Seriously, dude. You’re embarrassing yourself.
Herman Cain opened his mouth and more stupid fell out:
“Barack Obama is more of an international,” Cain said. “I think he’s out of the mainstream and always has been. Look, he was raised in Kenya [No. No he was not. He really wasn’t. Not even a little. Stop repeating a lie, you ignorant twit. -ed.], his mother was white from Kansas and her family had an influence on him, it’s true, but his dad was Kenyan, and when he was going to school he got a lot of fellowships, scholarships, he stayed in the academic environment for a long time. He spent most of his career as an intellectual.”
The above quote is from Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece on and interview with the Hermanator in Bloomberg News. (Read the article. It’s worth it.)
Cain is a couple months late on this birther business, but evidently dude has no problem talking about stuff he knows nothing about.
Herman. Herman, Herman, Herman. Buddy. What are you doing? Go back to Shady Pines. It’s time to eat your butterscotch pudding and watch your stories. This presidential campaign stuff isn’t for you. Sarah Palin is running a better campaign than you are, and she’s not even running. If you’re going to be a giant dumbass, you should at least be appealing. You have all the charisma of a diaper full of cooked carrots.
Look, I know the country is still transfixed by Anthony’s Peener, but that will blow over (some day — I hope) and the ugly light of celebrité will soon shine on your hapless head. As such, I’m starting a list of your Stupid Greatest Hits. Let’s get crackin’:
- You promised (and then quickly reneged on your promise) that — as president — you wouldn’t sign any bills longer than three pages so that every American could read them.
- You said you wouldn’t appoint a Muslim to your cabinet or as a federal judge, but then later said you totally would, as long as they took a special oath, and haha!, joke’s on you because the Constitution is Kryptonite to a Muslim!
“I don’t know one Muslim who will denounce Sharia Law, and then say they can support the Constitution of the United States of America. So my assumption based on what I know about their belief system is that they are not going to give up Sharia Law. Anybody that takes the oath of office in a Herman Cain administration will put their hand on the Bible, not the Koran!” 1
- You proudly admitted on Fox News Sunday that you didn’t know what the Palestinian Right of Return is during the week that Netanyahu and Obama gave speeches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I suppose we should be grateful you didn’t say something about Palestinians returning to their homeland, ringing bells and sending warning rockets to the Israelis, but there’s no excuse for not knowing what Right of Return means. You’re running for President, dipshit. You should know these things, or at least have enough sense to learn these things before appearing on the Sunday morning circuit after a week when the middle east was front and center in American politics.
- You chastised the Democrats for not reading the Constitution in the same breath you made it breathtakingly clear that you haven’t read it either:
We don’t need to rewrite the Constitution of the United States — rewrite it — , we need to reread the constitution and enforce the Constitution. We don’t need to rewrite, let’s reread. And I know that there are some people that are not going to do that, so for the benefit of those that are not going to read it because they don’t want to follow the Constitution, there’s a little section in there about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You know those ideals that we live by, that we beleive in, they instilled in you… when you get to the part about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, don’t stop reading! Keep reading! When any form of government becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to alter and abolish it. We’ve got some altering! And some abolishing to do!
That last display of stupid really sticks in my craw. Hey, jackass! When you are reading the Constitution and you get to the part about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?
That’s when Barack Obama will finally admit that he is Kenyan or was raised in Kenya, or that his name is Kenya and he lives on the second floor. He lives upstairs from you, yes I guess you’ve seen him before.
Ugh.
Suffice it to say, Goldberg nails it:
[I]t is apparent that [Cain’s] popularity, especially among conservatives aligned with the Tea Party, can be traced in large part to his status as the black guy who is not Obama, the Georgia Baptist with the American name. Cain overtly plays this role in front of conservative audiences, offering them public absolution for a sin they don’t believe is a sin: believing that the president is somehow alien to the U.S. and its way of life.
These people are making me lose my will to live.
1 I retrieved this quote from the sewer known as “Fox Nation.” It’s there. Paste the quote into Google. I’ll be good and dogdamned before I link to that festering sore.
[Drop your Herman Cain is a dumbass links in the comments. I figure if I start compiling the last now, it should make for good reading by August 2012.]
