The Other McCain

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

Cain in N.H.: ‘I’m Not Finished Yet!’

Posted on | December 1, 2011 | 13 Comments

Tim Buckland of the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader reports:

MANCHESTER — A small group of supporters and a horde of media got unclear answers Wednesday night whether Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is staying in the race.
During a gathering held for core New Hampshire supporters at his campaign office on Lowell Street, Cain told the group: “They keep coming after me. After that firestorm, people thought I was finished. Well, just like Yogi Berra said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and I’m not finished yet.”
But, during a five-minute press conference held after the appearance, he said he was still “reassessing” his campaign.
“As a businessman, that’s what I do,” he said. “I don’t make a kneejerk reaction.”
He said he would make a decision “about the campaign” within the next few weeks after he evaluates the impact the campaign is having on his family, his supporters and on fundraising.
“During this hit, fundraising went down. I admit that,” he said. “But fundraising is starting to go back up.”
But he never said during the meet-and-greet with supporters or during the press conference if he is considering dropping out. His political advisor, Bo Harmon, said Cain planned to keep an appointment [Thursday] with the New Hampshire Union Leader for an interview. . . .

Skip Murphy of Granite Grok live-blogged the Manchester event and at the “media availability” (translation: press conference) after the event, Skip says the media disgraced themselves:

Tonite was a great “teachable moment” in how the MSM can make anyone appear in a bad light — all it takes is an uppity attitude, a whiny voice, a TV camera, and a pre-determined narrative.

Skip singles out Amy Coveno of WMUR-TV for her especially petulant attitude. Hell hath no fury like an anchorette scorned. And via Memeorandum, Susan Saulny and Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times report under a Columbus, Ohio, dateline:

But nothing in Mr. Cain’s actions on Wednesday suggested that he would halt his campaign as he engaged in a whirlwind day of campaigning around Ohio and in New Hampshire.
“They want you to believe that we can’t do this,” he told a few hundred supporters gathered in a hotel ballroom in Dayton on Wednesday morning. “They want you to believe that with enough character assassination on me, I will drop out!”
The audience shouted, “No!” and “Don’t go!”
Mr. Cain seemed delighted. “Well, the American people have a different idea,” he said. “The American people are going to raise some Cain in 2012!”

Longtime Cain enthusiast Chris Barron (who remembers when this blog was just about the only place on the Web regularly covering the Cain campaign) makes his case: “Why Herman Cain Should NOT Drop Out.”


Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, New Hampshire, Ohio

Santorum Heading to N.H. Friday

Posted on | December 1, 2011 | 11 Comments

Press release from the campaign:

SANTORUM RETURNS TO NEW HAMPSHIRE
HOSTS TOYS-FOR-TOTS TOY DRIVE
Santorum Takes Part In New Hampshire Christmas Traditions

Verona, PA – Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum will return to New Hampshire on Friday, December 2nd. Open press events are noted, all times are local.

Friday, December 2:

6:00pm ET: Senator Santorum and Team Santorum New Hampshire will host a Toys-for-Tots toy drive at the Rick Santorum for President New Hampshire Headquarters. The event is open to the public, but all attendees are asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy for charity.
Location:
Rick Santorum for President New Hampshire Headquarters
273 South River Road
Bedford, NH

7:30pm ET: Senator Santorum will take part in “Midnight Merriment” to support locally owned businesses in downtown Concord, NH.
Location:
Downtown Concord, NH

Saturday, December 3:

9:30am ET: Senator Santorum will host a breakfast meet-and-greet with area ministers and faith leaders in Nashua, NH.
Location:
Bonhoeffer’s Café
8 Franklin Street
Nashua, NH

Category: Election 2012, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.01.11

Posted on | December 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Cain Blasts Critics For Character Assassination

Herman Cain during yesterday's speech in West Chester, Pa.

