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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday, during an appearance on Morning Joe, David Axelrod dismissed Herman Cain’s candidacy. (h/t Mark Hemingway of The Weekly Standard.)
I, for one, am glad that Axelrod doesn’t take Cain seriously because if Axelrod isn’t taking Cain seriously then it means that President Obama isn’t taking Cain seriously. It means that the Obama White House has tunnel vision which is concentrated almost exclusively on Mitt Romney.
It also means that Obama is out of touch with the public mood which has gravitated to Cain over the past several weeks. Oh, they’re aware of Cain’s poll numbers but they don’t think he has any staying power. Of course, it’s possible they might have calculated that one correctly. But if they haven’t calculated that correctly then watch out. It means they aren’t prepared for Herman Cain. As I have explained previously, going up against Cain won’t be like going up against any of the other GOP candidates. Cain can debate Obama with a candor with which the other candidates simply cannot or will not for fear of being accused of racism. Not that it will stop the liberal accusations of racism. But Cain will make such accusations look really, really stupid.
If President Obama’s re-election campaign continues to make the mistake of taking Cain too lightly before they know it they might end up handing him the keys to the White House.
View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/18/axelrod-underestimates-cain
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ncatty| 10.18.11 @ 12:20PM
This could be a head fake by Axelrod. The White House wants to run against Romney and NOT against Cain. Hence the attempt to diminish Cain.
DRed| 10.18.11 @ 12:22PM
Here, in a nutshell, is how Obama would debate Cain: "The 9-9-9 plan would result in most of you folks paying more in taxes than you do right now. Also, my opponent has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to foreign policy. Thank you, and God bless America."
Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 1:07PM
Cain's reply, "and what did you know about foreign policy in 2007, and for that matter you seemed to have learned nothing about it in last 3 years. Would you like to talk about Lybia, for starters? Furthermore, what the hell do know about economics and business? You never had a real job in your life nor led anything. It would result in more in taxes? Really, YOU will amount to more in taxes and the deficit we will never be able to pay off if you get another four years. You are the guy that wants rates to return to 1990 levels. Gee, while were at it, what was your plan, could you share it with us?"
Bob Grant| 10.18.11 @ 7:39PM
As a palette cleanser Mr. Cain could also throw in a few lines about how Obama is destroying the dollar.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.18.11 @ 12:23PM
Aaron,
you know.......now would be a good time to state honestly that you "are all in" for Mr. Cain.
In my mind, it is a hell of a note if America has to vote for one black man to defeat another black man. Your whole idea sucks!
Margie| 10.18.11 @ 1:12PM
What's Race got to do with it?
Sick.
Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 1:24PM
Ken,
It is not about one black man over another. It is about the republican establishment and the progressive rulers and their media doing everything they can to destroy any possibility of a conservative getting elected whether that person is Perry, Bachmann, Cain or even Gingrich. Anyone who takes any of these conservative ideas of smaller government, balanced budgets, reduction in fraud, corruption, and the scope of govmint, and tax reform even remotely seriously is a target. The establishment is really not concerned with Ron Paul's odd foreign policy directions, they fear what he would do to government scope and power.
Christie announces today that he will consider a VP slot. This is how desperate they are to not give one inch to any Tea Party supported candidate. They will attempt a Romney/Christie ticket before they ever allow a conservative on this ticket.
If these candidates were smart they would expose this and stop attacking each other and start going after Romney and the establishment agenda.
L.Charteris| 10.18.11 @ 2:16PM
This is how desperate they are to not give one inch to any Tea Party supported candidate.
Which Tea Party candidate should they be looking at?
As bad as the primary process is, it winnows out the candidates who can't think on their feet, can't organize effectively, etc. Supporting a candidate because they hold the right views, ignoring the fact that they are simply not ready for the national political stage, is ideological affirmative action.
Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 2:41PM
Cute name.
It winnows nothing. The process is corrupt, shallow, and bereft of anything meaningful. These debates have been a joke..worse than a joke..they are embarassing.
We are not electing a debator or a campaign organizer.
We just elected a person that excelled at both and he is socialist disaster that lacks character, has the wrong views, is a socialist ideologue, and has had no real life experience and has led nothing but a campaign.
