Category: Politics

Herman Cain on Obama: ‘I’m Listening to All This Bulls–t That He’s Talking About’

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The winner of the Florida straw poll gets “worked up” in an interview with my young friend Chris Moody:

After a few caffeine-heavy refills at our corner table, I asked him about President Obama’s new effort to raise taxes on the wealthy, and Cain just about blew a blood vessel–especially when I mentioned the part where Obama says it’s about “math” not “class warfare.”
“Can I be blunt? That’s a lie,” Cain said, before the sound of his voice began to rise noticeably higher. “You’re not supposed to call the president a liar. Well if you’re not supposed to call the president a liar, he shouldn’t tell a lie. If it’s not class warfare, it’s highway robbery. He wants us to believe it’s not class warfare, oh okay, it’s not class warfare. Pick my pockets, because that’s what he’s doing!”
Cain paused, took a breath and looked at me.
“I’m not mad at you, I just get passionate about this stuff,” he said. “I have to tell people because I get so worked up . . . . I’m listening to all this bulls–t that he’s talking about, ‘fairness’ and ‘balanced approach’ to get this economy going.”

Read the whole thing. Cain tells Moody that on two days, he thought about quitting the presidential race: “That’s how frustrating a campaign can be . . . But think about the number of days we’ve been on this campaign. Two ain’t that bad.”

There are times in life — and obviously, Herman Cain knows this very well — when survival is victory. He was counted out and ignored, and certainly it must have been discouraging. But he kept showing up, until he found himself at a proverbial intersection, as I explain in today’s American Spectator column:

What Herman Cain did in Orlando this weekend was both completely unexpected and entirely predictable. As late as Friday afternoon, none of the pundits expected the Atlanta businessman to win the Florida GOP’s “Presidency 5” straw poll. But if what it took to win was a dynamic speaker who could bring a roomful of grassroots Republicans to their feet, Cain’s victory was in some sense inevitable.

“Send Washington a message!” Cain thundered from the stage of the Orange County Convention Center, prompting one of seven standing ovations he received Saturday in his speech preceding the vote in which he stomped Texas Gov. Rick Perry so badly that the Republican front-runner may never recover.

Perry’s disastrous debate performance Thursday — in which he said opponents of college tuition subsidies for illegal immigrants “don’t have a heart” — was the precipitating event of Cain’s triumph. As the old saying goes, luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity, and Cain was perhaps uniquely prepared to take advantage of the opportunity Perry’s stumble presented. . . .

Please read the whole thing. We all must deal with discouragement, and Herman Cain’s persistence against the odds is an inspiring example.


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‘Any Real Chance’

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“Pawlenty . . . is widely viewed as the only candidate in Thursday night’s Fox News debate with any real chance of becoming the nominee of his party or President of the United States.”
— Ben Smith, Politico, May 6

Seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? T-Paw was “the only candidate . . . with any real chance,” and Ben Smith didn’t even bother to name the other candidates in the Greeneville, S.C., debate. But the other four are all still running, while Tim Pawlenty quit the race six weeks ago.

One of those candidates with no “real chance” was Herman Cain, who stomped Pawlenty like Godzilla stomped Tokyo that May night in South Carolina. And it was Cain’s victory that was the first hint that maybe T-Paw didn’t have “any real chance” after all.

Nobody at that time expected that Pawlenty was on his way to presidential oblivion and now, in the wake of another Godzilla-style stomping by Cain, another “real chance” victim is in denial:

Perry is little more than a month into the race, his advisers say, and he has proven that his message can resonate powerfully. Their view is that unlike Mitt Romney, Perry still has plenty of room to grow his support.
“We will continue to take our message of being a consistent conservative, who has a proven record of creating jobs and fiscal discipline to Washington,” said Perry strategist Dave Carney, pointing out that Romney came in behind Perry in the straw poll.

Yeah, Dave: That message that conservatives “don’t have a heart” really did resonate powerfully. But let’s go back to June 9, right after Dave Carney quit Newt Gingrich’s campaign:

Dave Carney, the former senior aide to Newt Gingrich who is also an adviser to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, says his departure from the Gingrich camp is entirely unrelated to growing speculation about a possible Perry presidential bid.
“This is totally unrelated to Rick Perry,” he wrote in an email just now.