[via The Atlantic]
dmsilev
I guess when Herman Cain was reading the Constitution, he somehow managed to miss Article VI, paragraph 3:
Maybe it was on page 4 of his copy?
pattonbt
But it’s not racist because a black man is saying it!!!! So it must be true!!! Plus I have black friends!
/s
A good politician (or in this case, salesman) knows how to pander to (or in this case con) his audience (or in this case marks) and it looks like Cain knows his audience (marks).
He’s just selling what the R base wants to hear and they will love him for it.
Maude
He’s not a serious contender and anyway, Sarah would refudiate his words.
We will never reach peak stupid.
lamh34
Here’s the thing, Herman Cain is a joke. I don’t know anyone who even knows who he is. Seriously, other than political addicts like myself, I don’t know ANY other Black people in my limited circle who follows politics only for Obama news. In fact, hell I’ve had only 1 person come to me asking me about the “pizza” guy, and even that conversation, was more of a WTH kinda convo.
If the GOP or Tea Party or anyone on the “other side” was serious about getting more AA into their tent they would embrace credible candidates who aren’t giving off blaring dogwhistle with every statement.
Sly
Give Herman was break. He was only off by a few thousand miles. Big deal.
Ruckus
ABL
Is he really a dumbass or just a conservative? Because I see these two things as having positive correlation in that you can’t have the second trait without the first. Although one can be a dumbass and not be conservative it seems to be much harder to pull off.
JPL
Cain has his and fuck the rest of you. Fair Tax yeah right.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
Why some of my best friends is herman cain.
Villago Delenda Est
Troll assclown “Reality Check”, in the previous thread, advised us all to “Watch Herman Cain”.
Yes, watch Cain publicly embarrass himself even further, you betcha.
The Dangerman
If it wasn’t for the highlighting of the fact that Obama’s mother was white, I wouldn’t be thinking this was Frank Furillo’s (he was the PizzaMan, for your HSB junkies) way of calling the President a near.
trollhattan
Imagining Herman with a 96-year old kvetching Jewish mother yelling at him to keep it down while she’s watching her stories there at Shady Pines makes me smile. A lot.
TaMara (BHF)
Here’s a link Cain might want to read…or maybe he actually doesn’t know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (hint: about 11 years).
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
I really hate politicians who seem to know nothing about American History. Go fucking watch a School House Rock video if you can’t be bothered to walk down the block and see the actual documents. Fuckers.
rikyrah
He’s a slave catching Uncle Ruckus mofo.
TaMara (BHF)
@Sly: And this. Too. Also.
Kirk Spencer
Cain is not a serious candidate. Oh, he may claim he is, but he’s got one big issue that will kill his chances (assuming he isn’t subject to the Bradley effect).
In 2006, Herman Cain was diagnosed with stage IV liver and colonic cancer. It was treated with chemo and surgery. He has beat the 5 year odds, but the odds of surviving 10 years are slim.
If Mr. Cain becomes a serious front-runner, you can expect a blizzard of requests to open his medical file on this issue for a bill of health. If he becomes a serious front-runner, expect a significant discussion of health care as well given his close experience with it. (And how did you pay for it? Don’t you think everyone should have the chance to deal with it?)
Alex S.
Kenya, Kansas, Keynes…
I bet Cain will only get three fifths of the speaking time of the others.
rikyrah
Herman Cain and the Tea Party GOP’s “My Best Friend is Black Strategy” at:
In a pitiable field of prospective 2012 Republican presidential nominees, Herman Cain has found a way to stand out from the pack. How? He has learned to play the “black best friend” to the GOP (and its Tea Party base). While Cain’s portrayal of this role is deft, it is also old wine in a new bottle. On one hand, Cain’s campaign is ostensibly “colorblind” and has nothing to do with his novelty as a self-described “American Black Conservative.” Yet when given the opportunity, Cain portrays a benign, friendly version of “authentic” blackness that he panders to his white, racially reactionary supporters on the Right.
