At what point do we just admit Herman Cain is just as staggeringly ignorant as the rest of the Clown Car Kids?
Herman Cain may have some surprises at his first national security briefings should he win the presidency.
In an interview with PBS, Cain appears to suggest that Americans should consider China dangerous in part because they’re pursuing “nuclear capability.” In fact, China tested its first nuclear device in 1964 and has had a stockpile of warheads for decades.
Gosh, you mean Mr. “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki stan-stan” here doesn’t know a gorram thing about foreign policy? Didn’t we recently have a President that suffered from this particular affliction while running around and costing us trillions with his codpiece? The post-Palin GOP candidates should be rejected on the most basic of merits, but they are celebrated instead as “deep thinkers” and “innovators” when they should be considered, you know, morons.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Except, as we know from mythbusters, bulls are smarter than these Republicans are.
Legalize
But but, teleprompter in chief! 57 states!!
Seriously, that’s how the Teatards will react.
WereBear
You meant they are “salt of the earth.”
Bill E Pilgrim
Becky Becky, who can I turn to?
(Nine nine, nine-nine-nine, nine nine nine)
This is what struck me the moment he appeared, he was so clearly just one of those people who opens his mouth and starts filibustering with complete nonsense because he thinks it looks “confident”, it was going to trip him up somewhere, even without the skeletons in the closet.
Scott
I’m not particularly smart, but I thought it was common knowledge that China has had nukes for decades. I knew that back when I was a little kid — what the hell is Cain’s excuse?
Not knowing that is like not knowing that the Earth revolves around the sun, or that winter follows fall, or spiders have eight legs. Maybe that’s something they should start asking at the GOP debates.
debit
@WereBear: These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know. Morons. /Blazing Saddles
Punchy
Wait until he suggests that China is planning on building a big-ass dam, itching to implement a freedom-smashing 1-child policy, and nearing completion of its Olympic venues.
scav
I hear the Chinese might go Commie.
MattF
Wonder if he’s ever heard of Mao Tse-Tung-Tung-Tung.
JGabriel
Zandar:
I think this is the moment when most people will admit that Cain is even more ignorant than most of the GOP primary field.
Even people who don’t know that China has been a nuclear power for almost 50, know that it’s something a president should know. This may have legs unless Cain can convincingly pass it off as a brain fart from fatigue and campaigning.
.
cleek
it would demonstrate clear liberal bias if a reporter was to point out that the combined IQ of the GOP primary field is lower than Obama’s.
Chris
What makes me sick is knowing how many assholes in the press corps will immediately jump up and go “oh, but what he MEANT was […] and it’s actually a really good point, proving what a serious person this is…” like they did with Sarah Palin’s “warning the British” quote.
Not only do we have to be run by frickin idiots who never opened so much as a history book in their life, we also have to keep cooing and clapping at every turd they drop on the carpet, because it would hurt their voter base’s fee-fees to point out that the people they elected are in fact frickin idiots.
Mark S.
Oh c’mon people, he was obviously joking.
Hawes
“gorram”? Am I correct in seeing a Firefly/Serenity reference?
I mean “frack” is so 2007.
mistermix
I’m afraid Herman doesn’t even have the smidgen of competence he would need to win the Tea Party primary. I smell a Gingrich resurgence.
Mark S.
Was anyone arguing that he was any smarter? Well, he’s probably smarter than Perry and Bachmann. That, of course, ain’t saying much.
Hawes
@Mark S.: I’m waiting for how the Chinese caused Godzilla, who will sneak into America through Mexico to have anchor Godzilla babies.
Mark S.
@Hawes:
Why do you think Cain wants to build an electrified fence?
dmsilev
@mistermix:
Have you tried Beano?
Reality Check
Yet another reason to make Romney our nominee. Cain will still be an excellent VP though. Nothing gets “progressives” steamed quite like a black conservative.
Snarki, child of Loki
I object to this post!
It insults morons by the comparison with Cain.
Unfortunately, many other terms (cretin, idiot, etc) will also insult those poor unfortunates who came by their condition honestly, and did not choose to be where they are on the IQ scale.
I suggest the term “Fool”, since that is an avocation, not a condition. In Cain’s case, “MegaFool” would be appropriate.
Reality Check
Also am I the only one who finds the China-bashing on both sides of the aisle stupid and counter-productive posturing?
Steve
I’m pretty sure this was a joke to the extent in the context of the views of that interview.