Yeah, Dave: Totally unrelated. Which is why, a mere five days later, you were at Rick Perry’s side when he arrived for a New York meeting with the Big Money boys.  Wonder what they those Wall Street guys think of their investment now that the first drafts of Perry’s political obituary are already online. Here’s Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post:

Perry’s debate debacle was not an isolated event. It simply crystallized the quietly expressed worries that he lacks serious ideas and the ability to advocate them. Reaction from operatives, officials and other GOP insiders ranged from disgust to dismay.

And by the way, to paraphrase Michele Bachmann’s new fund-raising appeal, if you don’t hit my tip jar, you don’t have a heart!




From Marco Rubio to Herman Cain: How the Crist Factor Hurt Perry in Florida

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Marco Rubio and Sarah Rumpf

Sarah Rumpf helped facilitate Florida state Rep. Scott Plakon’s endorsement of Herman Cain, which in turn helped Cain score his crushing upset of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Saturday’s Orlando “Presidency5” straw poll. Today, I spoke at length with “Sunshine State Sarah” to get the backstory of that endorsement, and she pointed out a little-noticed aspect of Perry’s humiliating defeat.

“Perry hired a lot of the Charlie Crist people,” she said, referring to former aides to the permatanned ex-RINO governor who got crushed in last year’s Tea Party uprising that sent Marco Rubio to the Senate. Among the Perry campaign’s top Florida hires, only Anthony Bustamante — who is “awesome,” Sarah said — was a known ally of Rubio.

While many of Crist’s ex-staffers were innocent victims of their boss’s stunning betrayal of the GOP, some of them — including some hired by Team Perry — were suspected as dirty tricksters. The Crist association gave a slight tinge of RINO-ism to the Perry campaign, undermining the Texan’s desired image as a solid conservative. So when Perry accused opponents of illegal immigration of being heartless, it stirred bitter memories of Crist’s “centrist” ways among those who had fought hard to elect Rubio.

Rumpf held one of the first Orlando-area fundraisers for Rubio’s campaign, and Plakon was also an early Rubio supporter. Both Rumpf and Plakon are backing Rubio ally Adam Hasner in the 2012 GOP Senate primary to take on Democrat Bill Nelson. It was during a Friday forum for the Republican Senate candidates that Plakon mentioned his idea of endorsing Herman Cain.

Rumpf was sitting with Plakon and his wife Susie (who has been a Cain fan for months), and Rumpf offered to connect Plakon with Cain’s campaign staff. Rumpf used Twitter to contact Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael in Atlanta, Carmichael gave Rumpf the phone numbers of Cain’s staffers in Orlando, including Nathan Naidu. That evening about 7 p.m., a private meeting was arranged between Cain and the Plakons, and the endorsement was announced at a jam-packed rally of Cain supporters at the Rosen Centre Hotel. Here’s Sarah’s video, recorded just before the endorsement was made public:

The impact of this endorsement should not be underestimated. He may not be well known (yet) outside the state of Florida, but he is extremely well-liked here and very active in conservative political causes around the state. Americans for Prosperity’s Florida Chapter named him their 2011 State Representative of the Year, and has been a leader in opposing ObamaCare, sponsoring the Florida Health Care Freedom Act. Scott Plakon is a solid fiscal and social conservative and has owned and operated several successful businesses; he is the exact type of state leader Republican presidential candidates should want on their team.

Plakon’s endorsement was an enormous boost for Cain on the eve of the straw-poll, and helped convince Florida Republicans that Cain is a legitimate presidential contender.

After the 2010 campaign, when state party chairman Jim Greer and NRSC chairman John Cornyn connived to “fix” the race for Crist 15 months before the GOP primary, rank-and-file Republicans in Florida have become sick and tired of being told to “get in line,” Sarah told me.

As for the meaning of Cain’s victory in the Orlando straw poll, Sarah said, “This was not a protest vote. This was not a temper tantrum.”

