Someone just emailed me this atrocity:
It’s just painful to watch. The fact that there is even a chance this man could become President is a sign of the weakness of this nation. It’s the same stuttering incoherence combined with the confident arrogance of that know-nothing half-wit Sarah Palin. At some points, I think the Republican base is just fucking with us- they really are just supporting these clowns because they know how much it scares us.
On the other hand, Cain might know that they don’t actually use live turkeys in turkey shoots, which is more than can be said about some people around here.
Ben Cisco
Damn, you won the thread wiithout a single comment being posted. Bravo, sir!
Ben Cisco
Dammit, in moderation hell. Helps me John Cole, you’re one of several hopes?
Reality Check
Two words: Joe Biden. Do you really want me to go through the litany of HIS gaffes? And he’s actually Vice President.
Reality Check
Here’s my favorite, Joey thinks we and the French “kicked Hizbollah” out of Lebanon! Lol.
“When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, “Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.”–VP Biden
geg6
@Reality Check:
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Troll isn’t usually this funny, but everyone has a good day now and then.
The Moar You Know
“no, wait, I’m thinking of the other one.”
Yeah, the other Libya.
This man is aggressively, willfully stupid, but that seems to be par for the course with the Republican presidential candidates this time around.
cathyx
Is it more painful than this guy? Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?
eyelessgame
Sure, RC. Show us Biden stammering for five minutes because he actually didn’t have any idea how to answer a fundamental policy question. One-liner gaffes are not the same thing – everyone makes those (sure, Biden more than most).
If someone makes a one-liner gaffe in a job interview, I offer them the opportunity to correct it, and move on. But if someone acts like this video for five minutes, after I’ve asked him to discuss a scenario *central to the job I’m interviewing him for*, I show him the door.
This whole election process? It’s a job interview. The candidate just blew the interview. He didn’t make a one-line gaffe. He took five minutes and blew a basic question. Show him the freaking door already.
BGinCHI
The myth of the Businessman needs to be put to rest.
Sure, there are smart people who run businesses. But that somehow saying the word “business” adds to anyone’s bona fides is ridiculous. What makes you good in that context may well make you terrible in others. It may also have required you to be a flunky and yes-man.
There are reasons people go into business and not into say, science, or the arts, or law. One is the money, but the other is not because they are really smart.
Anyone know any undergrad business majors who were geniuses? For every one of those I’ll show you a thousand who have rich daddies.
Reality Check
“Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that”.–Biden
Article I talks about Congress, not the Presidency. Imagine if Cain had said the same thing, or Palin.
Or how about this?
Satanicpanic
I can’t watch. I just can’t.
Samara Morgan
great and truthful title.
before the sanctimonious moral scolds pop up and say you are being sexist, i think you are making great progress.
Reality Check
“We’ve been to uh…uh…57 states now”-Barack Obama
sherifffruitfly
Anyone who has ever taught recognizes this immediately as the behavior of a kid who has absolutely no idea but is trying to simply bullshit out an answer to get partial credit.
BGinCHI
@sherifffruitfly: Bart Simpson book report.
Classic.
David in NY
Sex metaphors entirely necessary today? How about, say,
“Palin With a Mustache”?
Stooleo
Somebody posted this link the other day it has helped me deal with stunning stupid out there.
Punchy
I figured turkey shoots are what turkey pandas eat. Or perhaps its what turkeys take for their photo albums.
This whole post is sexist.
David in NY
What? You repeat the title of the post and you go into moderation? Some outfit.
jl
Imagine if a GOPper won and decided to appoint a ‘team of rivals’ cabinet. Secty’s Bachmann, Cain, Perry, NewTon, Santorum, and etc.
Except for Paul and Huntsman, they are mistaken enough, but not crazy enough.
There, that ought to keep Cole up a few nights.
Xecky Gilchrist
Article I talks about Congress, not the Presidency. Imagine if Cain had said the same thing, or Palin.
I’d have been impressed that they knew the VP was part of the Executive Branch.
Reality Check
You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent … I’m not joking.–Joe Biden
cathyx
@Reality Check: There is no one you can quote that will beat your George Bush for verbal gaffes and stupidity. Absolutely no one.
jafg
You said it your self Wrong Again Cole. “….I’m naive”. I just had to correct it a bit for you by removing the “maybe”
Moonbatting Average
The GOP is trolling us, Cain is the Reality Check of the 2012 election.
LOL DFH, U MAD?!?!
pragmatism
dougj, your reality check troll persona is masterful. its so good that it and its tu quoque addiction should be retired.
scav
chex_mix might have a point — his team is better, isn’t that the mantra? While our guys can only rise to these heights of gaffe-iness once in a while, his team can manage it week-in, week-out and in polyphony if you sit thought the debates with the sound on.
