The founder of the Axis of Fedora is on the scene and reports a discernible difference in the size and scale of the event compared to when he covered Herman Cain a couple of months ago.
Pete promises updates and I’ll try to add more.
UPDATE: Union-Leader columnist John Di Staso:
Cain’s campaign told the New Hampshire Union Leader it wanted no videotaping of his interview, scheduled for this morning, with New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph McQuaid, editorial page director Andrew Cline and this reporter.
C-SPAN videotaped and broadcast on its network and website our recent interviews with Romney, Perry and Santorum.
Was the Cain “no-video” demand related to the Milwaukee paper’s video, which the Cain campaign suggested was presented “out of context in some measure” (a charge the Journal-Sentinel’s editor strongly denied)? Or was it just a coincidence?
We may never know.
His national communications director did not return our call yesterday seeking a simple explanation of why they didn’t want C-SPAN in the room.
And as of late yesterday, it was very much up in the air whether the scheduled 60-minute interview was going to take place at all.
The only public event on Cain’s schedule today is a rally at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua.
Cain was a “no show” for the interview, Di Staso subsequently reported:
After confusion arose over whether the interview had been cancelled, Cain’s campaign apparently scheduled another event at roughly the same time and said Cain could appear at the newspaper for only 20 minutes.
Publisher Joseph McQuaid rejected the suggestion, telling the campaign that if Cain could not appear for the full 60 minutes, then there would be no interview.
McQuaid said today that 20 minutes was not enough time for a “formal, sit-down interview” during which he and other newspaper staff “size up” the candidates.
About 45 minutes after Cain’s 10 a.m. appointment, Union Leader Senior Political Reporter John DiStaso received a brief telephone message from Cain New Hampshire spokesman Charlie Spano.
“I hope we can connect in the future,” Spano said. Spano did not return our additional call seeking further comment.
So much for that, I reckon.
Does Cain, or his staff, know what time zone they’re in?
So was it “Cuba” or “Cuban?”
I hope he can recover, but I think we are seeing the end of the line for the Cain Train. The wolves of the press smell weakness.
The Cuba thing is BS. Lots of people say Puerto Rican or Cuban or Mexcian, because there are a lot of different ways to say things between Spanish speaking countries (just like there are lots of different ways U.K., Canadians, the United States and Austrailia say things, despite all speaking “English”). This is just unfair gotcha with Cain.
The stuff that happened in Wisconsin though? That was not good. That was a self inflicted injury by Cain. This fumbling of an interview in New Hampshire–that is more of the same.
Homework, anyone?
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/11/herman_cain_visits_calle_ocho.php
I’m not seeing anyplace left to go, though. I suppose the good news is that with nobody selling Conservative ideas (“Conservative positions?, yeah, I got a few.”), it looks like there’s not much point in paying any more attention to the primaries.
I’m probably gonna sit back and plan my write-in candidate for 2012.
The problem is that every reporter is now asking specifics of him. He can’t possibly answer them all, and they smell blood.
Still on the Cain Train.
Get with the wave! He’s stupid, everyone who works for him is stupid, and all of the things he ever did were stupid.
Also all the people who supported him are stupid.
Anyone who sits with him for five minutes comes away more stupid.
It must be a virus, because it’s all over the blogs.
The Cuban emigre community is one of the few staunchly conservative, anti-communist, anti-socialist Hispanic communities in the country that is inclined towards Republicans. It’s a pretty good idea to study up on their issues.
Unless you have a blown-up ego and a clueless court-royal.
And it’s ridiculous that we have a primary process that emphasizes a pipsqueak state like New Hampshire so much that a candidate is expected to suck granite every cycle.
They’re solidly Romney.
So is the Cuban community outraged?
I haven’t heard anything of the sort.
In fact, the only folks playing up this supposed “kerfuffle” are the press, who most people have learned to tune out.
If this Army is set up to get Cain elected then this battlefield is starting to look like Gettysburg….
Look I don’t want to jump on the guy because he made a mistake or his campaign made a mistake. People do that. Hell Newt made a boatload of mistakes and now everybody and their grandmother is talking about him being the frontrunner.
But this lack of knowledge of foreign policy is a *dealbreaker* for me. It’s one thing to start your campaign a little challenged in foreign policy. It’s another thing completely to fail to address that issue for a damn year!
Well that settles it, he’s done. Go ahead and stick a cooking thermometer up his ass to make sure if you insist, but I have an idea you might as well say its over.
Look this isn’t that hard.
All Cain had to do was hire a political blogger, ahem McCain or Smitty, to teach him the ropes and then spend an hour or two every night just discussing the various issues.
If I were Cain, or running his campaign, I’d hire a bunch of different bloggers who were especially well informed on the specifics to conduct one on one discussions as well as group discussions on the issues.