The evidence for how racial resentment is the engine that drives the contemporary Republican Party and its Tea Party wing is overwhelming. Public opinion data suggests that the most ideological conservatives are more likely to believe that people of color are lazy and less intelligent than whites, and the anecdotal evidence would appear to bear that out. From the racist signs seen at Tea Party rallies and bigoted emails circulated among some Tea Party types that describe Barack Obama as a monkey, to the enduring phenomena of“Birtherism” and xenophobia, all indicators point to a deep antipathy towards the very idea that a black man is President of the United States of America.But, in the Age of Obama and a post-Civil Rights era multicultural America, naked appeals to white racism are political liabilities that must be couched in dog whistles (the New Right’s addiction to myopic nostalgia, the “good old days,” and a simplistic view of “American exceptionalism”) and subtle appeals (Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen; he is a “socialist,” or most provocatively, “anti-white”). Consequently, even the right-wing in American politics has been forced to embrace a theatrical type of multiculturalism where they are hyper-sensitive to having brown and black faces in high places—see the Michael Steeles, Clarence Thomas’s and Juan Williams’s of the world—and at their political rallies where the number of prominently displayed black and brown folks on stage and in the audience can be counted on one person’s fingers and toes.
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151207/the_gop%27s_%27my_best_friend_is_black%27_strategy/
Josie
I hate to break it to you, but that is probably way too subtle for Cain (and his followers). They will probably take it as proof that they are correct about the President’s Kenyanness and that you agree with them.
Edit: Defeated once again by the block quote gods. The second paragraph should have been included in the quote.
Warren Terra
I guess the first sign something was wrong with him should have been when we realized he was a Brother named Cain.
stuckinred
Boortz had him on at noon and let him give this big finish. It’s not about us it’s about the children”. Yea, ply them with cheap ass pizza.
Observer
Two things:
1. When did wisdom start emanating from Jeffrey Goldberg? Sorry, ain’t happening ever.
2.
So says Goldberg. That’s just an assumption on his part. There are plenty of popular Tea Partiers, they all say variations on the same thing. Cain’s been a salesman much of his professional life. One should expect him to do better than most of the other pretenders.
Goldberg’s article is just a sophisticated way of saying “BTW, did you know Cain is black?”. That’s all his article boils down too. I look forward to the day when we can just judge a candidate on the content of this character without a-holes like Goldberg faking some of you people out.
Also, see point #1.
Beauzeaux
More proof — if any was needed — that a Black Republican can be seven kinds of stupid and never be called on it.
A Black Democrat has to be brilliant to aspire to any high office.
I know that not all Black Democrats are geniuses but EVERY. SINGLE.BLACK.REPUBLICAN is an idiot.
fasteddie9318
@Kirk Spencer:
Meh, these fucking vampires will never die. Cheney doesn’t have a fucking pulse, for FSM’s sake, but he refuses to die too.
JPL
@stuckinred: I have a friend who still swears that it wasn’t about the sex with Clinton it was the lie and recently used the same line on Weiner. I replied that she listens to Boortz and she said that well he explains to folks to verify, so I said yeah, it would be okay for Clinton or Weiner to say verify first.
KG
@pattonbt: latest polls (no Huckabee) have him winning the Georgia primary by double digits (Bachamann is second), tied for second in Iowa (behind Mitt, even with Palin), and tied for third in South Carolina. That leads me to believe he might actually be a viable candidate… viable being a relative term.
Sorry, I apparently click the wrong reply button. This was suppose to be in response to Maude.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
I’m betting when 3rd quarter fundraising reports are released, they’ll show cain raised a grand total of $8,ooo.
I just don’t see the mouth-breathers sending cain cash.
JPL
@Kirk Spencer: My ex had colon cancer and the chances of surviving stage 4 are slim to none ..do you have a link?
TaMara (BHF)
@fasteddie9318: So to live forever I need to be a Republican? Hmmm. Nope, still not worth it.
Alex S.
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Yes, it’s a kind of welfare anyway.
Observer
@Beauzeaux:
So Condi Rice, former Provost of Stanford University, is an idiot?
From the Wiki
Didn’t know being black and republican makes you an idiot.
Always good to know where one stands with some people.
stuckinred
@JPL: I only catch him at noon because Jamie DuPree doesn’t let him get away with shit.
stuckinred
@Observer: And he’s a bootlicking motherfucking oreo.
JPL
@JPL: Kirk,,I just googled Cain and cancer and found it on wiki but the odds are just not that good. The one thing with colon cancer unlike breast cancer is normally the longer you survive, the better the odds. The new studies on breast cancer suggest that it can appear at any time.