The Moar You Know
“I got all this stuff twirling around in my head”
I wonder what “stuff” he’s referring to. Vaginas?
Face
John could have said “Coulter with a Pen*s” but then the comparison instead simply becomes a statement of fact.
Satanicpanic
I realized the other day why the “57 states” meme is so appealing on the right. It’s because everybody knows there are 50 states. So if you’re at a party with some wingers you can safely make a joke about it without going over anyone’s head. OTOH if you make a joke about Romney’s insistence that START was a bad treaty because it didn’t prohibit the Russians from putting ICBMs on bombers, you’d end up explaining what START is, what ICBMs are, and why no one puts them on bombers. That’s no way to get a laugh.
Villago Delenda Est
@Reality Check:
It’s very close to not possible to be more obtusely idiotic than to quote this, out of context, and not understand what Barack Obama was talking about…57 contests on the way to the nomination, including two in Texas and a bunch of non-state US governmental units.
This tells you the quality of troll that the Rethugs have hired. And mind you, this is the best they can get!
John Cole
Of all the stupid shit the trolls drag out, this one drives me the most insane. He meant 47, since he subtracted Hawaii and Alaska and one unnamed state:
Even better, guess what- there are 57 contests in the primary process:
Blockheaded trolls.
Elizabelle
Herman Cain doesn’t know what Obama’s Libya policy is, or what transpired there.
He’s just against it, because it’s Obama’s. (Never mind that it was successful.)
What a f*cker.
PS: Reality Check: boysenberry!
Reality Check
There aren’t 57 contests, Villago.
bemused
The entire GOP field (with the possible exception of Huntsman) is incredibly painful to watch. The Republican party has been racing to the bottom on so many levels for a long time but it is still astonishing to see them become the worst reality show/sitcom ever.
I’m still chuckling over the ham/turkey shoot thing. If you think that’s horrifying, you should see some turkey bowling.
Chyron HR
You heard it here first: Herman Cain is the Republican version of Joe Biden.
Maybe he should put that in his campaign ads. It sure beats “You want a job, don’cha bitch?”
Villago Delenda Est
@David in NY:
Forget about it, David. It’s Word Press.
bin Lurkin'
Not because it scares us John, because it pisses us off.
The Moar You Know
I seriously get the vibe that he was in the middle of some elaborate sexual fantasy when the question was asked, and it threw him off his stride. He couldn’t get out of the groove, as it were.
jl
@pragmatism: We should not pay any attention to DougJ until he comes up with trolling less pathetic than the well known and thoroughly understood phenomenon of the Bidengaffe, which half the time is actually a KinsleyGaffe (which is a sign of insight).
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Villago Delenda Est:
To think that a sitting Senator who graduated from Harvard Law School wouldn’t know that that there are two Senators from every state takes a type of mental jujitsu that only racist bigots can perform.
Reality Check
There are 58 contests when you count the two Texas ones. Anyway, he said STATES and BEEN TO, and the process wasn’t over. Again imagine if Palin had said this.
What did Palin say? Oh yeah. She said you can see Russia from some parts of Alaska–which is an entirely true and factual statement.
sherifffruitfly
@bemused:
Guess you’re talking about some Huntsman different from the one that supports Walker’s non-health plan.
Villago Delenda Est
@Reality Check:
Too bad for you that there were in 2008 for Democrats. Which is what he was talking about.
But you’re a shitstain cretin. So such stupidity is par for the course.
Loneoak
That Obama accidentally said 57 instead of 47 proves once and for all that liberalism is a folly of the worst order. Also too Joe Biden is a Lizard Person.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Don’t engage the troll in small things. The point is not that Cain made a small goof. He has repeatedly blown questions that my 16 year old son can answer. And while my son is pretty intelligent, he’s not running for president of the United States.
David in NY
@Villago Delenda Est: Sense of proportion is not in troll’s repertoire. Trivia above all. Distraction. Stupidity. But not proportion.
El Cid
This is another case of unfair “gotcha” journalism where a reporter asks a conservative a question and then just sits there, forcing him or her to feel like he or she has to “answer”.
And anyway, there was that one time John Kerry looked long-faced and French, so, HA HA HA! EAT UP, LIBS!
Brachiator
What I also love about this is that Cain is hoist on the GOP petard that they can never, never, never, ever give Obama credit for anything.
And so, after the delays and strains, Cain ends up with the lame brain fart that he would have done what Obama did, but he would have done it better, because, well, because GOP style dammit.