When I asked her about one interpretation that Beltway pundits have made of the Orlando results, Sarah was adamant: “Nobody was talking about Chris Christie — nobody.”

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Bill Kristol.

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Cain Rebuts Freeman’s Raaaaacism

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by Smitty (via Lucianne)

The New York Daily News has the story:

The Republican presidential candidate called the Oscar-winning actor’s eyebrow-raising remarks “short-sighted” on Friday. “Most of the people that are criticizing the Tea Partiers about having a racist element, they have never been to a Tea Party,” Cain told Fox News.
Freeman, who endorsed Obama in 2007, created a firestorm when he told CNN’s Piers Morgan earlier this week that conservative opposition to the President has enflamed racism in America. He added the Tea Partiers have the mentality of “Screw the country, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here…It is a racist thing.”
Despite the criticism, Cain said he wasn’t offended by Freeman’s comments. “Name calling is something that is going to continue in this because they don’t know how to stop this movement and this movement is making a big difference in politics,” said Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

One applauds Cain’s de-escalatory approach. It seems that since the Left hasn’t got leg #1 to stand on in terms of logically consistent arguments, the Left instead defaults to trying to push the hormones off the cliff.

Wasn’t there a candidate once who was supposed to have fixed all this? United the country? Applied balm to the wounds?

In other Raaaaacism Industrial Complex news, Salon offers some William J. Stuntz:

. . .the last half of the twentieth century saw America’s criminal justice system unravel. Signs of the unraveling are everywhere. The nation’s record- shattering prison population has grown out of control. Still more so the African American portion of that prison population: for black males, a term in the nearest penitentiary has become an ordinary life experience, a horrifying truth that wasn’t true a mere generation ago.

and (formatting mine):

There are three keys to the system’s dysfunction, each of which has deep historical roots but all of which took hold in the last sixty years.
First, the rule of law collapsed. To a degree that had not been true in America’s past, official discretion rather than legal doctrine or juries’ judgments came to define criminal justice outcomes.
Second, discrimination against both black suspects and black crime victims grew steadily worse — oddly, in an age of rising legal protection for civil rights. Today, black drug offenders are punished in great numbers, even as white drug offenders are usually ignored. (As is usually the case with respect to American crime statistics, Latinos fall in between, but generally closer to the white population than to the black one.) At the same time, blacks victimized by violent felonies regularly see violence go unpunished; the story is different in most white neighborhoods.
The third trend is the least familiar: a kind of pendulum justice took hold in the twentieth century’s second half, as America’s justice system first saw a sharp decline in the prison population — in the midst of a record-setting crime wave — then saw that population rise steeply. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States had one of the most lenient justice systems in the world. By century’s end, that justice system was the harshest in the history of democratic government.

Yeah, I don’t remember this rising wave of anarchy, either. I just wish that there was a ‘propaganda’ section to contain this sort of tripe, or that it at least be positioned near the Danielle Steele where it belongs.

For a brief counterargument, consider that the economic destruction of America has led to an over-Federalization of crime. And I’m not just throwing Holder under the bus here. As Federal over-reach has sucked the economic vitality out of the country, State and local law enforcement has been made less meaningful.

However, one suspects that Stuntz’s task may be to exacerbate problems, instead of working to minimize them.

Thanks to AiPolitics on Twitter:

It would be very interesting to know who got to Morgan Freeman with the 30 pieces of silver.

Update: to Ann Althouse, on Herman Cain, regarding the straw poll performance:

Is this just a message to Perry and Romney or are we supposed to believe that a man who has never held political office could serve as the President of the United States?

Dude, given the miserable performance of this Administration, never having held office is very arguably a feature.
Update II: Cain also rocking Legal Insurrection straw poll.

Dear Bill Kristol …

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PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT CHRIS CHRISTIE!

Seriously, you’re starting to piss me off here, with your . . . idiotic assertion that the 37 percent of Florida straw-poll delegates who voted for Herman Cain were voting for “none of the above.”

Did you notice that little . . . pause, Bill?

Kind of a hint, buddy. Because any liberal would have said “racist assertion” instead of “idiotic assertion,” and I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, knowing that your college roommate was Alan Keyes.