Villago Delenda Est
@fasteddie9318:
The undead cannot die. They can only be destroyed.
stuckinred
@JPL: Link
Villago Delenda Est
@Observer:
Condi Rice was a joke at Stanford before she got the gig in the deserting coward malassministration, and she’s a joke afterwards, too.
ABL
@rikyrah: i just said something similar to Dannie O. on Twitter. hahaha.
Alex S.
@Villago Delenda Est:
I guess you have to destroy their phylacteries.
JPL
@stuckinred: I just googled it, see my comment at 32.. I spent ten months going to chemo with the ex and the odds are not there for stage 4. It’s interesting how they grade it. He was stage 3 b..which is 50/50. He would have refused chemo at stage 4.
edit..the good news is if he has been clean for that long ..he is probably okay
stuckinred
@JPL: Well, ya never know anyway. He ain’t goin nowhere with this bullshit minstrel show.
JPL
@stuckinred: but but ..he tried to create 5 dollar a hour jobs… good news for all.
trollhattan
@Observer:
Quite possibly.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB116/index.htm
Results, not resumes.
Observer
@Villago Delenda Est: Oh ok, well that must make her an idiot then.
Better tell the folks who gave her an honors degree at 19.
Probably should tell Jimmy Carter too, because he hired her to work at State back in the 70’s.
Different standards for different types of people I guess. No matter how well educated or well spoken or accomplished certain types of people are. Foolish black people, I guess, going out and getting all educated and stuff; they should know they’ll never get any credit from certain types of people, anyways.
You guys are too rich for words sometimes.
Kirk Spencer
@JPL: If Wikipedia isn’t good enough, this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article discusses it as well.
Observer
@trollhattan: If that’s the standard, then I look forward to a comment or post where someone writes that *ALL* white Republicans are idiots, then.
Not just Bush. The entire race of white people who also happen to be Republicans.
Anyways, I’m outta here for tonight. Not going waste time with this shit. You people are what you are and it’s doubtful that’ll ever change.
lamh34
@Observer:
I’m no fan of Condi Rice’s politics, but I do consider her one smart, intelligent sista, anyone who thinks she’s not is suspect in my book…Dem or Repub.
BUT, IMHO, to compare her to Cain who seem to barely be able to answer simple questions any candidate should know, that is an insult to Condi.
Chris
“Stop repeating a lie”
That’s hardly fair; if they can’t repeat lies, they won’t have anything to say at all.
trollhattan
@Observer:
So you’re cool that had she done her job better we might have avoided 9/11 and the loss of nearly 3,000 and the subsequent two wars, both of which are still going? Yup, that honors degree nails it on her behalf.
Also, too, how might you ‘splain her big brain versus her girl crush on George Dubya?
RSA
A damning indictment if ever there was one.
pattonbt
Why can’t Cain be both smart, talented, successful and a complete idiot?
I had an uncle who was very successful, won a couple days on Jeopardy, was a tremendous writer (in the vein of Faulkner) and the best orator I’ve ever run across. He had the sharpest wit and he was always quickest with facts and reading situations. That is until you ran into his nasty blindsides.
If you spent anything more than cursory time around him you would find out he was also an awful bigot, believed some really out there conspiracy stuff and was a complete gun nut (in the worst ways). Looking at him you would see Santa Clause, but knowing him you would be aghast.
He was so bad that he showed up to a family reunion in Atlanta in the hotel lobby wearing a t-shirt that said “don’t blame me, I voted for Jefferson Davis”. Complete and utter asshat. Needless to say, much to my mothers chagrin (but understanding) my brother and I never spoke to him again.
But he was still “smart” and “successful”.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Observer:
9/11 happened on her watch.
burnspbesq
@Observer:
I judge Cain on the content of his character, and find him sadly lacking.
I judge you the same way, and reach the same result.
P.S. You probably think you’re all clever and shit for borrowing from Dr. King. Au contraire.
Villago Delenda Est
@Observer:
“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent”.
On the other hand, being a co-defendant of an assmalistration of war criminals should get you at least a few years in stir.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
why am i just finding out that seth putnum died?