Rick Taylor
I admitted this back when he was asked about what he would do in Afghanistan, and he answered he would talk with the generals, find out what was going on, and make a decision then.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Mark S.:
Considering Cain has degrees in math and computer science, he probably is intelligent at some level. I’m thinking what we’re seeing is a kind of willful ignorance, an all too common occurrence among Republicans…
Reality Check
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Don’t bother trying to convince “progressives” that a conservative black man is anything other than stupid. They just can’t wrap their minds around someone leaving the liberal plantation.
jon
@Reality Check: when over two-thirds of our debt is purchased by Americans and the Chinese total now amounts to seven or eight percent of our total debt, yeah. It’s not worth the freakout.
As for Cain, he’s the powerful conservative leader from humble beginnings who’d be the perfect candidate for Obama to step upon the neck of a year from now. May he last until then.
Has any intrepid reporter asked him to do an impression of a Chinese person yet? I’m sure he’d oblige.
Samara Morgan
the teatards are already screaming about Cain being “palinized” by the libruul media.
face it, Cain is just a black male bald Sarah Palin.
the same “proud ignoramus ” schtick.
Reality Check
@jon:
Thank you. Are you old enough to remember the ZOMG JAPAN WILL OWN US ALL! hysteria from the ’80s? The China-bashing reminds me of that a lot. Westerners really love them some Yellow Peril.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Reality Check:
Misses the point…
Samara Morgan
interestingly, being bald might be a truly ginormous handicap in the general for Cain.
Since the dawn of the Age of Terebi no bald man has been elected president.
cue suzanne to start screaming about how im prejudiced against the Hair-challenged.
:)
Samara Morgan
@Certified Mutant Enemy: proud ignoramus is the technical term.
:)
Samara Morgan
@Certified Mutant Enemy: Proud Ignoramus is the technical term. Hitch (PBUH) coined it to describe Palin.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Certified Mutant Enemy: It’s a downright badge of honor in fact, in the opinion of many of them. Cain’s proudly imbecilic stuttering response above was his way of making fun what he referred to as “gotcha questions” in the same sentence. He was combining the notion of “knowing anything about these wacky foreign places” and “tricky reporters trying to trip you up by asking about them” as all part of the evil liberal game.
Anya
Everytime I listen to Herman Cain I wonder about how he ran a business. The guy comes of as the most ignorant, even among the clown car, candidate ever. He combines Sarah Palin’s belligerent ignorance with a self hating attitude that can only comfort racists. But you can be ignorant of world affairs and how the government is run but be competent at how to run a campaign. But Herman Cain is also highly incompetent. So, GOP primary voters are either desperate or the “Brady Effect” is majorly at work here.
FraAnima
@Hawes: Hmmm…the language in Firefly posits a mixture of Chinese and English, indicating the power of Chinese culture. Coincidence that Zander wove a Firefly reference into this thread? I think not.
Chris
@Anya:
How do you know he did? Wouldn’t be the first time a CEO didn’t do anything but sit there and look pretty while a few of his underlings did the actual work.
Bex
@Scott: They do ask. About evolution. And none of the clown car occupants think it’s true.
Steve
Conservatives will tell you liberals are the real racists at the same time they tell you the vast majority of blacks are too stupid to realize they’re being kept on a “Democratic plantation.”
cmorenc
@JGabriel:
Once won and assumed, the Presidency is a numbingly fatiguing four-year marathon that visibly ages anyone who’s ever occupied the office since photographs were invented. If the early stages of the Presidential campaign are enough to induce such huge brain farts by Cain, his Presidency would be one continuous, loud, stinky brain fart.
Bex
@mistermix: And that is really stinkin’ up the place.
Samara Morgan
Its not just a Clown Car.
Its an Insane Clown Posse Krash Kar.
Reality Check
@cmorenc:
Well, remember Obama saying he’d been to all “57 states”? Could be similar to that.
Emma
@Reality Check: I claim spoof. Nobody can be as remarkably stupid as you seem to be.
gnomedad
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
nevsky42
*sigh* Obama said 57 states, uses a teleprompter, etc.
EDIT: I swear I typed this before I saw the troll post above…
Xenos
@Reality Check:
Except that Obama did not say that. He was talking about the primary and caucus contests, of which there are… 57. Including places like Puerto Rico, Guam, and DC, which have contests but which are not (gasp!) states.
Stick that in your reality and check it.
soonergrunt
@Hawes: BSG is newer than Firefly. We can use both, you know, you fracking gorram (going back to 84 here) sumanumbaching icehole!
soonergrunt
@Reality Check: You, of all people, complain about stupid counterproductive posturing.