Trust me when I say that I understand perfectly well why the Beltway commentariat has a problem taking Herman seriously. To start with the obvious: His campaign is unprecedented. The man has never been elected to anything, and the last guy we elected president with no previous political experience was Ike. 

Being Supreme Allied Commander is probably better preparation for the presidency than being CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. I get that.

I’ve called Herman Cain “Steve Forbes with charisma,” and I think maybe part of the problem you pundit types have with Herman is that you don’t trust charisma. This is why you were willing to say polite things about that hopeless dud Pawlenty and have such warm praise for the charisma-deficient Mitch Daniels yet constantly low-rate Cain.

Also, as a successful businessman, Herman Cain has an instinctive distrust of know-it-all advisers — he wants to do things his way —  so his staff is noticeably lacking in well-known campaign operatives, speechwriters, etc.

I get that, too. And trust me when I say that, as someone who has followed the Cain campaign closely for nine months now, I’ve heard lots of complaints about opportunities missed because of subpar staff work by Team Herman. The phrase “amateur hour” has become sadly familiar, and has been often heard from people who enthusiastically support Cain, but grind their teeth at the unreturned phone calls, the haphazard advance work, etc., etc.

All of these caveats aside, however, Herman Cain has three things: A compelling rags-to-riches narrative, an optimistic pro-business message and more charisma than anyone else in the GOP field.

So how about, instead of pining for Chris Christie or some other “acceptable” candidate, you start trying to figure out what you can do to help Herman Cain win this thing? Because you are underestimating the risk of your own embarrassment if Christie is foolish enough to listen to your pleadings, gets in the race, and then Herman beats him, too.

Don’t laugh, Bill. All those guys who jumped on the Perry bandwagon last month probably would have laughed if I had told them Cain would stomp their guy to smithereens in the Florida straw poll.

They’re not laughing now, are they?

HERMAN CAIN FOR PRESIDENT
Because He Keeps Making Fools of
All the ‘Experts’ Who Say He Can’t Win

UPDATE: Et tu, Insty?

Buzzard Bait: Rick Perry’s Immigration Blunder Took Him From Hero to Zero

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Donald Douglas at American Power links an important story from the Los Angeles Times:

Perry has “a surprisingly tin ear” on the immigration issue, said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican strategist who is unaligned in the presidential contest.
To most Republicans, denying tuition subsidies to illegal immigrants “is a question of fairness,” said Fabrizio. He added that Perry, in portraying his critics as heartless, is making Republican voters wonder whether he shares their values. . . .
Charlie Gerow, a Republican consultant from Harrisburg, Pa., said initial excitement over Perry’s entry into the 2012 race had entered a new phase.
“People were looking for something different,” he said. “Now it’s a question of what [Perry’s candidacy] is going to look like when it’s examined under the microscope.”

Yes, we have “entered a new phase,” the phase where talking heads on the Sunday morning shows will be discussing the first draft of Rick Perry’s political obituary. Didn’t I try to warn everybody about the “Phantom Menace”?

Don’t doubt my Jedi senses on this one, folks. I’m getting spooky vibes.  . . .
Yeah, I know political journalists aren’t supposed to believe in “omens.” Still, there’s something vaguely . . . hinky about the way Perry’s stealth campaign has been operating here in Iowa.
Call me crazy. Attribute my forebodings of doom to irrational prejudice. Say what you will, and I don’t care, but I felt a need to put on the record my instinctive sense that there’s something fundamentally wrong about the Perry campaign.

That was on Aug. 9, four days before Perry officially announced.

Now here we are, six weeks later, and the Perry bandwagon is inarguably in the ditch — thanks to Perry’s own “tin ear” blundering and the triumph of my man Herman Cain:

The Georgia businessman won more votes than the Republican primary’s frontrunners — Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — combined.

Where is my vindication? Where are those who scoffed at my prophetic foresight? And why haven’t you hit my freaking tip jar?

UPDATE: Straw-poll delegate tells Politico: “We can get that liberal guilt trip stuff from someone else.” They also interview state Rep. Scott Plakon, whose Friday night endorsement of Herman Cain was described as “crucial” by Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael.