Observer
John, whenever you write things like Repubs are assholes, I usually say to myself “no, you’re all assholes”. And this post is exactly what I mean.
Sarah Palin was unqualified, a “movement” conservative, flunked/transferred out of 5 or so colleges, was a sportscaster and was afraid to answer media questions in general.
Herman Cain has a masters degree in computer science, worked as a ballistics analyst for the navy, received a Horatio Alger award in the 90s, and made his way up from a “nobody” by turning around a bunch of Burger King franchisees because his ideas were better than anybody else’s they had on offer.
Not the same. You may not like his politics but Herman Cain is pretty well the definition of an Horatio Alger story.
So he flubbed an interview. You do realize you can write that he flubbed an interview and criticize/ridicule him for that without comparing him to Sarah know-nothing Palin?
When black people grumble of having to be ten times better than whites…this is the sort of thing that comes to mind.
El Cid
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Context is crucial; Cain had just recently concluded a long meeting with the Prime Minister of Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan. He would have been completely within his rights to reply to this ‘gotcha’ question “I don’t know — do you?” And then stare at the reporter long enough until you have a chance to escort PM whatsisface of Whateverstan out.
tomvox1
The odds of Cain becoming president are about the same as Houston winning the World Series next year. The regular season hasn’t even started yet and Cain is falling apart in Spring Training. Better to worry about that asteroid hitting the planet, the odds are more in its favor.
The fact that this dumb shit has a chance in the GOP primary, and not a very good one in the long haul, is also completely different than him having any chance of beating Obama. Hell, Mittens has no shot and he’ll be the nominee barring a pedophilia scandal. So all these pixels are just being wasted on a pre-primary that few will ever remember except as the Worst and Longest Ever. Cain will be a footnote somewhere between Frank Lowden and Willard’s dad, George.
cursorial
@Reality Check: Yes, you can see Russia from parts of Alaska. We’re not making fun of her because it’s untrue, we’re making fun of her because she entirely and factually summed up her foreign policy qualifications for the Presidency.
dianne
It’s not exactly a WKRP moment since it was real, but Sarah Palin emoting in front of live turkeys being sent through what looked like a wood chipper with that mean guy leering at her in the background will never be topped by anyone.
Chyron HR
@Reality Check:
Well, gee, when you put it like that, Herman Cain is clearly an intelligent and capable man who’s completely qualified to be Presdient.
So how many states did he win when he tried running in the 2000 Republican primaries?
Nom de Plume
“Reality Check”, I get that you’re a troll and all, but this is some of the weakest shit I’ve ever seen. “Sure, Republican candidates are stupid and misinformed and can talk for minutes at a time without saying anything coherent at all, but here’s some examples of Democrats making verbal gaffes! Ha ha, pwn3d!!”
It really is just about scoring points for you guys, isn’t it? I mean, fuck the country, right? If putting a demonstrably ignorant person in charge means some Democrats might get pissed off, score! The country’s ruined, but it was worth it, cuz some liberal somewhere is mad! I win!
Thank fucking god you people are a dying demographic.
Snowball
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not only that. It is beyond me how anybody thinks that comparing Obama’s 57 state quote has anything remotely to do with the 64 second blank stare moment about Libya by Cain. It just goes to show their side simply should not be in charge of anything.
Can you imagine Cain as Commander in Chief when the Libya crisis started? It scares me to even think about.
forked tongue
Sigh. Ok, Reality Check:
1. Do you honestly believe Obama doesn’t know how many states there are? Unless you do, you must admit that this qualified as a slip of the tongue, right?
2. Now, would you characterize Cain’s performance here as a mere slip of the tongue? Or would it be better described as a five-minute effort to bullshit his way past the fact that he has not even the most passing acquaintance with the haziest outline of a military action the US participated in while he was running to be its president?
handy
@Observer:
You write like this is some sort of outlier. This guy is a treasure trove of this kind of stuff.
jl
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I agree, that we cannot degrade trolls by the soft bigotry of low expectations. Merely misspeaking or garbling a sentence or two, or alluding to facts that are not common knowledge and liable to misinterpretation as a gaffe, are not signs of total clueless ignorance and perhaps also serious brain trouble of one kind or another.
Examples of cluelessness and brain troubles:
Bumbling through multiple interviews unable to answer simple questions about what you read on a regular basis.
Gross lack of basic world knowledge (like whether the PRC has nukes), and covering up with baffle affle affle gab gab gab, and rambling monologues about undefined notions circulating in one;s head.
Or, endless pompous windbag diatribes about unspecified and ill defined levels and angles and perspectives and connections that flit like passing hallucinations that no one else can see.
