Posted on 11/02/2011 9:27:50 PM PDT by smoothsailing
November 2, 2011
by J.E. Dyer
1. That Herman Cain is a sexual harasser.
2. That Rick Perry had anything to do with the “leak” of “information” about sexual harassment complaints against Cain to Politico.
3. That Mitt Romney was behind the “leaks” either.
4. That the mythical ability to silence baseless innuendo, or spin it and come out smelling like a rose, or avoid it altogether, is a qualification for being president of the United States.
5. That the left-wing mainstream media act in good faith when they retail these allegations.
6. That media coverage of such allegations and innuendo is some form of vetted professional activity, rather than just a glorified form of slam book smears and middle-school cafeteria gossip.
7. That it is incumbent on any of us to take the endless effluvia of the media smear machine seriously.
8. That it is a sign of intelligence to thoughtfully consider these charges-without-evidence, rather than simply dismissing them.
9. That the whole circus matters to our choice of president, in terms of illuminating for us the character or abilities of any of the candidates.
10. That any of these cheap-allegation dramas is even about the candidates, rather than about us, and whether we have any judgment or discrimination when it comes to what we let the media fill our heads with.
If a competent prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, today’s media can smear one – and then make it look like some innocent ham sandwich over there behind the counter did it. But the media can only do this because we cooperate with them, by simply accepting every negative, damning, evil thought they suggest to us.
Keeping the barrage up is virtually cost-free for them. They are not going to stop, no matter how conclusively it is proven that they are full of shinola. Accepting their cues, and spending day after day discussing things on their terms, is the actual problem. And that problem starts with us.
There is no corrective for this problem in the mechanics of politics or the media’s M.O. Politics and the media aren’t going to change. Period. We have to decide what our characters and priorities will consist of. Do we have the strength of mind to say this? – “Don’t bother me with your innuendo about Herman Cain. I want to talk issues. We need to cut spending, reduce regulation, and undo all of Obama’s dangerous executive orders. We need to restore a constitutional balance of power in the federal government. And that’s just for starters. Iran is closing in on a nuclear weapon. China is menacing all of Asia. European security is in jeopardy, and so is ours. That’s what I want to talk about. The future of the republic is at stake.”
Who cares if “they” think we’re stupid? Are we seriously going to let this election degenerate into a suicidal snark free-for-all because someone might think we’re stupid, if we don’t bite on every worm the media dangle on the hook?
Any one of us could be in Cain’s or Perry’s position – or Bachmann’s, or Palin’s, or that of any conservative front-runner past or present. Ronald Reagan himself wouldn’t have triumphed over this kind of media attack. He would have looked every bit as caught off guard and flat-footed. One thing the blogosphere does is amplify cheap, off-the-cuff opinions and send them echoing back to us in chorus, as if “everybody” now thinks Candidate X is toast and his character is in shreds. Is that really true? What obliges us to think so, other than the kind of fearful, triangulating approach to our personal opinions that we should have overcome by the time we got our high school diplomas?
Herman Cain hasn’t been convicted of sexual harassment, nor have charges been filed against him. It would be public record if these things had happened. It is not a sign of intelligence or moral discrimination for conservative voters to feast on vague allegations against our candidates, which we are told by third parties were made by persons whose names we don’t know, and which never resulted in prosecution or sanction. As a rule for life, that’s no way to think about morality, law, society, or other people’s characters.
And Cain’s not even my preferred candidate. But this applies to all of them. If we wait for cheap “bad news” about other people to cease flowing, we’ll be stuck obsessing over it for all eternity. It doesn’t have to be true or significant; it will just keep coming. How much we are preoccupied with evil allegations is up to us. We only think it’s the media doing this to us. In reality, we’re doing it to ourselves. We have the power to say no: we’re not playing any more. Until we do that, the MSM will have us by the short hairs.
Oh, and one more thing I don’t believe:
11. That Americans are too foolish and weak-minded to figure this out.
Agree with this article.
It baffles me that some people basically expect our leaders to be good politicians, who are able to spin crappy smears like this so it comes out looking okay. So stupid.
I’m still in the camp that it is either Karl rove OR the Democrats. I will bet you the Democrats have the true polling numbers and realize Cain is going to be nominated.
Don’t you doubt for one minute that they want Romney. The have a bucket full of attacks just waiting until the GE.
What part of little proof and innuendo do you not understand? All of the Rights internet sites and blogs can’t counter ABC/NBC/CBS/MSNBC/CNN/FOX.
