Cain’s Knowledge-Deficit Disorder

National Review ^ | 11/18/2011 | Rich Lowry

[TBBT]

He is running for president knowing little about major matters of public import.

Poor Rick Perry. His “brain freeze” is indelible, otherwise it would forever be eclipsed by Herman Cain’s more cringe-inducing meanderings on Libya.

At a meeting with the editors of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cain was asked whether he agreed with Pres. Barack Obama’s handling of Libya. You would think he had been asked who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, Cain’s joshing description of a prototypical gotcha foreign-policy question. What ensued was the longest five minutes of an editorial-board meeting ever.

Cain paused. Then he asked for a lifeline by trying to confirm with his questioner that President Obama supported the Libyan uprising. He started to say why he disagreed with Obama, but stopped after realizing, “No, that’s a different one.” He hesitated again. “Got all this stuff twirling around in my head,” he explained.

Cain hadn’t been asked about an obscure conflict or one distant in time. We’re not talking the War of Jenkins’s Ear or the Second Peloponnesian War. He seemed to all but have missed that there had recently been a Libyan War that had taxed the capacities of NATO, created an intense conflict with Congress over presidential war powers, teetered on the brink of failure, and divided conservatives. For Cain, Libya was little more than a rumor of war.

[MNJohnnie]

I love the way you used a whole bunch of high sounding rhetoric to post just another childish ad homine attack at Cain.

[Lou Budvis]

How hard would it have been to immediately respond: “I supported the removal of Khadaffi. But,I would not have supported the opposition without properly vetting it.” I saw Trump give a very good critique of 0bama’s Libya policy and he’s not even running.

[olezip]

He is running for president knowing little about major matters of public import.

Public import as determined by ???

Herman Cain will be a great President of the United States. Why should he have to spend his time boning up on matters that are irrelevant to everyday problems we all face in terms of the destruction to our culture, our economy, our safety and security as a nation?

As far as I am concerned Libya is just another country enabling Sharia Law and destroying more Christians and churches. The cold blooded murder of Gaddafi by rabble was uncivilized demonstration of where we are headed with our mindless spending and policies.

We are on that "slippery slope" we all worry about. Herman Cain can turn that around with or without silly gotcha questions by useless reporters.

[TBBT]

Most Americans don’t know and don’t care about Libya. Its a burning issue for the MSM and the elites but Americans are focused on other things. They don’t like these “gotcha” questions. I’m not saying Cain is right on everything but quite frankly, 99% of the questions asked are just not what people talk about around the water coolers at work and around the family dinner table at home.

Just because there is apathy and ignorance in the masses doesn't excuse it in a President. Quite the contrary.

[org.whodat]

Yes, your man huntsman has the most foreign policy experience, right up there with george bush one. George got fired and beat by someone that had zero foreign policy experience. It is the economy stupid, who said that.

[Huck]

Cain’s candidacy reflects the ever-lowering bar for running for president.

That's because there America has been an ever-lowering bar for some time now.

[Lady Lucky]

Cain was asked what he’d have done differently on Libya. He based his answer on the argument that Obama didn’t do an adequate assessment, and then at the end admitted he didn’t know what assessment Obama got. Anyone who listens to it without mainlining koolaid has to grasp this; he built a classic straw man argument.

Here are the relevant parts.

“I do not agree with [Obama’s Libya response] for the following reason — no, that’s a different one...” (Pause) “I gotta go back, see, uh...got all this stuff twirling around in my head.”

Interviewer: “I was wondering if you agree with what [Obama] did or if you would have responded differently.”

Cain: “...I would have done a better job of determining who the opposition is...I would have gone about assessing the situation differently...I would have done a better job of assessing the situation relative to the opposition, first, before I made decisions about what we would do.”

“I just don’t think enough was done relative to assessing the opposition, before everything, you know, exploded...I’m a much more deliberate ... I believe in having all of the information...I need to know the facts...to hear all the alternatives...This is the point I’m trying to make.”

Interviewer: “So I’m not clear, what were the parts that you are criticizing the President for in how he handled it?”

Cain: “Ok, the opposition that wanted to overthrow Khadaffi, who are they? How organized are they? How strong are they? Who would be the parent [?] leader? Now that they have succeeded did they have a plan for how they were gonna govern, or are you gonna end up now with a country in complete chaos? This is what I mean ... “

“All of those things I think should have been assessed.”

Interviewer: “And you don’t think they were assessed.”

Cain: “I don’t KNOW that they were or were not assessed. I didn’t see reports of that assessment.”

If he doesn’t know, how can he make any judgment as to how thorough the assessment was, and say he’d have done it better?

[Lou Budvis]

You seriously think Newt would’ve hemmed and hawed with that answer?

[dfwgator]

Newt is a professional politician, Cain is not.....that’s why I prefer Cain, warts and all. Cain’s problems are fixable, Newt’s aren’t.

[TBBT]

What was that funny line the Newt supporters always bring out when anything critical of Newt is posted?

Something about a “circular firing squad”.

The stench of hypocrisy wafting off the Newt team is getting quite potent.

What that make it now... The 100th time you've copied and pasted that?

Be careful now, or you might get accused of being as deep as Cain.

[MNJohnnie]

No Newt would of said what every you wanted to hear. And then when he was in front of a different audience, he would say exactly the opposit becuae that is what that audience wanted to hear.

Newt is a great talker, and a completely unprincipled political opportunist.

[SoConPubbie]

$50 says Lowry is a Romney guy. Any takers?

Actually, I think he is the garden-variety Republican first, conservative second like many of the Pro-Newt, Pro-Perry supporters here on FreeRepublic.

They want a republican to win so bad and they are so afraid of Obama winning again, that their conservative principles are a bit too fungible. In the end, many will probably vote for Myth if he gets the nomination.

Looks like 2012 is shaping up just like 2008.

[MNJohnnie]

Yeah and the 100th time you ignored it to keep up your childish attack bot posting behavior.

Not out fault you are too arrogantly stupid to listen the 1st 100 times.

[TBBT]

That was deep...

[trisham]

"While diplomacy is a critical tool in solving the complex security issues we face, it must never compromise military might. Because we are such a free and prosperous people, we are the envy of the world. Many regimes seek to destroy us because they are threatened by our ideals, and they resent our prosperity.

We must acknowledge the real and present danger that terrorist nations and organizations pose to our country's future. Terrorists only have one objective, namely, to kill all of us. "

~Herman Cain

[Uri’el-2012]

National Review under Rich Lowry has become
an inside the beltway RINO operation.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Blah blah blah.

Liberal media meddling in our primaries, which haven’t even started yet.

Cain / Gingrich. :D

[TBBT]

Deep as it that which Perry stepped in...

[TomGuy]

These media problems are becoming cumulative for Cain. Threads from yesterday:

Herman Cain thumbs nose at New Hampshire Union Leader

Cain complains that Cuba policy questions in Florida are “gotchas”

==

[MNJohnnie]

Whaa Whaa Whaaa!

Don’t cry now that your own behavior around here is coming back to bite you candidate of choice