Which reminds me, Newt must have taken a lot of drugs when he was young. Some of his innovative analysis remind me of trying to explain the significance of a wave of paisley interconnections slowly moving through the carpet.
That I heard from a friend who liked shrooms. That’s the ticket, that’s how I know about the DFH stuff.
Violet
I wonder if a “draft Palin” campaign might yet materialize. She’s not much worse than Cain.
Brachiator
@Observer:
What? Herman Cain may well an excellent business executive. But he didn’t just flub an interview. He demonstrated a manifest incompetence with respect to knowledge of foreign affairs.
His race is not an issue here. He reminded me of Donald Trump, another business figure who pretended that business savvy substitutes for what it takes to be commander in chief.
But I take your point that Cain is much more accomplished than Palin.
El Cid
@Observer: No, this is the problem I have.
This is completely not the person Herman Cain should be.
His life and background — and I’m just assuming that the publicly available storyline is accurate and no new scandals lurking — entirely indicate someone capable of hard work, of intelligent analysis, of searching for facts, of sane solutions.
And this is not what is his role in politics. You could at least credit him with being a persistent pro-business Chamber-type when he was arguing with Clinton against health care reform.
His business experience — yes, including his government job working in ballistics for the Navy — is one that would seem to illustrate the capability of looking at and summarizing and acting upon the relevant factors.
His radio shows are train wrecks of lazy, self-contradictory shit. On more than one occasion, he entirely reverses the point he’s making in order to suck up to the latest caller and he has no idea he has just opposed everything he’d said up until that moment.
(Of course, he’s no Sean Hannity who literally will reverse his point in mid-sentence if it must be done to kiss up to a guest.)
This is awful, awful, lazy shit. It’s not some ‘gaffe’, or tired moment.
He completely doesn’t give a shit. He’s yanking this shit around. He has no real campaign staff, and, like Palin, shows no curiosity whatsoever about these issues.
Like I have to cut fucking Herman Cain a break when I — without being paid to host a radio show (when he was) — try to keep up on such huge events as the Libyan military intervention?
Fuck him, lazy jerk. He’s got shit-loads of money — and apparently well-earned in turning around truly failing business ventures — and adoring fans, and he plays at running for President and puts about as much into the effort as Sarah Palin’s own book selling spasm.
bemused
@sherifffruitfly:
I did say possible exception. He’s not too far out there on a couple of issues, has experience in foreign policy and doesn’t come across as an escaped inmate from an insane asylum like the rest of the bunch.
The Moar You Know
@Observer: Why would you do that? YOU ATTACK AN OPPONENT’S WEAKNESSES. He can and should be compared to Sarah Palin on questions of foreign policy.
In his defense, you mention a bunch of neat accomplishments by Mr. Cain. None of that remotely excuses his willful and deliberate ignorance of anything to do with the world that exists outside of the borders of the United States.
Besides, it’s not like this is his first time fucking up on a basic foreign policy question. He’s had time to prepare. He obviously doesn’t feel it’s important.
The comparison is wholly fair and justifiable.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
There was a big discussion about Obama’s 57 States comment on Bill Maher, and the real question came down to, RC, Do you really think that Obama genuinely thinks there are 57 states? If he were taking a test would he Answer C) 57?
On the other hand, Herman Cain here really doesn’t understand the question about Libya. He doesn’t know why he disagrees with Obama, because he doesn’t understand why the rest of the right wing disagree with obama. he knows it has something to do with the rebels, but isn’t entirely sure of why. This is a dumb man who has been coached for his positions (“No, that’s the wrong one” shows he’s been told about these places and what stances he should have on them) but has no real convictions of his own, at least on Libya.
Lol
It’s pretty telling that conservatives don’t even understand why Palin gets made fun of for the “I can see Russia from here” line. It’s because she seriously and earnestly offered that as foreign policy experience.
Also pretty telling that four years later, Republicans still have to haul out the “57 states” remark anytim they want to do a “both sides do it so vote Republican” gambit.
The Other Bob
@Reality Check:
If Palin said that absent all of the other moronic things she says, everyone would blow it off. Thing is, this is about all you got on Obama.
Jay in Oregon
@Observer:
I hate to burst your bubble, but any presidential candidate who asks his interviewer which position President Obama took on Libya first before he can state if he was for or against it is obviously attempting to pander to his base.