JPL
@Kirk Spencer: He beat the odds. The drugs for stage 4 cost a fortune, and a lot of insurance companies won’t cover it. My ex had really good insurance and that was not an issue but many folks don’t. Good for Cain. The oncologist that we went to, mentioned that colon cancer was fast growing and didn’t seem to lie dormant for years like breast cancer so he is probably okay. She actually thought 3 years was a pretty good measure for colon cancer. This was a few (several) years ago but she also thought there was a connection between colon and breast cancer which his mom and sister had.
pattonbt
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): So? It’s her fault then? Not the fault of a commune of people on all sides of the aisle, an apathetic public who was blissfully ignorant to the blowback 70+ years of, at time, nasty, foreign intervention might create and a lucky weak spot exploited by a dedicated small group of fanatics?
Look, I hate Bush and his troop as much or more than most but 9/11 was not all their fault. We all share that blame.
There’s plenty to blame them straight up for (Iraq, deficit ballooning tax cuts, on and on), but 9/11 we all own whether we like it or not.
Villago Delenda Est
@pattonbt:
Sorry, but if I may go all USENET loonytarian on you, “I didn’t make the call on deploying US forces to Saudi Arabia and pissing off a Islamist nutjob.”
Seriously, though, Rev. Wright was right about this. 9-11 was chickens coming home to roost for 55 years of really bad policy choices in the middle east.
micah616
@rikyrah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jxtHzMOe1w
gwangung
@Observer:
Could be. I went to school with a lot of idiots at Stanford. Lots of book knowledge, not a lot of real world smarts.
Of course, you could be giving a real world example.
Linda Featheringill
Herman Cain has been a real disappointment to me. I had hoped that, being a conservative, he could demonstrate a couple of things. For instance, he could show much of the US that you can’t tell a person’s politics by how they look. He could show the Righties that not all dark people are The Other.
However, he seems determined to demonstrate the theory that too much melanin makes you stupid.
I was born into racism and raised on white supremacy. It took me several years of conscious effort to overcome much of that heritage. Herman is making a mockery of much of my efforts.
Mr. Cain, STFU.
SRW1
@Observer:
No, but that Provost thing would appear to make her an ‘intellectual’. And if you would have listened carefully to Herman, you would know how that’s way worse than an idiot.
micah616
@Observer: In my 35 years as a black man with a black family living in a black neighborhood, I have never ever actually met a black person who identifies as Republican. My little borough is 90% black, middle and upper middle class. We are, as we say in certain circles, bougie around here. Yet, not one of my neighbors will cop to Republicanism. I know that they’re out there, but nobody ever admits it. Why do you think that is?
Short answer: Republicans are racists. Broad brush? Yes. The fact is, if you support Republicans, then you support racist policies, as well as sexist, homophobic, and misogynistic.
Any black person, any person, who supports policies and/or politicians that are openly hostile to his- or herself is a fucking moron. And all the accolades and fancy degrees in the world won’t change that.
Colin Powell, too late, stopped dancing for massa. You see how they did him. Michael Steele didn’t dance well enough. See how that worked for him. When Herman (appropriately named) Cain has served his purpose, they will put his black ass right back outside.
Woodrowfan
Dr Rice is smart, she’s just not very honest.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@pattonbt: oh bullshit. Richard Clarke and the CIA begged Rice et al. to do something and they did nothing.
http://www.talkleft.com/clarkememo.pdf
Rice mocked the alarm as “just some terrorist group”.
Then Tenet personally went to the white house with his 2nd in command and begged them to something and they laughed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282.html
Then they let bin laden get away, later famously saying they don’t think about bin laden, even closing down the CIA bureau.
Donut
“Herman Cain, will you go now!”
Mnemosyne
@Observer:
We’re talking about the same Condi Rice who has multiple degrees from her studies of the Soviet Union and yet still managed to completely fuck up the US response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, right?
Given that she managed to make matters worse in a situation where she was supposedly an expert — with a PhD, no less — yeah, that makes her an idiot. If you can’t translate your academic knowledge to a real-world situation when you’re the Secretary of fucking State, you’re an idiot.
pattonbt
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): I will say this, there are definitely portion shares of blame which are higher for some than others. You will not get much argument from me in saying that the Bush administration holds a higher share.