I mean, that’s your whole schtick. Stupid counterproductive posturing is what you do. Gotta love irony.
Reality Check
Except that Obama did not say that. He was talking about the primary and caucus contests, of which there are… 57.[citation needed]
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
Why are you so obsessed with candidates’ looks? You must be the first person here ever to mention Cain’s baldness in any context whatsoever, let alone that of his electability. You might want to note that some here have already poked fun at the too-perfectly-coiffed, full heads of hair on Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.
jurassicpork
The new face of the Civil Rights Movement is… Rush Limbaugh???
Steve
The new conservative line seems to be that even though he’s soaring in the polls, Cain will be their VP nominee. They just want to have his blackness on the ticket to demonstrate that, somehow, liberals are the real racists.
This racket didn’t convince anyone that Republicans are the real feminists in 2008 and it won’t help them in 2012 either. Cain as the VP nominee would be a gift to Democrats.
soonergrunt
@Reality Check: Citations are not needed for common knowledge.
Just like I do not need citations when I post about gravity or evolution.
If you have a problem, you have google, ask.com, and any number of sources that can teach you something. Although that itself is probably a lost cause, John Cole and Charles Johnson both recovered, so there’s hope, even for you.
Violet
It’s entertaining watching the wingnuts on TV defend Cain. They’re programmed to defend anything. Only exception being the live boy/dead girl rule.
Meanwhile, he could claim that squirrels provide 60% of our energy needs, Romania isn’t a real country, Ecuador’s air force controls Mexico and dinosaurs have been seen alive in Saudi-Saudi-Saudi-Arabia and the wingnuts would be lining up to defend the claims.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@jurassicpork:
Why not? On another forum, a Liberty “University” graduate claimed that Jerry Falwell was a major figure in the civil rights movement…
ItAintEazy
@Anya:
Any dumbass can cut a bunch of jobs, pocket the savings, then claim they’ve “turned around” a company.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@ItAintEazy:
Mitt Romney, for example.
Reality Check
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Bwahaha, Jerry Falwell was pro-segregation right up into the 1970s!
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Reality Check:
Exactly: Which shows how much a Liberty “University” degree is worth.
Reality Check
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Quite literally not worth very much, either. They’re extremely generous with scholarships and tuition is low, it is subsidized by the fundie churches I guess.
SRW1
Never. He’s Cain and he’s Able.*
*Stole that from one of the commenters on K. Drums blog.
artem1s
@debit:
These are people of the
landGOP. The common clay of the new West. You know. Morons. /Blazing Saddlesfxt
Judas Escargot
@Reality Check:
So is your employer the Chinese government, or the US Chamber of Commerce? (Not that there’s much difference these days).
Reality Check
@Judas Escargot:
YELOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW PERIL! Because anti-foreign demagoguery, especially against Asians, has such a respectable history and has totally solved our problems before!
But to answer your question: neither. My employer is the Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.
jonas
@Scott: Admitting the earth revolves around the sun, or that the earth is round, could alienate key segments of the Republican primary electorate, so candidates would have to watch it on that one — saying something like “opinions differ” as to the proper frame of reference for celestial motions or “hey, from where I sit on the porch on my ranch cleaning my gun, it looks like the sun goes around the earth, despite what those leftist eggheads in white coats at Harvard or whatever say.”
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Reality Check:
Pre 9-11, Bush foreign policy seemed hell bent on starting a cold war with China…
Senyordave
We should put Cain in the proper perspective.
Cain is getting roughly 30% of the GOP polls right now. That is probably about 8% of the total population. And these are the craziest of the crazy.
It does speak to the ignorance of a sizeable part of the population.
SRW1
@Emma:
Careful now.Troll got the fundamental requirement of GOP candidates right at comment 20.
Judas Escargot
@Reality Check:
Who said anything anti-Asian? I find your response to be… interesting.
I like/respect the Chinese people and their culture just fine. It’s their authoritarian government that I don’t much care for: Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to be suspicious of countries that point nukes at us and spend millions trying to hack into our networks. Just sayin’.
Of course, those with selfish business interests in the region, or radicals who want to abolish the nation-state altogether to bring about a global slave-hive libertopia (give my regards to the Koch brothers, will ya?) tend to disagree.
Jay C
@Anya:
My guess would be “both”. And I think that’s the “Bradley Effect” – named after this guy
– frankly, merely middling as a politician, but looking like a Titan next to the likes of Herman Cain….