That’s not any kind of reflection on his accomplishments but rather his character, and I think that the comparison to Sarah Palin is entirely accurate in that regard. It could just as easily have been Rick Perry in that interview saying the same thing, and he would have earned just as much scorn for it.
steve
This is pretty excruciating, but it doesn’t seem very Palin-like to me. Sarah wouldn’t have just sat there silently like Cain; she would have babbled out incoherent word salad for several minutes. The next day she would have spun it by attacking the media for asking her a “gotcha” question. Cain is just acting like it was no big deal.
harlana
at work so cannot stream right now, but i’m pretty sure i know what this is and it’s pretty painful — my question, how was he able to sound reasonably intelligent and informed in the last debate? don’t mean that i agreed with everything he said, but i thought, for Cain, he handled himself pretty well. i couldn’t help but think he’d been given every single question and answer beforehand, especially after this clip!
henrythefifth
@Reality Check:
Yeah, he has gaffes, but he at least understands the subject matter.
xian
@The Moar You Know: no he meant his other talking point.
Yeah, Biden’s a moron for not saying “south Lebanon.” I’d love to see a foreign policy debate between Joe and herp derp over here.
trollhattan
@El Cid:
What you said. Herman Cain ran to build his businesses and accidentally found himself sort of in the lead, COMPLETELY unprepared. He knows nothing of law, domestic policy, economics or the people he supposedly wants to lead. He knows even less (if that’s possible) about anything happening beyond our borders. He’s a nasty, empty man in an empty suit.
i.e., Perfect Republican candidate.
Marc
@The Moar You Know:
But Republicans don’t like it when you say mean things about them; so Observer wants you to stop. Cain is belligerent, ignorant, and proud of it. That doesn’t prevent him from working hard. It does disqualify him from being president.
Quaker in a Basement
Palin with a penis? Oh, heck. I had Bachmann with the lead pipe in the conservatory.
harlana
@steve: also, she would have winked at the camera and triggered starbursts. i don’t think that would have worked out so well for Cain, for, as we well know, a variety of reasons!
jl
Palin and Newt are accomplished swindlers.
Cain has significant accomplishment in useful work and in businesses that do real and useful things.
I think the fact that Cain has accomplished more in the real world of doing real useful things than
manymostany (well, going that far is unfair to Paul and Huntsman, and maybe even Bachmann) of the other GOP candidates has been discussed and acknowledged on this blog.But in politics, I don’t see much difference between Cain and Palin, or Newt, or Perry, or Bachmann.
xian
@Satanicpanic: right, and they love the idea that Obama is so foreign he didn’t even know how many states there are!
The funny thing is that herpderp is so in the bubble that he thinks he’s pulling out killer zingers that are going to convince us… what? that Cain will make a good VP running mate for Romney?
El Cid
If Palin or Cain had had other moments in which they were intelligently and discussing in an informed manner subjects such as Libya, or what newspapers they read, such that some sort of ‘awkward moment’ or fatigue or whatever explanation was plausible, it’d be a different world.
These are people who just don’t give a fucking fuck, and their fucking worker drones get all het up and bothered at the notion that anyone would even think they should put in as much work on the matter as unpaid internet blog commenters, because for me to have to read and learn about stuff for free on my own paid internet connection makes me a lazy arrogant librul ayleet, but some rich ass grifters with national fan clubs worshiping their every burp and fart have to do the same?
Oppression! Hatred! Unferr!
jl
@harlana: I think, apparently with others here, is that Cain is reasonably intelligent and very capable of informing himself about difficult matters. But for some reason or other, like some other GOP candidates, he does not think that is important in running for President.
Heck, something like that worked for Bush Jr. So, why tamper with success (at getting elected)?
JGabriel
John Cole:
Isn’t it a truism at this point that conservatives just want to support whoever pisses off liberals the most?
There’s no pretense anymore of possessing a philosophy with bridgeable differences. Conservatives have no philosophy at all now, just a credo: If there’s a bridge to agreement with Democrats, we’ll burn it.
.
Thoughtcrime
@The Moar You Know:
I say Libya, and you say labia.
Libya, labia,
Libya, labia.
Let’s call the whole thing off.
xian
@Loneoak: actually engaging directly with a troll is like a wrestling a pig, y’all… i prefer to mock and point and laugh up my sleeve.
it’s a sign of how far gone the publicans are that this is the best they can do.
jl
@Thoughtcrime: I read ‘Latvia’ at first. I thought this was a family blog.
grandpa john
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
right and neither is Joe Biden so the whole thing is rather inane but then RC is also inane
xian
@Nom de Plume: thew best part is that the poor schmuck has a text file somewhere with all those damning gaffes at hand! Still working on earning signed McCain balls, I see.