But I do believe 9/11 would have happened under Gore no matter how much we want to believe otherwise. It’s what I believe (rightly or wrongly) even though I do believe Gore would “have done more” on the terrorist front than Bush.
I just don’t like people placing all the blame on Bush and his cronies. We all own a piece of it, no matter how big or small.
The real evil of Bush and his cronies is what they used 9/11 for. Unforgivable and evil.
Edited a bit for my usual poor writing.
Ruckus
@burnspbesq:
Agreed.
That’s why I call all conservatives assholes. Fucking assholes actually. They may be geniuses, they may be idiots, they may be stupid they may be intelligent but their major character flaw is they don’t have a reasonable one. Having a reasonable character is a developed thing. Some people develop one early in life some come by it the hard way much later. Conservatives never at all.
Elie
@Kirk Spencer:
Wow – pretty heavy….
Yeah, the question about paying for it would be very important.
I am always perplexed about these Republicans. What on earth are they really offering as they talk about the prospects of leading this country? Cutting taxes, cutting taxes and a bit of uterus control and gay control. That is it…There is no message. Just the stench of greed and resentment of anyone who is not white or who immigrated here.
That a black man with cancer, whose ancestors were slaves dragged here against their will, would support this kind of stuff is beyond tragic. Watching the blood sacrificed by his ancestors run into the ground, meaning less than nothing… supporting ideas that mock their privation and loss.
I sure will never understand the phenomenon of black Republicanism..at least modern Republicanism — not the Republican party of Lincoln…
Darkrose
@Observer: Funny thing there…Condi Rice called the GOP on their racism, and suggested that affirmative action was a good thingm on the whole. From the backlash, you’d have thought she’d spontaneously transformed into Angela Davis.
Same thing happened to Colin Powell. Black folks are only welcome in the GOP if they nod and smile and tapdance furiously while assuring the Nice White Tea People that they’re not at all racist.
Little Boots
The conservative search for the Perfectly Amiable Negro continues apace. Sooner or later, Herman Cain is going to fail that test, though he’s gonna talk an awful lot of shit before he does.
greylocks
Conservative are telling pollsters they like Cain because conservative voters want to prove they’re not the racist ass-hats we all think they are. But when it comes to actually voting in the primary, they ain’t voting for the colored guy. Ain’t gonna happen. No way.
Also, I don’t think Cain is stupid. I think he is profoundly ignorant of history/politics/law/geography and other stuff that a leader should not be ignorant of, and I think he is entirely unaware of just how ignorant he is, and I think because of his corporate background he’s gotten used to saying whatever spills out of his yap without having it question, which gives him little incentive to make sure he knows what he’s talking about. But I don’t think he’s stupid.
Just Some Fuckhead
This guy isn’t an uncle tom. He’s yer crazy uncle tom.
grandpajohn
@pattonbt: Its not your writing that bothers me, its your certainty of of events happening with out any factual reasons for this belief, beliefs that in some cases defy facts in evidence.
Canadian Shoggoth
Easiest negative campaign ad slogan ever:
“Cain is not able” (voice only no text)
slippy
@Observer: Condoleeza may have gotten good grades in college, but her real-life performance as a US government official was spectacular with repeated demonstrations of epic FAIL. Rice is a textbook demonstration of how all the college education in the world won’t substitute for simple fucking common sense, or basic human decency. Rice was a serial liar, not very fucking good at it, and her moral compass is evidently busted six ways from Sunday.
Final verdict: bad liar, worse human being.
Joseph Nobles
Herman Cain is Greg Stillson.
Chris
@greylocks:
So, like pretty much every other Republican these days.
Chris
Reading Yahoo’s rendition of the debate, I found out something I didn’t previously know – Cain supported the bailouts.
If his Republican opponents hammer him with that, he’s done.
jh
Herman Cain, like the vast majority of the black Republicans I’ve met – and I have met quite a few in my travels – is suffering from this weird reality disconnect / delusion that is virtually indistinguishable from stupidity.
In my experience, they can be educated, accomplished, (somewhat) literate and can seem like reasonable people at first blush. That’s until you actually spend a little time talking to them.
Condi “I didn’t need the Civil Rights Movement” Rice suffers from this terrible affliction.
