Posted on 10/22/2011 9:34:34 PM PDT by martosko
Say what you want about former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain’s presidential bid and his missteps along the way, but it’s hard to argue with results: Cain has an edge in the average of the major polls, and even picked up a straw poll victory in Nevada on Friday.
But that doesn’t impress syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
“[I] saw him on ‘Stossel’ on abortion — entirely incoherent,” Krauthammer said. “On one hand, ‘people ought to have choice.’ On the other hand, ‘life is sacred from the beginning and abortion ought to be illegal.’ This isn’t a complicated issue. It’s one or the other. It can’t be both.
“Stossel was simply stunned. And if you combine it with the ‘9-9-9’ stuff, it is not that he just hasn’t thought it out. He is winging it. And that is a real problem.”
“I like Cain, but saying he’s ‘winging it’ certainly isn’t a wildly outrageous observation.”
NOBODY expected Cain’s surge... even Cain.
I think that the first week or so after the surge, he tripped a bit. He didn’t say or do anything terribly wrong, he just had a couple of rough moments in interviews. There were areas that weren’t as carefully developed because, for so long, there was no need to.
It seems to me that he’s got his stride back.
One thing that infuriates me is that people keep saying that he’s just now developing 999 and an economic plan. (I just saw this on Fox news with Ann Coulter and the weekend morning team.)
A month ago, I spent four full days digging into this man’s past and beliefs. At THAT time, I saw everything that I’m seeing now. ‘Empowerment Zones’ were ALWAYS part of 999. Not charging income tax for the lowest brackets. I knew about this stuff almost a month ago.
This morning, in the same segment with Coulter, they brought up that Cain’s abortion stances are questionable. THEY ARE NOT NOW, and never have been questionable.
It’s just that now people are starting to pay attention. The media aren’t doing their homework and we’re actually listening to them and giving them credit.
Incidentally, Coulter had nice things to say about Romney. how he’s ‘polished’ and ‘smooth’ politician and has the best chance to take Obama. I cannot BELIEVE that these conservatives are giving Romney such a free ride.
What the heck is wrong with these people??
Really?
I do not care about talkers. Cain has no policy actions to be judged with, he only has a record of talking. Talk is cheap, actions are what matters at the end.
Kraut's comment is false. Cain never said that people ought to have choice about abortion.
Either Kraut is ill prepared about what Cain said and Kraut is (ironically) "winging-it" or Kraut is a liar.
Which one is it Kraut defenders?
Roll tape...
Cain: Yes
Stossel: You’re against it …
Cain: I’m pro-life from conception, yes
Stossel: Any cases where it should be legal?
Cain: I don’t think government should make that decision. I don’t believe that government should make that decision.
Stossel: People should be free to abort a baby …
Cain: I support life from conception. No, people shouldn’t be just free to abort because if we don’t protect the sanctity of life from conception we will also start to play God relative to life at the end of life.
Stossel: I’m confused on what your position is. If a …
Cain: My position is I’m pro-life, period.
Stossel: … woman is raped she should not be allowed to end the pregnancy?
Cain: That’s her choice. That is not government’s choice. I support life from conception.
Stossel: So abortion should be legal.
Cain: No abortion should not be legal. I believe in the sanctity of life.
Stossel: I’m not getting..I’m not understanding. If it’s her choice, that means its legal.
Cain: I don’t believe a woman should have an abortion. Does that help to clear it up.
Stossel: Even if she is raped?
Cain: Even if she is raped or she is the victim of incest, because there are other options. We must protect the sanctity of life and I have always believed that. Real clear.
Ronald Reagan has a terrible record on spending.
“In 1980, Jimmy Caner’s last year as president, the federal government spent a whopping 27.9% of “national income” (an obnoxious term for the private wealth produced by the American people). Reagan assaulted the free-spending Carter administration throughout his campaign in 1980. So how did the Reagan administration do? At the end of the first quarter of 1988, federal spending accounted for 28.7% of “national income.”
To be sure Reagan was better than Carter, Clinton, Bush41, and Zero, since he cut taxes. But spending tripled during his 8 years, a dismal record. Bush 43 gets credit for cutting taxes but spending and government grew under him significantly.
This is where CEO training becomes important. Herman Cain is experienced in putting together a team that he can assemble to respond to rapidly changing events, so that he himself is not "winging it."
Recent reports about Obama indicated that he's been a "loner" in the White House, shutting out his cabinet and limiting his contacts to Valeria Jarrett and David Axelrod, and retiring to his private quarters early in the evening.
That's what I call "winging it."
