Posted on 10/29/2011 10:00:12 AM PDT by freespirited
While Herman Cain's viral Web ad — in which chief of staff Mark Block pointedly takes a drag from a cigarette after extolling the presidential candidate's virtues — might have raised eyebrows among political strategists and heckles in Internet comment sections, the ad seems to have also raised the rate at which the insurgent campaign is bringing in fundraising dollars.
Cain has brought in nearly $2 million within the last week alone, nearly doubling his weekly returns earlier this month, his campaign told The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Cain only brought in $2.8 million over the entire third quarter.
"Our donations online have shot up a lot since that ad,” Block told the Journal. “The money we are getting is wildly beyond our expectations."
Cain's campaign has argued that the ad was a manifestation of a nontraditional, down-to-earth style that has caught the Republican zeitgeist. The polls seem to echo that analysis, with Cain leading Mitt Romney 24 percent to 20 in a Fox News survey released earlier this week.
The candidate said earlier this week that the ad "did a great job" and represented his grassroots message.
"We have a saying in my campaign — let Herman be Herman. This is the attitude that I have when I do debates. This is the attitude I have when I do interviews: Let Herman be Herman. Mark Block is my chief of staff. And we also say, 'Let Mark be Mark,' " Cain said on Fox News. "Mark happens to be a smoker. He knows it's a bad habit, but he smokes. And so we weren't trying to send any subliminal message whatsoever. Many of us found it hilarious, because we know Mark Block."
Block said the ad enforced the idea of Cain as a "different kind of presidential candidate."
“Yes, the smoking part of that ad was controversial — and I don’t in any way condone smoking — but the message that Herman Cain is a different kind of presidential candidate is certainly resonating across the country,” Block said.
The man makes perfect sense to me and he is not going to back down from the harpies.
Here is the deal.
Mr Perry, is rooted squarely in reality.
He makes his judgements based on reality and the letter of the law.
He made clear in your New Hampshire video that Texas is hamstrung on illegal immigration by the federal Gov and that should he become president he would alleviate the states from that untenable position.
He also made it CLEAR that Texas has worked above and beyond its duty to secure these borders.
All Mr Cain has done is run his mouth and run a 5th tier pizza joint.
All Mr Cain has done is run his mouth and run a 5th tier pizza joint.
Unfortunately, many conservatives are now only about skittles and unicorn candidates. The President of the United States is a pretty big job, and it’s hard to imagine one of the main criteria these days is that a candidate has absolutely no political background or record.
I also believe that Mr Perry would be OK with you having a cigarette after eating a pizza and quaffing a beer.
Yes..thanks!
Lord help those around me.
Sigh....
It is a big problem.
I supported Fred Thompson last go around.
I wanted a guy that was measured and who parsed his response with reason.
Sadly many wanted fire in the belly, and thats just what we got with Obama, a fast and loose chucklehead that throws out snappy punchlines and fast tracks bad policy on public emotion.
(Well, not "nuff said)....Smoking Man/Cain 2011 will go down in presidential campaign ad history. It is the 800 pound elephant that the lib talking heads on Meet the Press are pooh-poohing and laughing about. However, they are scared shitless. Their worried eyes betray their smug attitude which is just a false front. THEY themselves know it was brilliant, it was anti Establishment and anti-Beltway and anti-PC all rolled in one, and that once you get outside the Northeast Corridor and Beltway, this is what 80% of the American People, pissed off to the core over Obama and the country's direction, feel in their sincere hears. The ad resonated right to the core of current American psyche, but it was on a very high tactical level, it even blew the socks off these Columbia Skewl J-grads and Harvard type empty suits, they have "speechless" and "concerned" written all over their filthy little faces. I love it. REVOLUTION!!!! The inside of an NBC studio in D.C. is NOT AMERICA. So out of touch. So out of touch. Pathetic.
And yet, had you read the whole thread, you would have seen that most who agree, also are former or quitting smokers.
Something to ponder.
When I quit those few times, I actually got depressed....like I lost my bff or a family member, or a limb.
I even cried over the “loss”. I think I may try NA. Perhaps they can give me some coping skills.
Very interesting. My wife and I are not smokers, and she is apolitical. She thinks the ad is dumb and wonders who in the world would take a Presidential candidate seriously after seeing it.
That was precisely the subliminal, anti-PC imagery and message. It spoke VOLUMES and was both shocking and thought provoking-as tactically, unconventionally intended. Then when it sunk it people said “Yeah! Yeah! F-Yeah! I GET it! He’s for me! He is for freedom of choice, he’s for govt. out of my life, his is for the AMERICA THAT USED TO BE BEFORE THE STATIST KNOW IT ALLS RUINED EVERYTHING, the ability to crack a harmless, slightly off color joke at work, have a cig as long as it was not right in somebody’s face, not be told what to think and say because someone in the extreme minority might be offffffennded. Cain the general can take EXTREME ADVANTAGE of pushing these and other similar grassroots hot buttons out in the heartland that will resonate will millions upon millions of voters who can be turned against that no good busy body Obama and his ilk. More power to him. Very subliminal and very VERY potent. A classic. I am convinced. I was from the moment I saw it and wrote exactly on FR right away it was genius and would rake in bucks, name ID, and feartless footsoldiers for Mr. Cain across the fruited plain. EAGLES UP!!! The MSM on NBC TV this a.m. did not want to touch it with a ten foot poll, it is very anti-Beltway Radioactive. They are besides themselves. I love it. out here in Flyover Country.
Almost everyone I know, friends and family are non smokers. I am the “leper”.
My biggest trigger is driving. That is what led me to “unquit”. I could no longer drive w/out a butt in hand.
Ahhhh, excellent idea! I HATE chores and making my own cigs would certainly qualify in that department.
Think I’ll start that tomorrow, or perhaps on Tuesday. I need time to mentally prepare!
Herman Cain IS the leftists biggest nightmare.
My Father-In-Law gave us his 2004 Lincoln Aviator last year. He chained smoked in it for 6 years. When I picked it up the nicotine made my skin crawl. I had to drive it 200 miles home, I had to stop and puke it was so bad in that thing. After a year I am still scrapping nicotine off of the inside of the thing. I had to scrub the leather seats with a green meanie just so I could sit in it. You shouldn’t scrub leather but NOTHING got the nicotine off.
Good point, lol.
Wow. I’ll take it off your hands if you don’t want it >; )
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