Denies most recent allegations, lashes out at media

Britain Expels Iranian Diplomats, Closes Teheran Embassy
Blowback from British embassy violation by “students”

Occupy Hangover For Cities, Protesters
Almost 300 protesters jailed, 25 tons of garbage removed in LA alone



POLITICS
President Optimistic On Payroll Tax Cut Extension

President 0bama stares at teleprompter during Scranton visit

Cites progress in discussions between Congressional Democrats, GOP

Supremes Weigh Disclosure Of HIV Status

Four Accused Of Amish Beard-Cutting Attacks Ordered Held

Governor Asterisk Vows To Fix “Trust Deficit”

Medal Of Honor Marine Sues Defense Contractor

Stacy’s Crazy Cousin John Backs Off Long Island Slam
Chuck U. Schumer was not amused



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Shares Hit Two-Week High On Central Banks’ Liquidity Move
Ranbaxy Wins Approval To Sell Generic Lipitor
PRC Manufacturing Falls For First Time Since 2009
Investors Go On The Risk Offensive
Dollar Proves Best Bet As Investors Reject Stocks For Safety Of Treasuries
Amazon, eBay Face Off Over State Sales Taxes
Buffett Says Berkshire Hathaway To Buy Hometown Paper, The Omaha World-Herald
Boeing, Machinists Reach Sweeping Agreement
Wal-Mart’s Got A Facebook App For That: Shopycat
AT&T, T-Mobile Mull Plan B
GamePro Magazine, Website To Shut Down Next Month
Siri, Are You Anti-Abortion? Not Intentionally, Says Apple



SPORTS
Pac-12 Doormat Washington State Has A New Coach

Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach signs with WSU

Controversial coach inks five-year deal, dollars not mentioned

Lucic Scores Twice As Bruins Win 12th of 13 Games

Yankees’ Teixeira Takes Hit From Valentine’s Signing With Sox

Nyets Confront A Future That Couldn’t Be Murkier

Cubs Sign DeJesus To Two-Year Deal

UCLA Players Carry Rick Neuheisel Off The Field

Angels Trade RHP Chatwood To Rockies For Catcher Iannetta


Our Coach Can Beat Up Your Coach

Feds Execute Search Of Fine’s Office

Four-Time Pro Bowl DT McGlockton Dies, 42

Tigers, Santiago Agree To Two-year Deal



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Mindy McCready Pregnant With Twins

Country songbird Mindy McCready

Also, she didn’t kidnap her son

Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper Caught In The Act Of PDA

Marie Osmond Undergoes “Startling Transformation,” Says Plastic Surgeon

Meet Lindsay Lohan’s New Sober Coach: Courtney Love

First Look At Daniel Day-Lewis As Spielberg’s Lincoln

J.J. Abrams Picks Alice Eve For New Role In “Star Trek”

Four Misses In “Miz” Race

Newly Single Ashton Kutcher “Swarmed By Girls” While Partying In Iowa

“Baseball Wives” Anna Benson Stunt Has Cast In Uproar



FOREIGNERS
Hillary Pressing Burma’s Thein Sein On Reforms
No Formal Remorse From White House To Pakistan
US Denies NATO Attack On Pakistani Troops Was Deliberate
Government Workers On Strike In Britain
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Claims Strong Showing In Vote



BLOGS & STUFF
Jim Geraghty: Newt Gingrich Said What?
Michelle Malkin: Bailing Out The World
Megan McArdle: World’s Central Bankers Hand Dying Europe A Band-Aid
Moe Lane: Barack Obama Has Lost Tina Brown
Israel Matzav: Isfahan Nuke Site Badly Damaged By Monday’s Blast
Weasel Zippers: LAPD Forced To Wear Hazmat Suits To Clean Up Occupier Camp
Hit & Run: Mayor Bloomberg Says “I Have My Own Army”
Jonah Goldberg: Barney The Bully Continued
Atlas Shrugs: WH Coverup – Oabam Admin Seals Records Of Murdered Border Patrol Agent; Fast & Furious Whistleblowers Punished


SOTD: Electronic Behavior Control System

Category: Live at Five

Friedrich Hayek vs. Ace of Spades

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 44 Comments

“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. And if Jan. 20, 2013, brings the joyous inauguration of President Perry, then you can say my fears were mistaken. Yet I can’t shake my gut hunch that it won’t work out that way. Some kind of catastrophe will result, one way or another.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Aug. 9, 2011

OK, Smitty’s been doing the philosophical thing with his series about “Explaining Postmodernism,” while I’ve been trying to do news, news, news, and I’m in a mood to stretch my intellectual legs a few minutes.