-PJ
Great observations. While I`m not sold on anyone yet, when I hear how ENTHUSED people like Coulter are over Romney, well, I just don`t get it. What, exactly, are Romney`s conservative credentials, that he lost to Ted Kennedy, or that he didn`t run for a second term in Massachusetts because he would have lost to Deval Patrick? He is of course preferable to Obama, but who isn`t?
Susan B. Anthony sent Cain a letter, which many of us signed. This gives Cain a chance to clarify his position. If he says he is “personally pro-life,” but doesn’t want the government to interfere, how is Cain different from Carter, and other liberals? So this letter actually gives Cain the chance to help set his positions straight.
Here’s most of the letter:
“In recent interviews you have said that you are pro-life from the moment
of conception, but also that government shouldn’t make decisions on any
exceptions. You also told CNN’s Piers Morgan that “I can have an opinion
on an issue without it being a directive on the nation. The government
shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it
comes to a social decision that they need to make.”
Please sign the Pro-life Presidential Leadership Pledge immediately to
clarify how as President, you would translate your personal views on
abortion to public policy.
In 2012, we need to replace President Obama with an authentic pro-life
leader who will work to end the bloodshed of 4,000 innocent unborn lives
each day. A committed leader on Life will commit to the following:
FIRST, to nominate to the U.S. federal bench judges who are committed to
restraint and applying the original meaning of the Constitution, not
legislating from the bench;
SECOND, to select only pro-life appointees for relevant Cabinet and
Executive Branch positions, in particular the head of National Institutes
of Health, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health & Human
Services;
THIRD, to advance pro-life legislation to permanently end all taxpayer
funding of abortion in all domestic and international spending programs,
and defund Planned Parenthood and all other contractors and recipients of
federal funds with affiliates that perform or fund abortions;
FOURTH, advance and sign into law a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection
Act to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain from
abortion.”
Our Founders made their intent clear: “LIFE, liberty....”
I know who Charles is.
I thought Cain was winging it way before Charles said it.
He is constantly tweaking his 999 plan when problems come up regarding it. His plan just shifts taxes from one place to another especially when you consider his “empowerment zones” or now what he is calling “opportunity zones”. To me, it is a disaster plan.
He does not understand foreign policy and has shown this in his interviews time after time. During an earlier debate, he did not have an answer to Afghanistan yet in a later interview he said he had done some research and knew more about it. In another interview he was asked about the right of return and Cain did not know what they were talking about and said it was something that needed to be negotiated. In fact he said, I don’t think they have a problem with people returning. That is just pure ignorance. It was O’Reilly and when he asked him about Iran possibly getting a nuke, Cain’s response was to say you have to have a serious strategy and if you have a serious strategy it’s going to cause the speculators to speculate down instead of speculating up. (gas prices).
His answers on Abortion are confusing to say the least and he just keeps coming up with new lines. It’s like he is sitting on the fence and saying he’s pro-life but yet he is pro-choice.
Speaking of fence, his crazy comments on the electrified fence on the Texas/Mexico border along with a moat, alligators and a sign telling people the fence could kill them is just way over the top. I know I know - He was just kidding. Was he? Or was he just telling people what he thought they wanted to hear? He has no knowledge of the border between Texas/Mexico and it shows. But then, a lot of people apparently do not.
He is to me just a Talk Show Radio Host and he’s talking his way to being nominated.
I think people are supporting him for the same reason people supported Obama. It’s just a different party.
He is inexperienced and not qualified. Now before you call me racist, let me tell you that one of my favorite choices would have been Allen West.
It amazes me that people who support him just overlook these glaring training wheels falling off one by one.
Stupid comment.
He is inexperienced and not qualified. Now before you call me racist, let me tell you that one of my favorite choices would have been Allen West.
You think Cain is inexperienced yet West who has been in Congress since January would have been one of your favorites.
LOLOL!
You Perry-bots with your twists and comments are stinking up this fine board with BS.
Well at least West has been in Congress for almost a year.
Cain has no political experience at all.
So the point is, what? Once a Democrat, always a Democrat? I guess Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston and a few others never got that memo.
Chuck is still a democrat, obviously.
Did Ronald Reagan and Charleton Heston work in a Democratic administration? It’s one thing to be a registered Democratic voter, another to be a functionary.
Krauthammer is my age group and in forth grade I knew Kennedy was a fake. I was expressing personal surprise that Krauthammer could be so dumb about so many things. Is that okay with you?
PS He's not NOW a conservative so Reagan and Heston are not comparable.
I may not always agree with him, but he's a fine commentator.
Sorry, Chuck. No one is buying your BS anymore.
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