Who says Cain or anyone else is not ready for a national political stage? You? Some other idiot?
The people will decide who is ready to lead, has the right views, the right character, and solutions. Not you, nor Tex Baxter, nor CNN.
Which Tea party candidate should they be looking at? They should not be looking at anything, they should be reporting, they should be providing factual information about the candidates, and they damn well should not be picking our candidates or manipulating us.
L.Charteris| 10.18.11 @ 3:09PM
The debates have been a joke in some ways, but even bad questions give candidates a chance to show that they can think on their feet. Perhaps bad questions are even better in that respect because we see how candidates handle adversarial situations.
Gingrich stands out here, in that he has so often refused to take the questions at face value. At the other extreme would be Perry and Santorum who crack under what is, let's face it, really only a minor test of the ability to stay cool and think clearly under pressure.
You say we just elected a person who excelled at debating and campaign organization ... which tells me you have an estimation of Obama that has more to do with the empty praise heaped on him by his fans four years ago (and not so much these days) than the reality of his performance. In debates he was weak. In press conferences he can only handle softball questions. His campaign organization was adequate but not brilliant by any means. He won because McCain was a truly, truly awful candidate.
Whether or not Perry, and Bachmann, and Cain are ready for the national stage is as you say something that will be decided by the people. Polls are useful in helping to show what the people are thinking. The people weren't impressed with Perry or Bachmann. As for Cain, check back in a couple of weeks.
You write that "the people will decide who is ready to lead" and obviously this is true. But you seem to think they decide this based on who "has the right views, the right character, and solutions." Is this your first election season? Are we talking about the same voters whose stupidity is hard to underestimate?
To win you have to put an effective candidate out there in front of the voters. The candidate has to reach a lot of people who are more swayed by good hair and a confident voice and catchy slogans and whatever symbolism happens to grab them most.
In an ideal world you put an effective campaigner out there who is also a person with good solutions, good character, good leadership skills, etc. But running a candidate because they have good character, etc., in spite of the fact that they are such a poor campaigner that they can't even hold the tea party's attention for more than a few weeks, is a recipe for re-electing Obama.
Samuel Adams| 10.18.11 @ 4:56PM
You're an asshole.
LC JB | 10.19.11 @ 3:25AM
Oh, so we're back to the same old, same old. We MUST run somebody that's 'electable'. That turn of phrase has led to one disaster after another to the conservative movement. It's all about capitulating true conservatism that you (the GOP and establishment repubs) DO NOT believe in, to someone that's moderate-RINO-CINO. This is why we need to entirely dismantle the GOP as a party, they've suborned our ideology at the altar of what THEY believe is needed to win, in spite of evidence to the contrary. We conservatives are flippin' sick to death of being told that our ideas can't win elections. This nonsense has led us in the past to the Bob Doles and John McCain candidates. Today, this will once again force an absolute RINO, if not an actual LIBERAL candidate named Romney on us. I can't even tell the difference between Ogabe and Romney on many core issues. So what is it that I'm supposed to be drooling over Romney with? Something breathtakingly stupid like he's got good hair or a winning smile. Seriously, I could have seen this guy taking a job with the administration more than being a viable opposition candidate. Come on folks, the WH is all in for the guy and that should be a clue !! They can run Obamalini as being acceptably more to the LEFT than Mittens. Stop the madness.
Steve A| 10.18.11 @ 12:36PM
Ken, You are just upset because Aaron forgot to mention Perry &/or how Texas saved the USA in the entire article.
Margie| 10.18.11 @ 1:13PM
Country Class Women for Herman Cain 2012!
Scott| 10.18.11 @ 2:30PM
Haha....You know who else isn't taking Herman Cain seriously???.....Herman Cain.
If he was, he would have actually attempted to put some form of a real campaign together....you know like spending time in the early caucus/primary states early and often.....
Simon Templar| 10.18.11 @ 2:44PM
He did and is leading in a recent poll in Iowa.
You really need to stop parroting everything you hear and start using your brain and coming up with some original thoughts of your own.