ORLANDO GOP STRAW POLL RESULTS UPDATE: Herman Cain Beats Rick Perry

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We will have results of the important crucial life-or-death world-historical cosmos-shifting Florida Republican P5 Straw Poll within mere moments.

UPDATE: HERMAN CAIN WINS WITH 37.1%

UPDATE II: The St. Petersburg Times calls the results a “stunning upset,” as Rick Perry finished a distant second with less than 16%!

UPDATE III: Dave Weigel:

By failing so convincingly, Perry’s ensured that the weekend’s “trouble for frontrunner narrative” will be plated in gold and frozen in amber.

Or as he put it earlier: “shadows of vultures” are all over the Perry campaign.

UPDATE IV: The results, with nearly 2,700 delegates voting:

CAIN . . . . . . . . . . . 37.1%
PERRY . . . . . . . . . 15.4%
ROMNEY . . . . . . . 14.7%
SANTORUM . . . . 10.9%
PAUL . . . . . . . . . .  10.4%
GINGRICH . . . . . . 8.4%
HUNTSMAN . . . . 2.3%
BACHMANN . . . . 1.5%

“A total embarrassment for Perry,” says Allapundit.

UPDATE V: Just got off the phone with Cain campaign spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael, who informs me that the candidate is flying back to Atlanta to prepare for a trip to New York, where he will appear Monday on Fox & Friends to promote his new book, This Is Herman Cain!

A quick survey of headlines:

Cain upsets Perry at Florida straw poll
— USA Today

Cain wins GOP straw poll; result could
carry weight in presidential race
— Tampa Tribune

Hermain Cain wins Florida
straw poll in stunning victory
— Miami Herald

He’s definitely come a long way since the days of “Herman Who?”

UPDATE VI: Here’s one to save for your scrapbook, kids:

The link is to Seth McLaughlin’s Washington Times story:

ORLANDO — Former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain won the Presidency 5 straw poll here Saturday, delivering a blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s frontrunner status and a victory for a candidate who has struggled to transform his grassroots popularity into strong showings in national polls. . . .

UPDATE VII: Don Surber of the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail:

Reeling from poor performances by Rick Perry in the CNN and Fox News debates, conservatives flocked to the Godfather — Herman Cain — as he swept today’s Florida Straw Poll with 37% of the vote. Trailing badly were Rick Perry 15%, Mitt Romney 14%, Rick Santorum 11%, Ron Paul 10%, Newt Gingrich 9%, Jon Huntsman 2%, and Michele Bachmann 2%.

Permit me humbly to suggest that this puts a decisive end to all that Chris Christie talk. I mean, how bad would it look if Republicans brought in a new candidate because they were afraid a black man might win the nomination?

UPDATE VIII: Press release from the Cain campaign:

Cain Sweeps Presidency 5 Poll,
Garners Florida Endorsement
(Orlando, FL)- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain swept the Republican Party of Florida’s “Presidency 5” straw poll today in Orlando, capping off his strongest fundraising and grassroots week since the establishment of his campaign in May 2011. . . .
This week, Governor Rick Scott pointed out that the winner of the Presidency 5 straw poll would go on to win the nomination. He explained that former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, plus 1995 GOP nominee Bob Dole all won Florida straw polls.
“Thank you to the Republican voters for this incredible honor of being named the winner of the Presidency 5 straw poll in Florida today,” Cain said. “This is a sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that cannot be ignored. I will continue to share my message of ‘common sense solutions’ across this country and look forward to spending more time in Florida, a critical state for both the nomination and the general election.”
On Friday evening, Scott Plakon, the Americans for Prosperity- Florida Legislator of the Year who represents the state’s 37th district, endorsed Herman Cain in front of more than 1,000 cheering supporters at the Rosen Center in Orlando, Fla. Scott is best known as the sponsor of the Florida Health Care Freedom Act, slated to be Amendment 1 on Florida’s 2012 general election ballot.
“I’m proud to support Herman Cain. Our country is suffering right now from bad ideas, bad policies and bad leadership. Herman Cain has the right ideas, the right policies and is a proven business and conservative leader,” Scott explained. “Over the last few days at the Orange County Convention Center, I’ve seen him connect with Florida voters like few candidates I’ve ever seen. I look forward to working with Herman Cain to see him win Florida and to become the next President of the United States.”
In addition to being named the victor of Thursday night’s FOX News/ Google/ RPOF Republican presidential candidate debate and the straw poll, Cain spent the entire week in Florida, touring the Sunshine State on his nationwide “Common Sense Solutions Bus Tour,” addressing CPAC Florida and speaking at the Presidency 5 festivities.

