If you consider politics as just another form of entertainment, then Herman Cain is much more eye-catching than Willard Romney, which is why the proudly contrarian Slate writers want us to know that “the Herman Cain boomlet may actually last“:
Cain is no longer flavor of the week—he’s a regular menu item. He’s popular, we know that. And now, after several weeks of attacks, gaffes, and scrutiny, he has shown endurance. Based on the collapse of the Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry campaigns, you might expect Cain’s various rough moments would cause a drop in the polls. They haven’t. If anything, he’s increased in popularity, which shows just how suspicious voters are of the political class and how much they’re willing to put up with someone who isn’t a member of it.
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Cain leads in both the national polls and state measurements. A CBS News poll found 25 percent of Republican voters nationwide preferred him to the 21 percent for Romney. In Ohio, the Quinnipiac poll found Cain leading Romney 28 percent to 23 percent among GOP voters. CNN polls show Cain tied with Romney in Iowa and South Carolina and trailing him in Florida. The Gallup poll shows that—unlike Perry, whose appeal soured the more voters got to know him—Cain’s approval rating and intensity score among Republicans has gone up along with his name identification…
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[W]ith a party so determined to beat President Obama, and with such good chances to do so, can this Cain flirtation blossom into something real? Won’t people start to focus on electability and turn to Romney? The answer (at least as Cain’s people see it): Electability may not be the liability the political elites might think. And actually, the political elites don’t think Cain has an electability problem: 74 percent of Republican insiders in a recent Huffington Post poll think Cain can beat Obama. (Danger Herman: When insiders validate an outsider strategy you should be nervous.)…
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Perhaps the thickest part of the cushion for Cain is that his conservative voters don’t have anywhere else to go. Michele Bachmann was eclipsed by Perry. That isn’t going to happen to Cain. There aren’t any eclipsing figures left. Gingrich is having a slight burble of resurgence but he’s unlikely to become the new flavor; one of the qualities of being a flavor of the month is that people don’t know much about you. Gingrich, for better or worse, is the best known of the bunch. Perry has a long uphill slog to regain what Cain took from him, which will be hard to do in part because Cain is more appealing to voters.
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The really exciting thing about the Cain campaign is that while on the one hand he is defying gravity, the candidate and his staff are constantly ordering in more anvils. Cain is running to replace a president who was criticized for having no experience, but Cain himself practically brags about how little knowledge he has with the issues of the day, saying he’ll rely on advisers and smart people. As the clock ticks toward the start of the voting season Cain will spend this Friday and Saturday in the electorally meaningless Alabama. In keeping with the “The More Unconventional the Better” theme, the campaign put out a video of the campaign chief of staff Mark Block making a pitch for Cain while enjoying a cigarette and blowing the smoke into the camera. It was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Sort of like the Cain campaign.
Well, it’s “really exciting” for Beltway Media Villagers who figure that no matter who’s in the Oval Office, their livelihoods are safe. But “like nothing anyone had ever seen before“? Never mind modern reality shows like Survivor, couldn’t we just call this “The Real World: 2012 GOP Primary Season“?
CarolDuhart
The Survivor people could probably do a better job finding candidates than the current Republican Party. Their candidates would be tougher, smarter, and better looking and more qualified.
Certified Mutant Enemy
I initially read that as “Last Fat Cat Standing”, which still kind of works…
gbear
That was the point where I stopped reading further.
Redshift
Right. How long was Michelle Bachmann “a regular menu item” before dropping like a rock?
patrick II
We have all hear republicans complain that Obama did not win because of issues, but only won because he was black. They seem to have talked themselves into the many advantages of having a black candidate and have gone and found themselves their own black guy. Good luck with that.
BGinCHI
Herman Cain, corporate, Koch-funded spokesmodel as a Presidential candidate.
I guess Slate doesn’t care where the money comes from.
Shorter Slate on Watergate: Who will play Bernstein in the movie??!!
Rick Massimo
ice weasel
gbear beat me too it. Once I hit that line I knew it was all in good fun and I stopped.
I think there’s a template at Slate and all the “writer” has to do is fill in some proper nouns and maybe an adjective or two and voila! They’ve “written” something. Something like that article.
Whatever.
General Stuck
Cain will last, just like Palin. So long as there is gas money and a soap box to bloviate on. And he has the advantage of not being genuinely insane like sarah. but he is crazy like a fox.
However, if he wants to win, he had better get some boots on the ground when the voting starts, or it won’t matter if he has decent polling. He might stay on longer thinking he could get a VP nod, which is all kinds of surreal to contemplate. But we are talking about a party that picked Sarah Palin for that gig, and recently nearly destroyed the world economy.
And either way, Cain has something to do in his retirement from being a pizza mogul, and it is paying, or will pay quite well. The dude is an elemental pure grade Entrepreneur that has found a market for his particular brand of bullshit. How GOP is that? or American?
Chyron HR
Why, he’s such a political outsider that he’s only run for President once before!
dmsilev
“Political elites” think that “appealing to voters” matters. Hah! We’ll show them!