So does Michael Steele. And Clarence Thomas.
The other very small minority of black Republicans I know are simply hanging around for the business contacts and capital gains tax cuts while holding what are essentially progressive political views. You see this mostly around DC amongst the class of upwardly mobile African-American business owners who bid on gov’t contracts.
My old boss was one such person.
Born in the deep south into a family that made a small fortune as builders. A registered Republican which meant she was invited to all the “right kinds” of networking opportunities, but who closed her offices on the day of the Million Man March to allow me and my colleagues to attend.
I spoke with her last week and she has no respect for Herman Cain and remains largely disappointed with the GOP. I guess that’s why she registered Republican but votes for Dems in most elections.
Tom
@Canadian Shoggoth:
Couldn’t have said it better meself
@Kirk Spencer:
I think that this will be Cain’s Achilles Heel. If he starts getting too popular, his opponents will just start hammering away that he is medically unfit. Nothing about policies, statements, ideas or race, just that there’s too much risk that he’ll get very sick in the next 4 years for him to be the president. Expect to see lots of ‘experts’ talking about risks of remission and so forth.
If his numbers keep going up, will we see demands for a long-form medical record?
Brachiator
@jh:
Your post is indistinguishable from the racism that emanates from the typical Tea Party Person or the worst unreconstructed Dixiecrat.
@Darkrose:
Really? When, exactly, did Powell nod and smile and tapdance? Was this when he was National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Secretary of State?
jh
@Brachiator:
I guess you’ll be taking “Missing the point for $1000” then?
Your statement is odd considering I’ve never planned to lynch anyone or obstruct their access to public goods. Nor do I believe that all blacks are inferior, that non-white majority demographics are “destroying” this country or that we should roll the clock back to some mythical halcyon days of American greatness. These are the totems of Dixie-Tea politics.
No, I am simply relating my experience as a black person who has had the misfortune of seeing the bubble of warped reality inhabited by African-American GOPers up close.
The record of high profile black Republicans saying absolutely crazy shit is pretty long and well documented. From Thomas’ “high tech lynching” statements, to Condi’s blithe dismissal of the benefits of the CRM, to the turbocharged madness of Alan Keyes’ Illinois senate campaign to Herman Cain’s factually challenged Obama screeds.
Against the backdrop of my own professional experience working around right wing stooges like Armstrong Williams, Alan Keyes and a couple of Condi’s lesser known contemporaries who (fortunately) were benched after the Reagan administration, I can say with a high level of confidence that these people; like Teabaggers and every other variation of right-winger, are suffering from some form of delusional disorder only with the special sauce that comes from aligning ones fortunes with a party that traffics in racism against you.
It really is quite sad.
brantl
@Observer: Try listening to Condi Rice for any real length of time, and you will easily figure out that she hasn’t got the common sense that god gave dirt in your drain. She idolized George Bush Jr, for Christ’s sake, the dumbest president in modern times.
David in NYC
@Ruckus:
Your (correct) conclusion was stated much more elegantly almost 150 years ago by the British philosopher and politician, John Stuart Mill:
Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose.
Brachiator
@jh:
Read the posts here, including your own. Instead of simply saying that black Republicans are ideologically wrong, posters here seem to have to “prove” that somehow they are stupid, lack common sense, smile and tapdance, etc. Sounds like standard racist stereotypes. So, somehow, Condi Rice’s background means nothing, and Colin Powell is little more than a tap dancing dupe.
How is this different from Trump’s attempts to denigrate Obama’s background and achievement?
Obama’s election has set off all kinds of racial anxiety. There are Republicans and Tea Party People who cling to a fantasy of the return of white overlordship the way that they previously clung to guns and religion. Democrats, especially the younger generation have for the most part move beyond this magnificently.
But there are still those white liberal racist fools and their hangers-on of all ethnic groups (including some self-hating black folk) who just itch to bring out their inner racist. They just itch. It’s a jumping itch. They believe that they can safely unleash their racism when they bash a conservative black. And they especially love it when they can get a black person to front for them.
And what kind of abstract bullshit is “obstruct their access to public goods?” This hardly begins to touch on the depravity of American apartheid.
cynickal
@Brachiator:
Shorter Brachiator: Nuh-uh! You Libural are racist!