The real Cain scandal: Video cringe alert
It has nothing to do with anything Gloria Allred has her hands in.
It’s his continued lack of preparedness on, and familiarity with, basic domestic and foreign policy issues. Sorry, Cain fans. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. But like Rick Perry, Herman Cain is just not ready for prime time. The real Cain scandal: He can barely form a coherent thought on Libya when put on the spot and garbles collective bargaining 101 facts.
This Milwaukee Sentinel Journal editorial board session — all on video, in all its prolonged cringe-worthiness — sums up the problem with the Cain Train. The paper’s recap:
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday that he believes public employees should be allowed to bargain collectively on wages and other benefits as long as it does not create an undue burden on taxpayers.
In Wisconsin Monday for two fundraisers, including a tailgate fundraiser at tonight’s Packers game at Lambeau Field, Cain met for a half-hour with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors. In the meeting Cain:
* Struggled to collect his thoughts and explain how his approach to the crisis in Libya would have differed from the actions taken by President Barack Obama.
…On the issue of collective bargaining, Cain said he supported the right of public employees to bargain collectively.
“But not collective hijacking. What I mean by that, if they have gotten so much for so many years and it’s going to bankrupt the state, I don’t think that’s good. It appears that in some instances, they really don’t care.”
Asked about last week’s vote in Ohio, in which the state’s new collective bargaining law was rejected by voters, Cain said that “maybe they tried to get too much and as a result it failed.”
Asked if the Ohio Legislature had gone too far in stripping collective bargaining rights for public employees, including fire and police personnel, Cain said that Ohio legislators “may have tried to get too much in one bill.”
Ohio’s collective bargaining law differed from Wisconsin in at least one key aspect: Wisconsin exempted police and fire personnel from the law.
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel last month, Cain said that he was “right in the corner of Gov. Scott Walker 100%” in Walker’s battle with public employee unions.
Cain also appeared to be unclear on the issue of collective bargaining as it involves federal employees. Asked if he thought federal employees should have the ability to bargain collectively, Cain said: “They already have it, don’t they?”
Told they didn’t, he said, “They have unions.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 federal government workers in 65 agencies, says that most federal employees don’t have collective bargaining over pay and benefits.
Watch for yourselves. Take anti-depressants or a stiff drink first:
On Libya (listen for the part where he excuses his hemming and hawing by explaining that he has “a lot of stuff twirling around in his head”)…
And on collective bargaining…
Cain makes Rick Perry look like a Mensa president.
Where are my nose plugs?
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Another hopeless Cainiac.
It depends on the issue. This issue in this blog post by MM is not a left or right issue. It’s a reality issue vs. hallucinatory loyalty. Seems like you’ve picked the latter. By the way, you may want to learn the difference between “centrist” (which is right down the middle, not left or right) and “moderate”.
=====
By the way, with your jump to another topic, after I responded, “I am a parasite who feels superior by defending Malkin in my previous posts?” I assume you’ve let that lie die. Thanks.
Ha! But even a ‘moderate conservative’ is a far left liberal to most here. So, good luck trying to explain that.
Well Ken, by now you should know there is no such thing as a moderate democrat, a moderate is a RINO. A centrist is a failed Democrat.
Considering where these debates are leading to as which candidates are most likely to survive against Obama, will it be before long that we hear of Sarah Palin again?
I definitely don’t expect OK_Loyalist to understand the difference between a centrist vs. a moderate. Sadly it’s true, esp. with some posters here on MM’s blog, that anything even slightly moderate to the extreme right is labeled as liberal. Just see how Jon Huntsman been treated, esp. by putzes like Erick Erickson, even though Jon Huntsman has the best conservative economic record. Heck, just look at the pummeling of MM herself, just bc she chose to post a video of the candidate himself, in his own words.
Well. Looks like at least one black man got vetted, and with extreme prejudice. Can’t imagine the Vichy Press doing the same thing to Obama. Can you? Rule #1: Better be able to think on your feet.
Looks like only Bachmann and Santorum for Conservatives. Snowball’s chance.
All you need to know about the candidates can be deduced by their treatment by the Collaborator Press. Romney is promoted as “moderate”, as has Huntsman. They are both open borders proponents and go-along liberals on social spending programs. They don’t speak of Huntsman much now because he is so low in the polls. In 2008 they promoted McCain because he was the least conservative of the bunch. Now it’s Romney they want us to pick.
Prediction: Look for ramped up attacks on Ginrich until he is thoroughly suppressed. If Bachmann or Santorum rise, they will be targeted in turn. The only thing Conservatives can hope for is Santorum or Bachmann as VP. Not likely.
Get ready for Bush III at best, and be sure to eat your peas.
About six weeks ago I said that it wasn’t going to happen; that the experiment had failed. This is proof positive. Not ready for prime time.
Go Newt.
I started out thinking that Cain was the guy, but now I’m looking at Rick Santorum. First he couldn’t form a coherent thought on his “pro-life” stance, and now THIS. Methinks it will definitely be Mitt and some-other-big-R-GOP-stalwart running against the worst president in all of human history in 2012. WHY DOESN’T ALLEN WEST RUN?!?
If West won, conservative bloggers would start attacking him also. The Right eats its own.
Regardless, Herman Cain would still be infinitely better than the community organizer who is currently residing in the White House and who is tearing down our economy and our country.
Couldn’t agree more.
Cain is doing it to himself, the point of MM’s article. So HAS Newt, and before you dismiss his past, go read it. Adultery, ethics, ethics, adultery, ethics, Pelosi. What a fun campaign that will be.
The Bamster was a walking talking gaffe machine in 2008… getting tossed softball question from an adoring media.