SCPOret| 10.18.11 @ 2:36PM
Perry shot himself at the debates, nobody wants Romney. Cain is a winner by any standard. Cain 2012.
SassyFrass| 10.18.11 @ 4:16PM
Good news for those who think the 999 sales tax is a bad idea ... Cain is changing it from a sales tax to a payroll tax. I'm not sure if the 999 plan is still supposed to be a gateway to the FairTax, or if his support for the FairTax has gone the way of his support for returning to the gold standard.
Pete Brown| 10.18.11 @ 4:17PM
I love Cain, but he needs to ditch 9-9-9.
Bob Grant| 10.18.11 @ 5:02PM
After listening to Cain infrequently over the years as a talk radio fill in for Neal Bortz and quite frequently the past 8 months, I've come to this conclusion. He's a genuine, successful, highly likable individual who loves his country. He seems to have plenty of leadership skills to be president and is relatively up to date and informed on the issues. In addition, he's conservative.
That alone makes him vastly superior to what we have in the white house.
His main problem is he has difficulty adequately explaining his positions on issues he has very little first hand knowledge of. For instance, foreign policy. I believe the main reason for this is being a mathematics major, he thinks logically and in linear fashion. You know, If X equals Y, then Y equals X. , etc. This explains his answer on foreign policy in which he stated that he would find the most qualified advisers possible and act on their advise. It also explains why he couldn't answer any hypotheticals because he didn't possess all the facts.
This makes for good common sense but it drives lawyer types like most congressmen and members of the mainstream media up the wall. They all expect more artful answers with alot of B.S.
My advise for Mr. Cain would be to hire a good political adviser who can teach him how to answer questions in a more artful fashion and lining up old colleagues who are willing to sing his praises.
SassyFrass| 10.18.11 @ 5:22PM
He's super-cautious about not saying anything about foreign policy before being fully prepared to speak about it. But then he latches onto economic plans without thinking them through, from the Fair Tax VAT to the 999 plan as a first step toward Fair Tax and now he's dropped the sales tax part of 999 which makes it harder to see how it's a step toward a Fair Tax VAT.
You've described his strengths very well, though.
LC JB | 10.19.11 @ 3:34AM
Ya know, I'm sick to death of acting like Cain is unacceptable based on his lack of foreign policy creds. That didn't stop Obama and having failed his schooling on it for the past 3-years doesn't seem to be an issue with his voters either. This is going to be a damn LONG election season if we continue this bullshit circular firing squad business. I am absolutely positive that Cain is a very, very, VERY intelligent man that will have more than enough experts on foreign policy immediately available to him as president. There is entirely too much information for a potential CEO/President to digest as we perhaps expected 100 years ago. Look at our most senior military types. They are highly specialized and even theater commanders delegate the complicated detailed tasks to proven experts. Your building an impossible pedestal for you candidates to reside on. Meanwhile back at the ranch....Ogabe is reelected while y'all are still looking for the 'perfect' guy.
tonypal| 10.18.11 @ 6:53PM
I agree with ncatty. Say what you want about Axelrod and company, they got Obama elected. These guys are not fools and will stop at nothing to get what they want.
The basic idea is for Obama to be dismissive of Cain and for the msm to follow suit. He's pretty sure the race thing won't work (duh!), so establish the narrative early on that Cain is not a serious candidate. It's pretty simple and almost clever. I don't think it will work, but we'll see.
What Obama really wants is Romney. He'll have a great deal of fun going after all the flip flops and his ad campaign will be directed at conservatives. Obama knows he's toast unless he can convince enough conservatives to stay home election day. For sure, they'll be a few knuckleheads who will do just that, in order to make a point. I will spend all of my time trying to convince wayward conservatives to vote for Romney/Cain/Howdy Freakin' Doody in order to stave off the colossal disaster of a 2nd Obama term. For any conservatives inclined to sit it out, imagine Antonin Scalia falling ill and being replaced by Cass Sunstein. Anyone up for that?
So in conclusion to my rambling post, Axelrod is actually showing the weakness of the Obama campaign and who they truly fear. It's tough to play the race card when your republican opponent is black.