And I agree with your other point as well: Mr. Cain, to judge by his resume, is an obviously educated and intelligent man. Yet on the political stump, he seemingly can’t open his mouth without coming across like a belligerently ignorant fool, time after time.
Mr Stagger Lee
I can see it now, the day war is declared on China. A big American Flag in the background as President Cain dressed in full military regala complete with medals and a green steel-pot on his head, walking with a riding crop, giving us an inspirational speech.
Then it climaxes with this memorable quote.
Reality Check
@Judas Escargot:
You’re against “abolishing the nation-state” while belonging to a party that openly advocates for an Open Borders immigration policy? Oh, the irony!
toujoursdan
@Reality Check: Uhhhh… It was Reagan who gave undocumented immigrants amnesty and GW Bush openly advocated doing the same thing 30 years later, while under Obama e-Verify was implemented and deportations of the undocumented increased. So you must be talking about the GOP wanting open borders (while pretending they don’t) here.
Reality Check
@toujoursdan:
And the Republicans revolted when Bush tried to ram amnesty for illegals down our throats, and Democrats who supported him. Obama still wants amnesty for illegals, the deportations just give him the excuse to ram it through.
scav
@SRW1: Even if true, I don’t see how supposedly taunting and possibly motivating the opposition by the choice of a VP candidate is exactly a winning strategy. That’s not to imply that might not be exactly the strategy they’re going to adopt. “You think we’re incompetent now? ! ” they cry? “We’ll show you incompetence! !”
toujoursdan
@Reality Check: But even when Obama had a Democratic Congress he didn’t do that. Nice try though.
The GOP still seems to be the party that does the most advocating for open borders and the most successful at implementing it.
Bruce S
I can see Herman Cain’s ignorance from my house. He’ll never be President of USeeSeeeSeeStan.
ABL
@Steve: indeed.
Judas Escargot
@Reality Check:
Seeing as I’m a first-generation American myself, I’d be a hypocrite if I wasn’t pro-immigration. Your response is even more interesting, seeing as a pro-immigration policy used to be considered the pro-business position.
For all its countless flaws and foibles, I rather like my nation-state. I’d prefer that nihilist little shits like you stop trying to destroy it.
Anya
@Jay C: oops typo.
Brachiator
This is not a bug, but an essential feature of GOP presidential candidates.
As long as they take the pledge with respect to the baby Jeebus, abortion, and gay marriage, conservative true believers are happy, and don’t demand much more. Oh, and no regulations and cut taxes. Also, too.
Adrienne
@Bruce S:
*Spits out hot chocolate*
Where would you like your internets delivered kind sir?
sherparick
1. One thing I notice from Media Matters and Huff Post is the right wing creating “liberal” strawmen, and portraying poor Hermann Cain as the racist victim of these strawman because of the old sexual harassment claims from the 1990s. Again, it is mostly a tribal appeal. (See Ann Coulter wiht Hannity of Fox or, a I prefer, Media Matters and its partner organizations). Actually, we liberals are far more fired up about Cain’s right-wing tax polixy and his general ignorance about economics and foreign affairs and think the real scandal is that the guy is serious contender for the nomination.
2. It is also curious how Politico became part of the “Liberal Media.” Really. But of course unless you are a bit of junkie on politics you probably don’t know that Politico is as right-wing as the Drudge Report, which Coulter and Hannity and Limbaugh certainly know, lying recklessly to the rubes is what they do.
3. The lack of seriousness about really exploring who gains by knee-capping Cain with the sexual harassment charges is of course the liklihood that it was someone like Karl Rove or the Romney campaign that did it. But that does not fit the “conservative” as victim narrative and the innoculation of defending “their Black guy” (as Ann Coulter so well says it) from their routine use of racial tropes and dog whistles to advance their agenda.
4. But don’t underestimate the ability of the Right, and the Super-Rentier class they serve, from believing their own manure. The first rule of a great grift is to convince oneself first. Brad Delong and Paul Krugman both detail how John Taylor and Mayor Bloomberg have both gone off the reality train once the facts start affecting their pay checks. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/
Brachiator
@Anya:
Let’s see. There has not been any primary anywhere yet, so we are talking about fairly meaningless polling, not actual voters.
And the Bradley Effect is a myth, and still not even remotely applicable to Cain’s standing in preference polls.
He’s still a moron with respect to foreign policy issues, though.