Herman is good on Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I think its better that Cain figure out where he needs to get stronger now, than later.
My thought going in was to support the most conservative candidate. Cain announced first and I knew he’d start with little money, and almost no organization. The other candidates would have established organizations because of their previous political campaigns. I decided to support him while hoping other candidates did well too.
I am full on anti-Romney, anti-Paul, and anti-Huntsman.
Cain is far more that just a pizza guy. He has a rich biography.
I am with him as long as he is in the race. I am not looking for perfection. I am looking at the core of the man. He’ll get better at the media’s foreign policy in 60 seconds stuff.
I’m in sales and I worked 999 against my current tax rate. I figure that I can cut prices 15% across the board for starters. When other companies I buy from lower their prices, I can cut prices even more.
At least Cain served in the military, which is more than most, but is not the only qualification needed to be leader of the free world, especially at this precarious time. He has no foreign/diplomatic experience, no legislative experience, and what government policy has he implemented? He may be a great guy, but you all are livin’ in a dream world and so is he.
happy,
Fact: Most of our Presidents have had little to no foreign going into the job.
He brings on a Chief of Staff and/or VP with legislative experience. Someone who knows how to push buttons over at the Capitol. Problem solved.
I live in the real world just like Cain, not fantasy land like DC. I think it is about time some real world hits DC.
no foreign policy
“Allowing”? Is there something preventing them from doing it now? I mean, no one’s forcing them to accept assistance from us right now, correct?
If one of them has your definition of “sovereign” and the other has a more logical definition, then it’s doubtful.
And then there’s their difference of opinion when it comes to killing terrorists…
Here’s the way I see it.
Cain – Dude, stop it. You’ve got my support, but it’s slipping. No more interviews like this. You need to be prepared because they really are out to get you.
Gingrich – You’re my backup right now. Don’t screw it up.
Romney – You were a conservative choice in 2008. Why you decided to move toward the center is beyond me. The media has treated you with kid gloves because they want you to get the nod. That’s reason enough for me to not vote for you.
Perry – No. That’s all you had to say about the Dream Act. You lost me there.
Bachmann – You doubled down on the retardation comment and it cost you. If you can regain more than 4% support, I’ll consider you.
Paul – If you had worked on getting rid of the 65% crazy 4 years ago, then maybe, but you didn’t.
I think the military experience and business experience trumps the lack of political experience. In fact I am sick and tired of politicians.You want foreign/Diplomatic experience then vote Huntsman.
Personally I will take a mathematician any day over a lawyer. And the tongue may not be as smooth, but I am sure the intellect is there.
Rarely does another person’s post sum up my views as exactly as yours does.
“SuccessfulModerate”Dem
(laughs)
Of course! Women who comes out and accuses a prominent republican presidental candidate of “harassment” MUST be believed.
Dang, where were you with all this when the Clinton, Kilpatrick and Weiner scandals were going on?
Innocent until proven guilty.
Besides, we all know that the left wants Cain out, because a successful Black Republican President candidate would mean huge swaths of African-American voters voting Republican once more, you know the real architects behind civil rights and equality.
You might also think that you’re doing the DNC a favor by promoting Huntsman, but with the undecideds, he’d still beat Barack.
In the general election , I will vote for Romney if I have to.
However, I will do so with far more enthusiasm if Gingrich is his VP, and all you purists can just dang well suppress your indignation about it.
Marginally Conservative Management (Romney), combined with Marginally Conservative Brains (Gingrich), is still a universe apart from the Appallingly Incompetent Socialist Fraud who currently “Occupies” the White House.
Herman was asked about his “Libya pause”.
FWIW… it was 11 seconds.
He said… I’m paraphrasing “First, its monitoring everything I say. Now you are monitoring my pauses.”
“It was just a pause.”
Rush is calling what it is… “The latest hit job from the left and the “right”
Just to be picky (because I am!), Cain did not “serve in the military”. After college he worked for the Navy as a mathmetician doing ballistic missile trajectory calculations.
He’s not a veteran. He served his country in a civilian capacity.
Squirming Herman. I don’t believe the sexual harrassment charges- I also don’t believe I want Squirming Herman with a mile of the pentagon in any capacity.
It wasn’t just the pause. It was the pause, followed by a really incoherent answer to the question.
He simply needs to do better. Raising objections to the way he’s being scrutinized won’t cut it.
Yes Herman Cain is Finished! How dare this arrogant business man think he can run for President of the United States. The Conservative media and the Govt media have handpicked Mitt McCain Dole Bush as our new overlord. He has the proper Government ties and a five year plan. We need a go along to get alone Dempublican to rule us. Why would we vote for a mere mortal who answers questions without a well funded staffer to feed him the proper responses of the day? We need only to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. We need the Weekly Standard and Charles Krauthammer to pick our Nominee.
Straight_Talk_Luigi, if you’re going to quote me on a post not directed to you, at least try staying on topic. We’re discussing Cain’s interview through this videoclip, not the sexual harassment allegations.
Watching those clips will make us sweat bullets for Cain. No doubt about it, he blew the interview. He seemed to know he had some disagreement with Obama on handling Libya, but just couldn’t find the right words.
Yes it was a blunder. Was it fatal, I don’t think so, but we’ll see. If his poll numbers continue to decline, he’s done. If not, he gets my continued support.
On his support for unions, I believe he supports collective bargaining, but not strikes. The alternative is binding arbitration, as is the case with most police agency unions.
which is also bad medicine
Ann Coulter said it best tonight in her weekly article, about the candidate du jour and Romney.
(JD- the military thing came from an article, that I should have checked, as I mostly do.)
Romney/Obama 2012!!