Citizen Alan
@dianne:
I didn’t get the impression that the guy was leering at her. Just that he was nervous and embarrassed that he had a messy job to do and this stupid woman was standing in front of him giving an interview. It’s like he knew that what was about to happen was going to be profoundly embarrassing for someone and he was terrified that it was going to be him.
Gex
The reason this works is that far too many Americans don’t know enough about the issues to realize he’s speaking nonsense.
ChrisZ
Some gaffes are simple mistakes. Others are bad jokes. Still others are genuine evidence of incompetence. It seems our “Reality Check” troll is either arguing that we can’t tell the difference, or is arguing that there isn’t one.
jibeaux
Can we get a thread up in here that isn’t covered in troll santorum, pretty please?
The Moar You Know
@Thoughtcrime: DAMMIT, that will now be twirling around in my head all day.
Loneoak
My honest opinion is that Cain is a smart, potentially-hard-working man who is so thoroughly integrated into the grift-o-matic machine he is a not much more than a stalking horse for AFP/Koch Bros. The 9-9-9 plan was remarkably stupid, but it was savvy enough it pushed all of the other candidates hard into flat tax land. He’s smart enough to learn about Libya, but he’s corrupt enough that he knows it doesn’t matter because he’s not actually running for President.
PurpleGirl
Please JC don’t say “stuttering incoherence.” Those of us who stutter are not speaking incoherently when we do stutter. A stutter is neuro-physiological event. There is feedback loop between the brain, the ear and the vocal folds which gets out of sync (let’s say). We know what we want to say. It comes out disjointed but it is not the kind of incoherence that either Palin or Cain have exhibited when talking. They are having brain farts of stupidity.
We who stutter don’t need any one thinking that our speech problem is that we don’t know what we want to say.
(P.S. This is not a PC rant — just a learning moment. And I still love you.)
Shade Tail
On a different but thematically related subject, Congressional republicans are, for all practical purposes, trying to get pizza classified as a vegetable in order to gut school lunch nutrition rules.
Seriously.
Thoughtcrime
To Cain, -labia- Libya evokes fond memories of camel toes.
Svensker
@Thoughtcrime:
LOL.
ed drone
@Thoughtcrime:
Fixed.
Ed
Thoughtcrime
@jl:
How can this be family friendly? This is the story of the Herman Cain.
GregB
The soft bigotry of low expectations with extra cheese.
Brachiator
@David in NY:
Palin has a mustache, but shaves it.
xian
@forked tongue: are you seriously expecting coherent argumentation from a hit-and-run, copy-and-paste, third-rate troll?
Liberty60
@BGinCHI:
This needs to be fucking tattoed on the forehead of every Villager, and then again on their children, children’s children, down to the 7th generation.
I was doing phone banking for a Democratic Assembly candidate here in CA, and part of the phone script was to glowingly note “he isn’t a politician, he is a businessman!”
I said it, but it killed me that we had internalized that meme, of promoting someone to public office by proclaiming ignorance of governmental management.
Its like promoting someone as the CEO of Toyota, with the praise that “he is not a car guy, but has spent his life making pizza!”
Charles Pierce is right- Caligula died 2000 years too early.
jl
@Shade Tail: Yeah, seriously. I heard a news spot on the great junk food crusade.
The frozen pizza industry hired some nutritionists to criticize the guidelines on the grounds that providing healthy food that kids won’t eat does not improve nutrition.
I might be sympathetic if industry was saying that they had healthy pizzas that the proposed rules would prohibit. But they aren’t, they are complaining that they will not be able to shovel the same old crud to the schools anymore.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@BGinCHI:
I, for one, have had my fill of MBA Presidents…
Quaker in a Basement
Oh yeah? Let’s see you people do any better when you have stuff twirling around in your head!!
Certified Mutant Enemy
@David in NY:
Either way, the imagery is unpleasant.
xian
@Lol: right, they both can’t tell why it’s so shallow that it would be her justification for foreign policy knowledge, or they get all het up that she never said “I can see Russia from my house” because the SNL parody crystalized teh funny in a way that hurts their little brains.
related: John McCain says that Palin is the US’s top expert on energy.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Reality Check: She said you can see Russia from some parts of Alaska—which is an entirely true and factual statement.
And she said that qualified her for the Presidency’s foreign policy demands, which isn’t.
ETA: looks like a bunch of other people pointed that out, but we might as well feed the troll until it hurls.
schrodinger's cat
Cain is not dumb, I think he is playing dumb to appeal to the base. To be popular with the base you have to be mean and dumb.
OT, what is happening with OWS, what happened in court this afternoon, are they going to be allowed back?
David in NY
@schrodinger’s cat: They lost, I think. Have it from apparently reliable twitter, but not mainstream press, yet.
