and evaluate them fairly with an open-mind.  They will not threaten to leave en masse to vote for Obama, nor willl they after he is nominated, send Karl Rove on national TV to talk down his campaign.

    They love the Constitution as it was meant to be, and they respect the ordinary man.

    The RINO Establishment is not about getting big bucks from the Feds, and sleeping with their pages, or secretaries.  They agree that rich men should be bound by the same moral rules as ordinary men.

    They don’t hate Socons with a purple passion, or regard Libertarians as useful tools.

    The Establishment represents deeply held and principled differences with the Democrats.  Their primary goal is not their advancement as a class, but the restoration of Conservatism.

    So, Mr. Landivar, the answer to your question  is ‘no’.  Thank you.

  21. Give Mr. Romney some more time.  Once he understands what conservatives want to hear, he will be a floppin’ all over it.

  25. Not really. Mitt’s an old-school Establishment Republican, the kind of conservative who thinks the best we can do is to slow or occasionally stop the advance of socialism. One could fairly call him a moderate, but not a RINO; the “tepid” fits him well as a description of his temperament.

  29. I think we have accept the truth that what many call RINOs are actually the epitome of what it means to be a Republican. The underlying fallacy is that the Republican Party is a conservative party.

  32. Maybe in some ways, but I think Goldwater was much more pro-military spending than Paul. Of course, this was during the height of the Cold War. Another way Goldwater was not like any of these guys is from what I understand, he was not in favor of tax cuts. In fact, he actually criticized Kennedy for lowering the top rate from 90% to 70% or maybe just cutting taxes in general. He was, however, one of the first of the big advocates of reducing the size and scope of government.

  33. TPT,

    Yes, I know that Goldwater and Paul have substantial policy differences. I wasn’t referring to policy, I was referring to “orientation to the GOP establishment.”

    I don’t think I even need to make an argument that Paul and the GOP establishment are hostile toward each other.

    Cain, on the other hand, is pretty much Mini-Me to Romney’s Dr. Evil. There’s not an anti-establishment bone in his body. It wouldn’t surprise me to eventually learn that he was recruited by Romney’s team as a stalking horse who can go around babbling nonsense and drawing the other candidates into “circus” so as to throw Romney’s “serious” into higher relief.

  34. Somebody on Romney’s team, if not Romney himself, would have to have a better imagination and strategy than I’ve seen evidence of so far, plus they’d probably pick somebody with a bit of a higher profile. Like Santorum, for example, or maybe even Bachmann, somebody that might stand to dilute the potential support of Sarah Palin, who at the time in question would have been Romney’s penultimate concern.

  35. Cain’s problem, Messrs Kuhner & McCain, is this:  Cain gets ‘tepider’ on the issues as time goes on.  Note his recent flip-flop on the abortion question. 

    Sorry about that.  I like him.  But his new position doesn’t cut it.

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