Villago Delenda Est
@gbear:
When did Slate become an online journal of fantasy fiction?
boss bitch
the past few weeks have been nothing but a cakewalk for him because no one really took him seriously. Herman Cain is not prepared for any real attacks or scrutiny.
Davis X. Machina
The right has found its vintage-1992 Jerry Brown. With the tax crankery. Without the two terms as governor.
Villago Delenda Est
As opposed to the dunderheads of the Village, interested in generating some ratings/page hits by cranking up the crazy.
Cain is popular amongst the Villagers (just as Palin, Trump, Bachmann, and Perry were) when they were “hot” and coverage of these assclowns was generating ratings, newsstand sales, and page hits.
General Stuck
@boss bitch:
Anybody fucks with Herman he will break out in song on their raggety asses.
The Moar You Know
Let’s cut through all the bullshit and get to the heart of the matter.
A black GOP candidate for president will garner, at best, 20% of the New Confederate Party’s vote, and would go down to a catastrophic loss.
Therefore, Herman Cain will not be the candidate, period.
daveNYC
@boss bitch:
None of them are.
danimal
If Cain can stay in the shadows while Romney and Perry continue their food fight, he could actually be in good shape for the GOP nomination. Someone is going to be the unRomney, and I don’t see anyone other than Perry that has a chance.
I thought we would start to see a Santorum boomlet, but apparently Republicans can’t stand him, either. Gingrich, Bachmann and Huntsman will be given their door prizes by mid-February as well. Paul will stick around to the bitter end since I believe he won’t run for reelection in his district. Hopefully the Ron Paul cult will go third party this cycle, wouldn’t that be loads of fun!
Calouste
Are we going to see what happened in a few races in 2010 (Alaska Senate and Colorado Gov amongst others) at the national level, i.e. a teabagger wins the GOP primary, the establishment GOP candidate then runs as an independent? With Citizens United, Karl Rove and the other money men don’t really need the GOP anymore to channel their money through. It would save the prospective candidate from all that nastiness in the primaries, and we know that the reactionairies will cling onto whatever is the new flavor of the week.
cleek
OT: anyone want to watch a chronic troll absolutely lose his shit ? this guy has been banned multiple times a day, for weeks, but he keeps coming back. now he’s given up even basic trolling and is just spraying shit all over the walls.
schtum
Tea Partiers don’t think electability matters because they are convinced that Barack Obama has already lost. That frees them up to nominate the wingnuttiest candidate available. Christine O’Donnell could be the new frontrunner if she entered the race today. Sarah Palin only dropped out because she was afraid she might actually win!
Brian S
@Davis X. Machina: I was thinking more like the guy from Alaska in the 2008 primaries, the one who did the commercial where he stared into the camera and then dropped a rock into a pond or something. What was his name again?
cleek
until votes are actually cast…
cleek
@Brian S:
Mike Gravel
cathyx
I don’t like to go off topic, but since there hasn’t been an open thread, I’ll post this here.
Oakland mayor reverses decision on Occupy Oakland and opens up the plaza with minimum police presence.
http://www.baycitizen.org/occupy-movement/story/quan-shunned-reverses-occupy-ban/
Cat Lady
I thought Trump would admit he’d punk’d the teatards once his show was renewed, but I’m beginning to think that Cain might actually be waiting until it looks like he might get the nom before he admits he’s been conducting an experiment in punking all of the teatards and the media clowns all of the time. If that shit eating grin at the end of smoking man’s video doesn’t say “I can’t believe anyone buys any of this shit”, I don’t know what does.
scav
Last election I developed a cheap and easy description of Sarah Palin, pretty much to calm down some of my more excitable relatives who tended to work themselves up into states of extreme hyperventilation over her coming 8-year reign. “She’s a pet rock: breathe into the bag.” So this year I’ve got Goodhair as a Chia Pet and Mittens as a Magic 8 Ball and am a bit lost for the rest. There doesn’t seem to be a mood ring and I can’t think of anything googly eyed enough for Michele. Cain? ahhh. Anyway, I need help. Pop Rocks?
jwb
@cathyx: I guess the mayor received the overnight poll numbers…
Seebach
How did the GOP’s attempt to find their own black guy work in the Illinois Senate race?
BGinCHI
@cleek: Wow. Just wow.
I guess they really are out of (non-gay porn spamming) ideas.
cathyx
@cleek: Why do you need to point this out here?
cleek
@cathyx:
because it would be redundant to point it out over there.
cathyx
@jwb: She apparently got a lot of flack from her close allies, too.
General Stuck
@BGinCHI:
It has the stank of a sophisticated internet operation, like I never seen before. We will see if it spreads. Takes troll ugly to a whole new level.
brettvk
@cleek: Jeeze, poor Drum.
PeakVT
(Danger Herman: When insiders validate an outsider strategy you should be nervous.)…
(Danger Herman: when contrarians think you’re “exciting” you should be nervous…)
cathyx
@cleek: Ok, why do you need to point this out anywhere?
redshirt
We’re not bad mouthing Survivor here, are we? It’s no Reality Show, but rather a cunning game AND truly a psychological experiment played out on worldwide TV.
danimal
@cleek: That’s some amazing trollery, there. It’s too bad that Drum’s comment section is all but unreadable due to the troll infestation, but that comment thread is uniquely special even for MoJo.