ETA: Daily News: http://live.nydailynews.com/Event/Showdown_at_Zuccotti_Park_The_NYPDs_raid_on_Occupy_Wall_Street_NYC/18743364
Mike E
Jon Stewart is right about the red tie Herman Cain vs yellow tie H. Cain…I’ll leave it to Dirty Harry:
xian
@Jay in Oregon: the connection to Palin is also the faking-it-with-briefing-books style that seems to be the Republican norm at this point, up to and including Romney.
handsmile
@schrodinger’s cat: (#110)
NY State Supreme Court has just ruled that protesters will be permitted to return to Zuccotti Park but will not be allowed to camp there.
Unclear how soon protesters will be permitted to enter park.
jl
@Xecky Gilchrist: Palin’s house is on Little Diomede Island> I did not know that.
Villago Delenda Est
@El Cid:
This is the thing.
The man is not an idiot. But he plays one in order to appeal to the dumbshits of the Rethug base.
If he tried this shit with a board of directors, he’d be out on the sidewalk, bodily tossed onto it by a couple of Pinkertons.
But in Rethug primary land, they eat this shit up. And ask for seconds!
Gin & Tonic
@handsmile: Just to clarify, NY State Supreme Court is standard trial court – it is not the highest court in NY, so I expect this to be appealed. This was just the opinion of one judge.
DPirate
I think he gave a decent answer. It’s just too bad that he agrees with Obama and Bush that presidents can declare war on whomever they wish.
jonas
@Reality Check: Bwaaaaahaaahahaha! Indeed, that is true. But she was saying it in response to a question about her foreign policy experience, which made it only slightly more intelligent than if she had simply sat there and drooled. I think it might have been a BJ poster, channeling Molly Ivins, who responded: “I can see the moon from my house. Does that make me a fucking astronaut?”
someGuyInAustin
This site should use a different font. Every time the word ‘clowns’ appears, the ‘c’ and the ‘l’ combine and it looks like ‘downs’.
I’ve also noticed that you use the word ‘clowns’ a lot these days.
;)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@schrodinger’s cat:
I had the same thought after I read his bio, two degrees and reputation as a self starter, he can’t be this dumb. Palin doesn’t know crap because she is clearly locked in her own little world. Cain’s a guy who’s switch from the military to corporate management so it’s not like he’s lived in a box the last 50 years.
I suppose it could also be this just a book tour for him and he could careless about getting the nomination.
jl
@someGuyInAustin: I believe that ‘clown’ is on the Basic Balloon Juice wordlist, and always has been.
Gex
@PurpleGirl: But if a person is stuttering and incoherent what else should we say. People who “don’t” stutter actually do stutter sometimes. Mostly coherently, but sometimes incoherently.
Corbin Dallas Multipass
@Reality Check:
Yes, but the context was using that to claim Foreign Policy experience, which is beyond a gaffe, it’s not understanding how to intelligently respond to questions in a dialog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXL86v8NoGk&feature=player_embedded
In the same interview she didn’t understand the commonly understood concept of the Bush Doctrine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgMWhrCzbdk
That was again, more than a gaffe, as it showed her true ignorance and unfamiliarity with contemporary concepts in foreign policy.
So yes, you can argue she hasn’t had as many gaffes, though you’d have to admit that she has made true honest mistakes that exposed deep ignorance instead. So enjoy that.
Tagg
Your post title assumes that Palin does not have a penis herself.
The Other Chuck
I see it’s yet another thread completely dominated by Reality Check. Shit, we should just hand this whole fucking blog over to him. Maybe I need to get on that project of pie-filtering all responses to pie-filter residents, in which case this whole god damned site will be about pie.
Or maybe you can just stop giving this craven shitbag the attention he’s demanding?
shortstop
@Quaker in a Basement: On an earlier thread, I was attempting to mock Cain’s remark. But I remembered it wrong, so I said “swirling around my brain” instead of “twirling around in my head.” This is as embarrassing as not remembering what happened in Libya, especially because I was using a teleprompter at the time I commented.
@ed drone: Let’s pay the whole thing off. –National Restaurant Association
Mike in NC
Herman Cain has 50% less chance of getting elected president than Donald Trump. In other words: ZERO. He’s out to make a fast buck. I can count the number of Republicans that I know who aren’t deeply racist on one hand. He couldn’t get elected dogcatcher in East Buttfuck, Mississippi.
PurpleGirl
@Gex: Just say incoherent, just say stupid, just say ignorant. Just say he stuttered his answer. What I object to is the combination of “stuttering incoherence” as standing in for stupid, ignorant, lazy, whatever.