Reporters and journalists aren’t necessarily that well informed. And it doesn’t take that much effort for **a guy running to be President of the United States of America**.
You want the job? You do the prep work for it. Don’t do the prep work? Look like an asshole in your interview.
And that applies to everyone.
Just because Cubans are resigned to being on the political backburner doesn’t mean that being completely ignorant of those issues is excusable.
Outraged? Probably not.
Jumping out of their seats to donate to and support the Cain train?
IDon’tHaveAnyFactsToBackThisUp, but I bet they’ll pass.
There were people who tried to get that advice to him early on, believe me.
Normally it would be, but this is the craziest Presidential race I’ve seen since the Democratic one in 1971-72. The standard rules don’t seem to apply. I’ve given up trying to predict anything for this one.
Yeah, you, Jimmie, Stacy, Smitty, and Da Tech Guy. You would have been like Herman’s A-Team.
Stupid is as stupid does.
There is an outside shot. But I heard a statistic last Sunday that if you were .500 in the NFL, you had a 30% shot at making the playoffs. If you were below that by one game, you had a 5% shot of making the playoffs. I do not think Cain is going to make the playoffs. I hope he does. I still think he would be a good leader. I think he is better (by far) than Romney and Gingrich, but sorry, I do not see things getting better for him. It is really hard to win back people once you lose them.
[…] Stacy has the details here. […]
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/323834.php
Ace does a pretty good job showing how screwed up Cain has been lately. Cain is also dropping fast in Iowa. Not sure if Gringrich will be on top, but Cain is falling.
The delicious in Cuba thing was BS, but not knowing current policy on Cuban refugees to the United States? Most of us knew that already. How long would it have taken Cain to get briefed on this? Five minutes?
Sure, because everyone knows that’s how you get to VP levels in major corporations.
The #OWS crowd are far too smart to fall for that trick, of course.
1. I grew up in NH so you need to keep that in mind.
2. I don’t like open primaries. IMO any state with an open primary gets put at the back of the line.
3. It is extremely useful for the party to have smaller states come up first in the primaries. It’s easier for individual voters to connect to candidates and it allows candidates to be held to account for their words, actions and past histories.
4. My preferred method would be to simply arrange the primaries by state population in ascending order. The states with the smallest populations get to choose their dates and each successive state can choose theirs … but not on the same day nor any day prior to the previous state’s primary.
5. If a state has an open primary, they go back to the end of the line. Because open primaries are subject to being gamed by the opposition.
What evidence do you see that he would be a better leader than Romney, Gingrich, or anybody? Whatever it is, please point it out to me because it sure as hell has gone over my head. Do you realize what being president of the US entails? Its a hell of a lot more complicated than making sure a fast food restaurant chain is run right. This is a big problem with anybody whose experience is solely in the private sector. That’s fine for a Representative, or even a Senator, hell maybe even a governor. But not a President. On top of that, I think a lot of this guy’s problems are age and health related. This is the second time in about a month I’ve heard the excuse “I’m tired”. That’s just bullshit. It’s either an out an out lie, an excuse, to cover for the fact that he doesn’t know what the shit he’s doing, or its the truth, which is just as bad.
I’m telling you all right now, you want a conservative candidate, you have three choices. That’s THREE. You have Bachmann, you have Santorum, and you have Perry. Take your pick. They each have their positives, they each have their flaws, and its up to you to either weight that all in the balance and make the best possible choice between the three of them.
Or, you can settle, for a Romney, Gingrich, or Huntsman. I guess you could make a case for any one of them, or even Paul for that matter.
But goddammit this Cain bullshit has run its course. And newsflash, he’s about as conservative as Huntsman, if that.
I beg to differ on that. I’m no radio talk host, but I tend to keep up reasonably well, if I do say so myself. Before today, I could not have told you anything definitive about that policy. I just knew about the Marielitos, and how long they had to stay behind chain-link.
I also knew that Cuban refugees have made a sizeable conservative population in Florida, and I also know about old Cuban immigrant communities from before Castro that are sprinkled throughout the state.
I’ll also be willing to bet real money that before this story, the phrase “wet foot, dry foot” was far lower in google results pages than it is now. Several orders of magnitude, I would say.
So pardon me if all the cries of “everybody knows that” sound like total BS to me.
It’s only been the policy since the 1960s. Do try to keep up!
Da Tech Guy has posted an update on it. Looks like the event went off quite well.
Also, note that the poll in the news today is totally at odds with this one taken in Iowa, by ISU/Gazette/KCRG sponsors and the Poly Sci and Public Policy depts (I think). Where Cain is in the lead, with Paul in second place (I know, makes it suspicious, but the internals are interesting).
