Herman Cain wins straw poll in Nevada

[Ready to do it 101]

Hahaha, again he looks for more ways to self-destroy. This is like the 4th time in 7 days that Herman Cain has made himself look stupid. Ah, the price of all the attention. Like I said, stick a fork in him... he's done.

http://race42012.com/

Another Rough Patch For Herman Cain

Well, Herman Cain seems to be getting nothing but bad press lately, and much of it has been at his own hand.

This morning on Fox and Friends, he had a very friendly and easy interview with Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade. They talked about race, his tie, his 9-9-9 plan, and generally gave him one of the most softball interviews I’ve ever seen. But when it came time for the softball answer on abortion, Cain managed to muddy the waters yet again on the issue:

Carlson: “I know you’ve had some difficulty with the abortion issue. Here’s my question for you this morning: Should abortion be a part of the political discussion?”

Cain: “No, it should not, quite frankly.” Risibly, he added, “But, my position is real clear, Gretchen, and it’s been consistent: I am pro-life.

Cue another round of bad headlines for Cain, who now apparently believes politicians shouldn’t even be talking about abortion. Cain has a knack for not letting an issue die, that’s for sure.

That was followed up by Karl Rove appearing on Fox News with his whiteboard, listing one-by-one all the ways Herman Cain has shot himself in the foot recently. Rove declared Cain finished, which prompted an angry Cain to accuse Rove of “trying to destroy me.” Rove fired back that Fox pays him to call balls and strikes, and he was just calling the primary race like he (and many others, I might add) see it.

The bad news continued for Cain, as Mark Benjamin published a piece over at TIME’s website entitled, The Mystery of the Missing Presidential Campaign: Cain Operation MIA in Key States. The piece again draws attention to the fact that Cain’s staff in virtually nonexistent in the early states of New Hampshire, Florida, and South Carolina, and uses some pretty harsh quotes from Republican operatives to do it:

Well-connected GOP operatives in New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina say they see little or no evidence of Cain’s campaign in those key early primary states, and some are even unable to name who is leading his localized efforts just a little more than two months before voters are expected to cast the first ballots.

“There is no sense of a tangible organization that you can point to,” says Rich Killion, an uncommitted GOP strategist in New Hampshire, who’s unsure of the location of Cain’s Granite State base of operations, or even if there is one. “If you said, ‘Rich, tell me who is running the effort here?’ I could not even give you that person.” Matt Murphy, Cain’s original state director, resigned in June.

“There is good will towards him, but there is almost no organization to speak of,” says Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “If there is a local group who wanted to invite him to speak, it is unclear whom to call…

A prominent Republican operative in Florida says the Cain campaign is similarly invisible in his state. “If somebody called here and asked to volunteer for Cain, I would not know whom to talk to,” he says. Cain won a major Florida straw poll in late September, but he’s been largely absent ever since. “He came and worked the crowd. He got a few state reps. to endorse him” and then he left, the operative says. “It boggles the mind. I don’t know any of the usual suspects who have been called, asked or much less hired. There is no grassroots. The guys in key counties, none of them are getting talked to.”

“We see nothing to resemble a real campaign,” says another GOP operative, who is based in South Carolina and knows of only one Cain staffer there. According to him, both of South Carolina’s U.S. Senators and one member of its House delegation sought assistance with reaching out to Cain, but the strategist said he’s been unable to get the campaign to respond.

The piece bookends the evidence that Cain has zero (or close to zero) organization in these states with a simple question that’s on everybody’s minds: is Herman Cain running for President, or running to sell books and get speaking gigs? A South Carolina operative ends the piece by asking point blank: “Is it a campaign, or is it a book tour?”

Then came the news that Team Cain began running a huge radio ad campaign. At first, Iowa websites reported it and wondered if it was just an Iowa buy. But eyebrows were raised when the Cain campaign announced that the ad was not just running in Iowa – nor was it just running in the early states: no, Herman Cain has launched this radio ad in all 50 states. However, add to that bewildering move the fact that the radio ad touts a new website – 999meansjobs.com – that wasn’t even up yet today. When folks tried to go to 999meansjobs.com, this is what they were greeted with:

Apparently, 999 means Brian’s stuff. When reporters contacted the Cain campaign, they redirected the URL to Herman Cain’s site and said they would have the new site up tomorrow. Somebody needs to tell Herman Cain that he’s playing JV ball in the big leagues now. By itself, this would be something little, but when combined with everything else that’s gone wrong for Cain lately, it becomes just another way that Herman Cain proves he’s not ready for primetime.

But to close out the day, National Review has a new editorial up which is featured as their front page headline: The Hermanator Stumbles. In the piece, Mark Steyn excoriates Cain for his recent missteps, and attempts to put his finger on the cause of all this commotion:

The foreign policy, hostage-trading, abortion stuff is becoming more difficult to ignore. I don’t think Charles Krauthammer’s assertion that Cain’s “winging it” fully explains it, nor does the Pundette’s that he is “incoherent.” Cain’s boast that he can’t name the president of Beki-beki-beki-beki-beki-beki-stan gets closer to it…

But the ’stan shtick is a glimpse of the greater truth – that there are whole areas of public policy in which he simply has no interest. None. You ask him a question and from the recesses of his mind swim up half-recalled phrases from some panel discussion he caught once long ago, and he hopes he grabs the conservative line (“I’m proud to stand by Israel,” “we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” “life begins at conception,” whatever) but just as often he doesn’t (with Gretchen Carlson this morning: “No, abortion should not be a part of the political discussion”).

His fans say he’s being set up with “Gotcha” questions. But these aren’t the Hoogivsastans way out on the fringe of the public policy map. They’re the first stops on the central thruway of American politics, and have been for most of Cain’s adult life. And it’s becoming harder to avoid the obvious truth that he hasn’t given them a moment’s thought.

No, today was not kind to the Cain campaign. And its difficult to see how things get any better unless Cain takes some time out to do some serious policy studying and stops winging it out on the campaign trail. Of course, if he was out to just sell books and get speaking gigs, he’s doing just fine.

Edited October 24, 2011 by Ready to do it

[scandal 951]

“There is no sense of a tangible organization that you can point to,” says Rich Killion, an uncommitted GOP strategist in New Hampshire, who’s unsure of the location of Cain’s Granite State base of operations, or even if there is one. “If you said, ‘Rich, tell me who is running the effort here?’ I could not even give you that person.” Matt Murphy, Cain’s original state director, resigned in June.

“There is good will towards him, but there is almost no organization to speak of,” says Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “If there is a local group who wanted to invite him to speak, it is unclear whom to call…

A prominent Republican operative in Florida says the Cain campaign is similarly invisible in his state. “If somebody called here and asked to volunteer for Cain, I would not know whom to talk to,” he says. Cain won a major Florida straw poll in late September, but he’s been largely absent ever since. “He came and worked the crowd. He got a few state reps. to endorse him” and then he left, the operative says. “It boggles the mind. I don’t know any of the usual suspects who have been called, asked or much less hired. There is no grassroots. The guys in key counties, none of them are getting talked to.”

This is really too bad.

I was hoping he'd stay credible into the early Primaries, you know, to destabilize and sow confusion in the ranks.....

Oh well.