(Because, you see, there have been countless times when my stutter has been taken to mean I’m stupid or that I don’t know what I want to say… by ignorant and true idiots.)
FlipYrWhig
@Observer:
Damn straight! Cain should have to be 10 times stupider than Sarah Palin to get this kind of treatment! Wait, what was the criticism again?
FlipYrWhig
@PurpleGirl: I thought the phrase was “sputtering” incoherence anyway.
Brachiator
Cain’s been schooled by his advisers. When you screw the pooch, invoke Saint Ronny to get out of the jam.
After invoking the Magical Name, Cain skeedaddled without taking any questions. Also, too.
Feudalism Now!
Cain is a job creator. His lack of a campaign staff has created opportunities for people and fraudsters.
All that time at number one and he generated wealth for many.
PurpleGirl
@FlipYrWhig: But JC used “stuttering incoherence” in his post. Sputtering incoherence is a much better phrase. Thank you.
Snowball
@Brachiator:
Has this actually been an issue since Obama took office? It seems like our country is more popular around the world since the 2008 election and that we have an excellent Sec of State.
PurpleGirl
Wouldn’t it be better if the friends stood with us?
Brachiator
@PurpleGirl:
And it would be far better not to have enemies, rather than having to “clarify” our relationship to them.
gnomedad
Anyone who actually thinks that Barack Obama really didn’t know how many states there are is too stupid or mendacious to live.
redshirt
Its always fascinating to me how many people take the troll bait. Its impossible to resist!
I’d like to troll conservative sites in the same manner, but we all know what would happen, right? Instaban.
Which adds another data point I think in our ongoing national “debate”.
Kyle
@David in NY: A little alliteration lets the lesson last longer.
Rick Taylor
Romney is a much better speaker, but on foreign policy at least, he’s ignorant and faking it as well. And he has an even better chance of being President of the United States than Cain.
cckids
@Elizabelle:
I’m not sure he knows where/what Libya IS. I was waiting for the reporter to grab a globe & start pointing.
gelfling545
I just want to say that I could walk to Canada from my house. Why am I not ambassador?
Someone above mentioned the lack of curiosity re: both Palin & Cain. That is what is most damning. You can always find out what you don’t know – if you want to. Clearly Cain, as Palin before him, just didn’t care to know. Either or both could be “smart” i.e. have the ability to process information when necessary. They just both concluded that they didn’t want to go to all that work.
smintheus
Is this more Owen Wilson being interviewed by Charlie Rose in Royal Tenenbaums, or the Dude being cross-examined in The Big Lebowsky’s limousine?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Observer: If this were an isolated incident, I might see where you’re coming from. But this is not one incident. Do we have to keep putting everything up every time we want to point out how clueless Cain is?
Mike Furlan
Cain could be pandering to the Republican base by with his stupid but angry act.
Or he may be acting out black stereotypes, like the “Sambo” and “Mandingo” archetypes in a way that will hurt black folks in general and President Obama in particular. Kind of like a cultural suicide bomber.
28 Percent
I’m trying to get this straight: the point Cain wants to make is that he has a very deliberative decision-making style, and he demonstrates this by offering criticism and then admitting to not knowing whether or not the criticism has any foundation.
Heller wept.
Jado
“At some points, I think the Republican base is just fucking with us…”
You THINK??!
Of COURSE they are fucking with us – there is nothing better for a neocon or tea partier than making LIBRULS (!!!) squirm. They would elect someone all the way to the oval office just because it makes us squirm. Even if that person drives the US off a cliff. Totally worth it if it makes the hippies crazy.
The Republican politicians’ main objective is to gain and keep power, and defeat the Democrats. The greater Republican party’s main objective is to screw with the hippies.
YellowJournalism
Mike Furlan:
I’d have to agree with the possibility of the latter part of your post being true. I heard briefly on the radio today that Cain (either joking or not) said he wanted Secret Service to give him the codename “Cornbread”. Even as a joke, that’s jaw-droppingly offensive.
Kilkee
Lybias, labias, I got all this stuff swirling in my head….
Matt Osborne
Actually, Judson Phillips — the guy who held a Tea Party Nation convention with Sara Palin headlining — has said the interview leaves Cain “unqualified” to be president, which puts him in the unique category of ‘DUMBER THAN PALIN.’
russell
Libya? Wait, let me pull something out of my ass.
Mike Furlan
@YellowJournalism:
He is an intentional “discredit to his race.”
And, since he is “better than their blacks” what does that say about Obama?
Brachiator
@Mike Furlan:
Nothing.