Last night I nudged Ace a little bit, and today Jeff Goldstein gave Ace an intellectual body-check, and then today — riffing on a Dennis Miller rant — Ace came back with a long argument that included this:

[P]eople don’t get invested, as far as emotional and [egotistical] investment, in facts and data.
What they get emotionally and egotistically invested in is probabilities and guesses based upon underlying worldview.
It’s this — the gut, the “psychic vibe,” the horse-sense, the common-sense, the cunning, the read on people, the ability to predict the future based on incomplete information — that people really get personally invested in.
It really makes no sense. Everyone knows there is no such thing as psychic vibes, everyone knows the “gut” is a decent instinctual device but hardly something you’d want to start betting big money on, and everyone knows that predicting the future is a job for charlatans and fools, but when we start making predictions — “Sarah Palin can’t win!”; “No, Sarah Palin will dominate!“ — all of a sudden we start speaking with a level of assuredness and confidence and emotional investment that we are too smart to apply to virtually any other situation.
And this keeps happening. No matter what the topic, the less that is known about a situation, the less intellectually confident we can each be about our tentative conclusions, the more emotionally confident we will become.

Well, you can read the whole thing, but here’s my counterpoint: We know what we know and we reason outward on the basis of known facts — accumulated through education, observation and experience — to speculate on the probable nature of the unknown.

What Ace calls “gut” is therefore not always pure instinct or mere arrogant assertion of personal, subjective opinion.

There is such a thing as an informed guess. If someone is a professional pilot, and he sees a TV news report about an airline crash, what he guesses about the likely cause of the crash is not merely “gut.” Likewise, if a veteran police detective picks up a magazine and reads a story about an unsolved murder case, his suppositions about the crime are more than “gut.” Read more

Category: Ace of Spades, Rick Perry

If You Secret Santa Any Of These Gifts, Ensure It Looks Like Your Foe Bought It

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

Our first product comes via email to Mrs. The Other Smitty.:


I mean, really:

  • If your intent is to give yourself more than a sanctimonious hit of feel-goodery, why not foster or adopt a. . .human being? Adoption is noble. Ask any Christian who has studied the Galatian Epistle at length.
  • The polar bear population myth is a rightLeft pile of hooey.

Speaking of dodgy research, item #2 is an old chestnut from The Onion:
Revolutionary New Insoles Combine Five Forms Of Pseudoscience

Stressed and sore-footed Americans everywhere are clamoring for the exciting new MagnaSoles shoe inserts, which stimulate and soothe the wearer’s feet using no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience.

Check that Onion link for that special hypochondriac near your.

Our third product is courtesy of Jay Leno:

Other than Andrew Sullivan, I can’t think of anybody who would do this to a vehicle.

At any rate, the post title is intended as a jest, and holds two points for real life:

  • Being indirect about random acts of kindness is one thing. Behaving deviously about gifts is another. Don’t be a backstabber.
  • Also, never maintain a foe. Make sure that if there is a problem with a co-worker, it’s entirely on them. Give no cause for offense.
Category: humor

New Cain Campaign Video: ‘Put an Executive in the Executive Office’

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 69 Comments

The Herman Cain campaign today released a new online video focusing on job creation and economic issues:

A press release (see full text below) from the campaign called the video a “new Iowa ad,” although the length — 51 seconds instead of 30 seconds — would make it incompatible with standard broadcast requirements. The statement from campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon did not include any specifics about when or in what venues the video might be aired.

