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It won’t hurt Cain.

Cain said it was insensitive and should have been painted over sooner. That’s the political equivalent of hitting someone with a feather duster—about as light as you could go.

The critics (even Rush) seem ticked that Cain didn’t defend Perry. Really? That’s Cain’s job, to defend another candidate. No, that’s Perry’s job.

And therin lies the problem for Perry. Once again he has been uable to defend himself by giving a simple answer. “It was there before we rented the property, and we immediatly painted over it.” That’s all he needed to say—case closed.

Instead, he has given conflicting statements:

“When my Dad joined the lease in 1983, he took the first opportunity he had to paint over the offensive word on the rock during the 4th of July holiday.”

“My mother and father went to the lease and painted the rock in either 1983 or 1984. This occurred after I paid a visit to the property with a friend and saw the rock with the offensive word. After my visit I called my folks and mentioned it to them, and they painted it over during their next visit.”

Not only do the dates not match, but it gives the impression that they didn’t consider it to be a big deal. Did they immediatly paint over it? No, but they eventually got around to it.

I grew up in the deep south. I’m not naive about this kind of thing. In the ‘60s the n-word was commonly used. But in the early 70’s that phrasing totally disapeared from public discourse (at least polite public discourse). By the early 80’s the word was 100% unacceptable. Had I rented a building or land in the early ‘80s with that word on it, it would have been painted over on day 1, not a year later or “when we got around to it.”

Of course, I grew up in Georgia. Maybe things were different in Texas. Regardless, the protests about Cain not comming to Perry’s defense seem a little too over the top. Or to quote the Bard “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.”