I’m told that people trying to make online donations at Herman Cain’s Web site have reported difficulty getting through because the traffic is so heavy. So while you’re waiting, how about hitting my tip jar instead?

PREVIOUSLY:


CAIN-MANIA IN ORLANDO?
UPDATE: 7 Standing Ovations for Cain; Vultures Circle Perry’s ‘Sunshine Special’?

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Supporters greet Herman Cain’s bus in Orlando.(Photo: Katrina Trinko)

Last night I talked to Sarah Rumpf, the “Sunshine State Sarah” blogger who is a delegate to the Florida GOP gathering in Orlando that will announce the results of a crucial straw-poll vote this afternoon.

Sarah was eager to tell me about how state Rep. Scott Plakon, chosen as Florida “Legislator of the Year” by Americans for Prosperity, had decided to endorse Herman Cain after Thursday’s debate. I re-Tweeted her news, but didn’t jump right on doing a blog about it, because it didn’t seem like any kind of gigantic shocking exclusive.

Well, stupid me! Here’s Byron York’s scoop from Orlando:

There’s no scientific polling, but talks with dozens of delegates who will vote in today’s Florida straw poll suggest that many are making last-minute decisions to vote for Herman Cain.
What seems to be happening is this: A lot of delegates came to Orlando planning to vote for Rick Perry. But Perry’s poor performance at Thursday night’s Fox News-Google debate gave them pause and re-opened the question of whom they will support. And many of the conservatives who were attracted to Perry will, when asked for a second choice, naturally gravitate to Cain, who, it just happens, had a particularly good debate on Thursday. So with Perry not commanding the loyalty he did just 48 hours ago, Cain appears to be picking up support.

Wow, did I completely miss an exclusive or what? York’s account closely matches what Sarah told me last night: Perry’s supporters at the GOP event seemed demoralized Friday, while Cain’s supporters were fired up.

We don’t yet know how this will translate to straw-poll votes — the result will be announced about 5 p.m. ET today — but I’m kicking myself for not going with Sarah’s report when she first told me about it.

UPDATE: My friend Ruth Malhotra also reports from Orlando:

This is significant in that Malhotra is a longtime Romney supporter, so if she’s seeing a shift toward Cain, that’s basically objective.

UPDATE II: Katrina Trinko of National Review reports from Orlando:

Allahpundit notes an ironic point:

If [Rick Perry] done well at the debate, this straw poll wouldn’t even be worth blogging: Romney’s not actively competing (although he’ll be on the ballot) whereas Perry’s spent a bunch of money to make a splash in a crucial primary state.

And speaking at a breakfast meeting this morning, Perry actually raised the stakes: “I have all my hopes on Florida.”

Why am I reminded of Ed Muskie and the “Sunshine Special”?

UPDATE III: Press release from the Cain campaign:

For Immediate Release:
Saturday, September 24, 2011

For More Information:
Ellen Carmichael, (678) 601-2772
[email protected]

Plakon Endorses Cain
(Orlando, FL)- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain received the endorsement of Florida state representative and noted conservative leader Scott Plakon today in a room of more than 1,000 supporters at the Rosen Center in Orlando, Fla.
Plakon, who represents Florida’s 27th district, was named the Americans for Prosperity- Florida Legislator of Year in 2011 and is known for his sponsorship of Florida’s Healthcare and Freedom Act.
Cain has been widely touted as the winner of last night’s Fox News/ Google/ RPOF debate in Orlando. He addressed CPAC Florida today and continued on his nationwide bus tour throughout the Sunshine State.

Dave Weigel: “The shadows of vultures have been all over the Perry campaign since the debate.”