** TEXT OF CAIN CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE **

Cain Releases New Ad in Iowa;
Campaign Moves Forward

It’s time to draw a line in the sand.
While the Obama Administration sits on the sidelines, and Congress gets nothing done to help end this crippling recession, Republican candidate for president, Herman Cain, is traveling the country, spreading his vision to jump-start the economy and create a climate where businesses can grow and produce.
Take a moment and watch the Cain Campaign’s latest video, shot in a factory, in which Mr. Cain lays out a clear and concise message on how to get the manufacturing sector in this country back on track, generating millions of new, high-paying, private sector jobs.
It’s no secret that the Democrat Party and their surrogates in the mainstream media are out to derail Herman Cain’s candidacy, and the only way for them to succeed is to destroy him personally.
How can we expect good conservative “candidates of the people” to stand up against the “establishment” and run in the future if we abandon Herman Cain now?
It’s time to tell it like it is: Herman Cain threatens the Democrat Party like no other candidate, and because they cannot defeat him on the battlefield of ideas, they must resort to the desperate strategy being played out in public now and fueled on by the liberal media.
Don’t let it happen. Watch Mr. Cain talk about what’s really important: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Then send the link to your friends and help them learn about the “9-9-9 Plan” and Jobs. Jobs. Jobs

For More Information:
J.D. Gordon, Vice President of Campaign Communications
Friends of Herman Cain, Inc.


RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Video

Herman Cain to Neil Cavuto: Affair Accusation Came ‘Out of the Blue’

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 41 Comments

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says a woman who claimed to have had an affair with him was among “many people” to whom he has provided financial assistance, and that her accusation was “out of the blue.”

“I have helped many people financially . . . She’s not the only person I have helped,” Cain said in an appearance today on Neal Cavuto’s Fox News program. Cavuto asked the Atlanta businessman about the claims of Ginger White, who has produced phone records showing more than 60 texts and conversations with Cain’s personal cell-phone number.

“That by itself doesn’t tell you the whole story,” Cain told Cavuto, explaining that his campaign has not had access to the records White showed to an Atlanta TV reporter. He said he had no warning that White was prepared to go public with her claims.

“Boom! Out of nowhere. . . . This was totally out of the blue,” Cain said, describing the accusations against him as “character assassination” because he was “doing so well” in his campaign. “As long as I was low in the polls, this stuff didn’t come out.”

Cain’s poll numbers have dropped substantially in the past month, as he has battled accusations that he sexually harassed women during his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Cain told Cavuto that he is concerned about the impact of the accusations on his family, especially his wife, saying the charges were “having an emotional toll on her . . . she gets upset.”

As for the motives of White, whom Cain acknowledges he has known since 1998, Cain suggested to Cavuto that “people . . . are putting her up to this . . . We don’t know who it is.”

RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Fox News, Herman Cain

Q: Can You Tell The Difference Between The World’s Youngest Blogger And The U.S. Attorney General?

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

A: One of them lacks the maturity for public office; the other one is four months old.
Consider the WYB’s overly precise exposition of both this administration’s Fast & Furious operation, and Eric Holder’s non-approach to explaining to the American people just what these shenanigans mean:

Again, he’s four months old. We can expect, over time, that the WYB will do a better job of conveying the bigger picture of what is going on, without so slavishly reproducing the infantile mewlings of Eric Holder:

Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program.
As Holder’s aide was escorting the attorney general offstage following his remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House, a Daily Caller reporter introduced himself and shook Holder’s hand. The reporter asked him for a response to the growing chorus of federal legislators demanding his resignation.
Holder stepped towards the exit, then turned around, stepped back toward the reporter, and sternly said, “You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”
Holder then walked offstage without answering TheDC’s request for comment about calls for his resignation.

Via Atlas Shrugs

Category: Democrats, Eric Holder, World's Youngest Blogger
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