Posted on 10/02/2011 3:00:31 PM PDT by Baladas
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Sunday that he should not have stayed silent after the audience at a GOP debate booed a gay soldier serving in Iraq.
The Georgia businessman told ABC's "This Week" that it would have been "appropriate" for him to have defended the soldier. None of the candidates on stage at the Sept. 22 forum responded to the boos.
"In retrospect, because of the controversy it has created and because of the different interpretations that it could have had, yes, that probably — that would have been appropriate," Cain said, when asked if he should have asked the audience to respect the soldier.
Cain said it wasn't immediately clear to him what had drawn the audience's scorn, adding, "I happen to think that maybe they were booing the whole 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal more so than booing that soldier."
The so-called don't ask, don't tell policy barring gays from serving openly in the military was officially lifted last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
This is the first time that I have inferred anything negative regarding Cain, but he is now starting to make me ill.
I watched a video of this interview.... Cain was clearly pandering.
Bye pizza man.
Cain is readily working his way to the back of the bus....today he announced that he would change ruffles and flourishes to something else...maybe gospel, obviously pandering...and his 9-9-9 plan has some serious flaws. It appears he can’t stand success....
Cain in on Fox now with Chris Wallace. Wonder if he’ll ask Cain if he’s a flake?
I'm still with Perry and Cain is still my second choice.
The media is sabotaging Cain, and he doesn’t even know it.
If he doesn’t get that, he’s not smart enough to be our candidate.
Wake up Cain. You’re having a Katie Couric moment. Er, day... Talk to Palin, she’ll explain.
That’s a shame. I’d had hopes that he would be relentless in representing conservative values.
I thinks part of the problem with all of the GOP hopefuls is that their advisers are spanned in Washington DC.
He’s going soft on us.
OK. I’m writing Cain off. Just yesterday I foolishly said I supported Palin/Cain, although of course if Sarah wins she gets to choose her VP.
Two gaffes in a row. First the race card, and now this.
I am NOT a Perry supporter. I think he’s a RINO. But he had nothing to do with the name on that rock, and he and his father painted it over long ago. And evidently Cain was shown the story before he commented, since he knew what the name of the place was, even though the interviewer didn’t tell him.
Now this. Sorry, but I don’t think this guy is ready for prime time.
The worst of it, is that the crowd did NOT boo the soldier. That was an MSM/Obamanoid lie. Two guys in the crowd booed his QUESTION, and they were quickly shouted down by those around them. Cain should be criticizing the left wing, racist media and racist Obama on this, not his fellow Republicans.
But he went a step further and said he should have spoken up on the soilder’s behalf. Obama snapped his fingers:
and Cain jumped.
At the debate, a gay soldier called up, identified himself as a gay soldier, and asked if the candidates would re-institute DADT. That is when some in the audience booed.
They booed him for asking a question suggesting the GOP should support DADT. There was no reason for ANY of the candidates to "defend the soldier".
Of course, this is only happening to Cain because he is now the front-runner. We saw what they did to Perry, who had been extensively vetted in multiple governor campaigns. Just imagine how they can tear down a guy who has never been through a campaign before.
Unless you are a democrat, I think it's hard make a presidential run if you haven't been through a few gruelling election cycles.
how can you possibly be for Perry given his open border position? That position screws up practically everything else in America, except for black kids without two parents.
I watched that segment and agree with you. I don't think Cain was trying to show support for gays as much as he just doesn't know how to handle the national media.
The interviewer kept pushing and pushing, and he tried at first to explain that 1.) the audience was booing at the "Don't ask - Don't tell" policy and that 2.) He was not in a position on the debate floor at that time to respond (debate rules and regulations). However, being pushed still as to why he didn't say something, Cain just gave in and said he guessed he should have said something.
Cain just didn't handle himself well and didn't know how to handle the hard-hitting questions.
Giving him that though, this does make me feel I should maybe better check out his stand on social issues though.
Oh come on Herman, you’ve just played the leftists game! We lose every time.
So you see...ole' Hermy is not perfect either. He's ready to jump on the racist bandwagon just as quickly as Jesse Jackson or 'Resist we Much' Sharpton.
Oh....Cain for President!!! /heaviest sarcasm possible off
Oyvey. The idea that you can’t express displeasure with a policy at a policy debate because the questioner is a soldier is total bs. Strike two Herman.
Why do Republicans always act embarrassed of their own base?
He knows we are not racists or bigots....he KNOWS, as does Perry.
Why not defend the patriots that support them??
The GOP is dead, they just don’t know it yet.
I think the RINO establishment had a little talk with Herman Cain last week.
The press is twisting Cain’s words left and right, and folks right here on Free Republic are taking the bait.
Hello, folks, this is the SAME thing they did to Palin, Bachmann and every other conservative out there. If you keep ticking candidates off your list as a knee jerk reaction, instead of getting to the bottom of things, we will not have a conservative running against Obama. Period.
Just like the other thread - Cain didn’t play the race card against Perry. He was asked his thought on the name and he expressed his opinion. I’m not sure what some folks on FR thinks the appropriate response would have been. Do they really think Cain should have said the word “n*gger” is okay? He wasn’t responding to Perry, he was responding to the language.
By the way, I’m a white, middle-aged, very conservative mom. I don’t like the word either. I happen to think the word “b*tch” is insensitive to women too. It flew all over me when the left referred to Trig Palin as “retard”.
C’mon people, get a grip!
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