The Other McCain

Somebody told me that Herman Cain was asked about this on CBS News and said Governor Palin was “wrong,” evidently based on media reports. But let’s go to the transcript, shall we?

VAN SUSTEREN: How does, though, a politician, though, connect with the people and get it across so it doesn’t just sound like more like, Blah, blah, blah? When the politician gets up on the air, probably many of us can sort of mouth the answers for the politician because we know these people for better, for worse, so well, and that they’re going to say. It’s quite predictable.
But how does a politician actually connect with someone in the heartland, for instance?
PALIN: That’s a great question. I think what helps is for that politician is to have a foundation of having come from the real people of America, the working class, those who make up the majority of Americans who are so extremely concerned about the direction of our country.
Take Herman Cain. Look at why he’s doing so well right now. He’s, I guess you could say, with all due respect, the flavor of the week because Herman Cain is the one up there who doesn’t look like he’s part of that permanent political class. Herman Cain — he came from a working class family. He’s had to make it on his own all these years. We respect that.
That has an automatic connection with the electorate, where we say, We can relate to him, he knows the issues, the problems that we face every day, and he’s determined to do something about it. He’s not elite. He doesn’t seem to allow us to be disenchanted with what it is that he’s proposing because what he proposes in terms of solutions, Greta, for our economy, are based on time-tested truths and common sense and true economic principles that will work.
So Herman Cain is a good example of a connection with the voters and why his message, good messenger, he’s resonating with the people.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it’s sort of interesting about — you know, in watching the straw poll votes in Florida that you were talking about, Herman Cain winning by — he trounced, basically, Governor Perry and Governor Romney, the two supposed front-runners — is that the media was so shocked, that they seemed so surprised. And I’m sort of curious as to what extent, you know, the media doesn’t really go out and talk to the American people. And you know, I wonder if people — if the people watching it from the heartland, if they were surprised that he won in Florida.
PALIN: We are not surprised that he, as a messenger of common-sense conservative pro-U.S. Constitution principles, is doing well. Many of the elites in the media were shocked.
And you know, I think it’s kind of humorous to see the way that the media is covering these candidates. Let me give you an example of this. Earlier today, Greta, on Fox News, you had a host who said Sarah Palin in the polls, she’s way, way down there in the polls. And I’m kind of scratching my head, going, Wait a minute. On another network, on CNN just the other day, they showed a poll where I was, like, within 5 points of President Obama. I was doing well, much better than many of the other candidates.
And I’m thinking all this misinformation and contradictory information, contradicting information from even hosts here on this network itself, it adds to, I guess, the disconnect even — not just the permanent political class, but many in the media also because sometimes, they don’t do their homework. And many times, a host or a reporter, they have their own agenda and they interject their agenda in the information they’re providing their viewers and readers.
So didn’t surprise me or many of us that Herman Cain was doing well, but certainly surprised many in the media because sometimes they don’t do their homework and they do perpetuate misinformation.

Well, Politico tried to “perpetuate misinformation” and between Slate’s Dave Weigel and Hot Air’s Tina Korbe, this gets turned into a kerfuffle. Read the freakin’ transcript: While Palin did say Cain was “flavor of the week” — that is to say, from the media perspective he’s the Next New Thing — she followed that with effusive praise for him as representing “the real people of America,” with whom he has an “automatic connection.” 

Sarah Palin has always been a Herman Cain fan, and is still a Herman Cain fan. I’d have to look it up, but earlier this year, she re-Tweeted one of Cain’s columns. The media are trying to gin up a phony controversy — “Let’s you and him fight,” as they say down home — and the last thing Cain should do is to believe what the media say about Sarah Palin. They’re “makin’ up stuff” again!

See also: “Politics as Show Biz.”

UPDATE: Wait a minute — there is a discrepancy between the transcript and this video:

Something’s screwy: Is the Fox transcription wrong? Did Politico edit the video? What?