Talk about having issues! Dude: It gets better.
BGinCHI
@danimal: Drum should get back at him by going to where that guy works and knocking the dicks out of his mouth.
PeakVT
@cleek: Craziest troll yet. The other dedicated one is paid, I think, but this guy clearly needs to be kept away from firearms and heavy machinery.
David Koch
Mark Halperin’s douche-baggery knows no bounds.
He’s on Tweety right now apologizing for Romney’s fuck up in ohio.
elmo
@cleek:
DUDE. Put a “NSFW” disclaimer on that link, for the love of FSM!
Linda Featheringill
Wait, wait, wait, stop!
Republican insiders do not interact with HuffPo. Period. So that poll is basically meaningless.
BGinCHI
@Linda Featheringill: But wait, I thought Mark Penn wrote for HuffPo?
kindness
Are these the same Village Elders that think Congressman Ryan is a Serious Thinker?
lamh34
Seriously, God knows how the hell can Halperin talk with Mitt Romney’s junk in his mouth.
Seriously, someone needs to investigate whether or not Mark Halperin is on Mitt Romney’s election tean.
Ugh!
Cat Lady
@lamh34:
Ohio flip flopping is great news for Mitt Romney!
The Moar You Know
@cleek: Total fail. He needs to waltz over to trolltalk and see how a master crapfloods a thread into oblivion.
This guy is a rank amateur.
eemom
speaking of trolls, I still can’t stop laughing over Hurly Burly or whatever his name is on the Supercommittee thread earlier. That guy is solid troll gold.
DougJ
Ugh. Who writes like that?
Mark S.
If Cain and Romney are neck and neck, as they are in a couple of the early states, Cain’s lack of organization is going to really hurt. I’m still not convinced Cain wants anything more than a Fox News gig, so he’s probably aiming for a respectable second.
catclub
@cleek: isn’t the solution not to ban the guy (he will just change nym), but to silently make all his posts only show up for him?
catclub
@eemom: “… solid troll gold”
are you suggesting a credenza post is coming?
The helicopters are not laughing?
We have a high standard for troll gold here.
IM
Cain is a symptom of americas political ills, Slate a cause.
The Dangerman
Danger Herman? No stealing, Cain!
Violet
@cleek:
The top posts showed up as being removed when I looked at it. What was the troll on about?
Mark S.
@Violet:
Gay sex. Especially gay sex with Kevin Drum (not kidding).
patrick II
@Violet:
vivid descriptions of gay sex.
For some reason Kevin Drum has attracted more than the normal amount of trolls in the years I have been reading his blog, but lately his comment section has become unreadable. Trolls sit on that blog all day and hijack comments on any meaningful post Kevin makes.
eemom
pardon OT, but y’all gotta see this. TBogg is KICKING ASS on the very front page of Lake Batshit about Obama bashing. Srsly, it is one of the awesomest sights I ever beheld. Lady Jane is gonna shit a brick.
Baud
@eemom: Ugh, you got me to click to FDL, and I just saw a post about Oakland. Nothing about Obama.
cathyx
@eemom: I guess you didn’t get the responses you wanted over this the first time you brought it up today.
JPL
@Baud: The Oakland Police response was Obama’s fault. The comments explain how but don’t bother reading unless you have a drink in hand.
eemom
@cathyx:
what the fuck are you talking about?
Baud
@JPL: Thanks. I think I’ll get a drink and NOT read the comments. Win-win.
General Stuck
@Baud:
You have to scroll down further in comments. Here is an example of what TBogg is dealing with in the snake pit.
From some idiot named realitychecker, or somesuch. It is quite entertaining.
Villago Delenda Est
Prime comment from the estimable Tbogg from the thread eemom linked to:
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL:
It’s amazing how much Obama personally micromanages these situations. I’m sure he must spend at least 12 hours a day doing nothing but giving instructions to individual cops to beat up on some DFH.
eemom
@JPL:
what’s even more hilarious is that he then put up ANOTHER post about the Oakland thing (the kitten picture) and threw out some OBVIOUS Obama-hate-bait snark at the very end of it…..and the regulars poured in to devour it just like zombies after flesh.
cathyx
@eemom: I apologize. You and Sonnergrunt have the same writing style.
Violet
@Mark S.:
UGH. Brain bleach needed!
Mike in NC
Picture Newt Gingrich in a loincloth eating an iguana. Or don’t!
Samara Morgan
last fad candidate standing?
dont be so sure.
Dave N.
So, in 2008, the GOP talking point was that Obama lacked the experience to be President; that a community organizer could not get the job done. In 2012, there response is to pimp a candidate with absolutely zero political experience, and a tax plan swiped from a video game.
I really don’t see what could go wrong here.
Chris
@Dave N.:
Oh, but Cain’s a businessman! That means he’s MUCH better qualified to decide how to get the economy running than a community organizer (and not at ALL inclined to abuse the process in fox-henhouse style).
That’s the actual defense of his candidacy I’ve heard.