As much as I hate open primaries, for states to demand to know what party a voter supports is hardly the ideal. The “gaming” of primaries has happened from time to time when the circumstances permitted, but not on a large enough scale to attempt to rewrite the whole system over.
If the parties wish to take over the entire cost of running primaries, then they can do it however they wish. If the state has to pay for it, the state makes the rules, and parties should not be trying to blackmail them to change their state laws.
Remember right after Cain’s candidacy popped with the Florida Straw Poll win, and he refused to change his schedule, continuing with his book tour?
Stacy and other Cainiacs tried to tell us it was some genius plan we just weren’t bright enough to perceive because our thinking was stuck in traditional campaigning. George Will said it was a sure sign Cain was not serious about running for President.
Time and events have proven Will correct.
Yeah, everyone’s an expert after-the-fact, thanks to Google.
Should Cain have been better prepared? Before you answer that ask yourself if the answer is ever “no” for anyone, ever.
We can all see that Newt is Rising. Fine. Stacy and many others are telling us that is “something up with which many shall not put.”
Apparently the real “result” of all this noise is that, unless Perry, Bachmann, or Santorum suddenly catch fire, we all get to enjoy the Mitt cram down, because Newt isn’t going to be allowed to really go anywhere. Or something.
So all of this piling on, especially by bloggers, you can see who it’s ultimately in aid of. Thanks, guys! Enjoy the result, if you can.
Ace could snark up a clusterf*ck from story of the Virgin Birth.
True, but he is not wrong in describing the Cain Train as a cluster right now. Because it is. And it is depressing as hell.
And Stacy and Smitty know it too.
You know something, if I was running for President and I was visiting Florida, I would be up enough to talk knowledgably about the issue. That is national politics 101.
Sorry this shit is catching up to Cain. Seriously try to keep up.
If I thought Cain and his campaign were cold calculators, I’d guess that the internal line is “Romney has New Hampshire sewn up, which means the interview would gain us nothing there even if it went perfectly, but could hurt us elsewhere if the candidate flubs a question. Skip it.”
But Cain and his campaign don’t seem like cold calculators. This seems more along the lines of “every time the candidate opens his mouth in a ‘think on your feet’ situation, we hemorrhage support. Let’s take a pass on this and keep as much as possible to events where he can work from notes or a TelePrompTer and there are no surprises.”
Not a good sign.
K_Bob: I am not thrilled by Mitt being the nominee. I do not like that outcome. But unfortunately that is where things are headed. You can keep saying all is well. It is not.
Santorum and Bachmann are really not options. So it is Newt or Romney, most likely Romney. I am not happy about that but that is the way it is likely to turn out.
And K_Bob, it is not just one minor thing. It is death by a thousand self inflicted cuts.
Both Iowa and New Hampshire are a little pretentious about some of the hoops they insist one jump through to be entitled to run for president. Not all traditions deserve homage.
Perhaps someone should have Cain return to Florida. With a reset button. Written in Russian.
I wish I had someone to advise me to keep up.
It never occurred to me.
Well it’s write-in city for me, then.
Let’s see, should I be half-serious and write in Sarah Palin, or go scorched Earth and write in Fucking Goofy.
Yes, it would be a reasonable strategical call – but then they would never have agreed to the interview in the first place.
As it is, the unmistakable conclusion is that they are worried about more gaffes. Maybe they aren’t, really, but that’s sure how it looks.
So often in public life the perception becomes the reality, as far as the public is concerned. The perception being given now is one of an unprepared candidate avoiding tough questioning.
I’ll wait until they get a chance to talk to Block or Cain. Right now our estimable host is waxing bitter about many things, so grain-of-salt time, there, too.
Da Tech Guy’s report closes more positive than what we’re getting now, so it’s not all road apples.
Cain has become insufferable. His sucking up to public-employee unions in Wisconsin (!!!!!???!!!) was inexcusable; today we learn that Cain knows as much about language as does Obama (‘Cuban’/’Austrian’), and his complete disinterest in foreign policy–to the point of embarrassment for all–is beyond the pale.
I thought it was a scheduling conflict.
I didn’t know about him sucking up to Wisconsin public employee unions, but if that’s true that coincides with my belief that he’s not as conservative as some folks like to think he is.
If you take a look at the arc of the in campaign for the past 3 or 4 weeks, it emerges that the sympathetic backlash by the Republican electorate against the unfair sexual harassment accusations targeting Cain delayed and moderated his inevitable decline. This decline is due to voters’ progressive realization that Cain never took his own campaign seriously enough to familiarize himself with important domestic policy issues, and virtually all foreign policy issues.
Cain’s lack of basic knowledge – and his apparent belief that such knowledge is not necessary – is not an issue that can be finessed. In another couple weeks, Cain will be in Perry territory.