Steve
@Reality Check:
Reminds me of this:
Republicans: crazy party, or the craziest party?
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: in contemporary visual tv-culture Bald is Bad. American pop culture glorifies youth– bald means old.
i just think he cant be elected president, like i think Romney cant be elected because of white voter anti-mormon sentiment, and christie cant be elected because he is grossly obese.
Appearance is all.
Are you heading up the Pursed Lip PC Prune Posse today? Where is suzanne?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
href=”#comment-2854421″>Reality Check:
LOL, Were was the Right in the ’80s when Regean and Wilson opened the doors to the California to the Mexicans? Oh that’s right, California isn’t part of REAL America so that doens’t count. Face it con-boy the Republicans only revolted because the Salt of the Earth Base a/k/a REAL Americans don’t want brown people in their towns. If the Right could only figure out a way to bring back segregation and Jim Crow laws you all would be good to go on open boarders.
rikryah
he is absolutely a minstrel
JWL
Think back.
NSA Advisor: “Respectfully, sir, there is no device on nuclear warheads that allows us to disable them in mid-flight. Once they’re launched, the die is cast”.
Ronald Reagan: “Really? Well, whaddya know. [Pause] It’s probably a good thing I know that, isn’t it”?
[Joint Chiefs laugh appreciatively… fade out].
Paul in KY
@Punchy: Those monsters!
Paul in KY
@Samara Morgan: William McKinley was pretty bald, I think.
SRW1
@scav:
Sorry, looks my attempt at snark failed. My point was that RC was kind enought to admit how important pissing off liberals is to conservatives.
Barry
@Certified Mutant Enemy: “Considering Cain has degrees in math and computer science, he probably is intelligent at some level. I’m thinking what we’re seeing is a kind of willful ignorance, an all too common occurrence among Republicans…”
He’s been a BS artist for years, and it got him where he is today. After years of that, he won’t give it up until he’s living in his car.
Barry
@Reality Check: “Except that Obama did not say that. He was talking about the primary and caucus contests, of which there are… 57.[citation needed]”
Since you’ve made several hundred stupid right-wing claims, perhaps it’s time you coughed up citations for everything.
Barry
@Certified Mutant Enemy: “Why not? On another forum, a Liberty “University” graduate claimed that Jerry Falwell was a major figure in the civil rights movement…”
I wanna link to that, just to gape in awe at the stupidity.
Double stupidity, since Fallwell wasn’t even a major figure on his side (Evil) of the Civil Rights movement.
scav
@SRW1: well, my meter is dodgy at best and I doubt I actually believed you really meant it. Actually, rather sure of that last, your comment was just the springboard for my single neuron doing a belly-flop elsewhere.
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
Citation needed.
xian
people are actually engaging with a troll who is still working toward his John McCain golf balls?
ruemara
@Steve:
I did notice that despite the fact that he’s been leading in the polls, Coulter et all have been screaming about how wonderful Cain is-for VP. Yet no one calls them on this.
xian
@Amir Khalid: actually, this is generally true. usually it’s bald*ing* people, though, who are portrayed as sinister or perverted, and there seems be a different standard for black men.
similarly, could a white man run for president in this era sporting a pencil mustache?
Steve
@ruemara: It is really amazing how many conservatives will openly admit that they love the immunity totem against racism Cain supposedly provides them with. It’s sorta creepy that he knows this and yet is happy to continue filling the role.
Brian
@xenos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws . Obama said 57 states. You look silly when you deny it.
Maybe Cain similarly slipped up and didn’t qualify it. The only thing which immediately comes to my mind is that he might have been talking about China’s interest in building nuclear-powered submarines/aircraft carriers (since he then talked about aircraft carriers). He should be asked about it and given a chance to clarify.
It’s unfair to slam somebody for making a single verbal slipup ; it’s the preponderance of evidence that took down Palin, not any individual moment.
mrmike
@Brian:
Yes, he did say 57 states. And one left. Not counting Alaska and Hawaii. So it’s pretty obvious he slipped up and meant 47. It’s possible that Cain similarly slipped up and meant nuclear naval capability. I’ll even give him that. Of course China’s had nuclear subs since the 80’s and nuclear aircraft carriers are sort of a strange bird in this day and age and I’m unsure why anyone would be more concerned about them then about the subs.
Brian
OK. That was my best effort at coming up with what he could have slipped from, if he did actually slip; I didn’t know China had nuclear submarines, but I did remember some of the flap from a few years ago about aircraft carriers.