The only way the Right can really come back in toto is to make the media uncomfortable in reporting one side of the story.
The first part of the fight isn’t the dims, it’s the media. They fear the dims, until they fear us equally we will lose the war.
I would also like to call attention to another thing I noticed this week.
Shortly after Rick Perry gave the speech about taking a sledge hammer and later a wrecking ball to DC, he fell out of favor with the “establishment”. That in my opinion is why he is being zeroed in on over the Cain nonsense.
The establishment in both parties hate any talk about removing power from the “elites”.
I hate dirty politics, and the Dems practice an extremely vile version of it.
This is an excellent article. It clarifies how dishonest all this MSM gossip is. I would add one more item to things I don’t believe:
12. Anything reported by the MSM.
"Get back to talking about issues" is the mantra that guilty people (Bill Clinton) do to change the subject when caught red-handed.
Guilty people try to look innocent when caught; and they tend to do it so well that truly innocent people tend to look guilty by comparison, since they can't act so well.
Cheers!
What a train wreck this election is shaping up to be. Sheesh...I want someone else to get in the race. Is this the best we can do to run against the marxist? Sheesh. (shakes head)
There are good people in that lineup...we expect perfection, and we will never get it. STOP LISTENING TO THE FLIPPING MEDIA.
This whole thing stinks and the only place to put blame is those given their instructions from the Rules For Radicals.
I figure it’s probably a Karl Rove or Democrat hit, too. Doubt it was from the Perry camp—though I dunno what his campaign staff is like.
And yup, Romney is definitely the D’s dream candidate. They’ll have a lot of fun raking him over the coals for his Mormonism, flippant opinions, etc. Romney is the guaranteed Obama reelection candidate.
I remember when the democrats “circled the wagon” for Clinton before he was impeached because he lied. Hopefully, the truth will be told concerning Cain before 2012 elections. The issue is not who leaked it, but is it true.
The issue is who leaked it because it is a smear timed to end Herman Cain’s run. The author of this post may not like it but the GOP is in such a mess that I don’t doubt there are plenty of backstabbers wanting Cain to not win who are ready to end him at all cost. That is uncalled for because this is not based on facts or political ideology and platform. It’s another Clarence Thomas type attack.
Not even enough proof out there either of the allegations. And now that candidates started blaming each other this won’t end soon.
Very good rant! Makes all the sense.
Do we have the strength of mind to say this? – “Don’t bother me with your innuendo about Herman Cain. I want to talk issues. We need to cut spending, reduce regulation, and undo all of Obama’s dangerous executive orders. We need to restore a constitutional balance of power in the federal government. And that’s just for starters. Iran is closing in on a nuclear weapon. China is menacing all of Asia. European security is in jeopardy, and so is ours. That’s what I want to talk about. The future of the republic is at stake.”
Yes. We do.
If the issue is who leaked it, Herman Cain should not blame Perry without evidence, as he unjustly used the race card against Perry about the painted rock. Why does Cain compete against Perry when Romney, according to the polls, is his competitor. Clarence Thomas did not have to pay off Anita Hill and these women who accuse him have not had their say. It is better this comes out now before Cain is our elected GOP leader against Obama.
Yep everything you stated above is correct, but reading the rant above makes me think that we’re really are beating each other up too much.
Good grief, we cannot have Romney, at this point I still like Cain, and it’s probably because I know him personally,(not that well, but he would call me by name), as I do Newt, and I’m not too fond of Newt, he can be the most off putting person at times...but maybe that’s because I’ve only interacted with him at bad times for him.
Perry? Oh man, looks like GWB redux in spades. We cannot do this to ourselves again.
I would add that I don't believe that this manufactured scandal is over. We are still in phase one.
Is WHAT true? Over ten years ago some silly women were allegedly offended by something Mr. Cain SAID?
Let's review political history, shall we?
We had a Democrat Senator in the mid 1960’s who was responsible for the death of a young woman and he ended up spending the rest of his life in the United States Senate.
We had a Married sitting President who:
1. Was accused of raping a woman.
2. Used extraordinary means using his White House Staff to discredit other women who he had affairs with.
3. Had a White House Intern less than half his age perform Fellatio on him numerous times while he sodomized her with a Cigar in the Oval Office.
4. Who had the gall to lie about it Under Oath.
5. Is now the darling of the Democrat Party and good friends with former President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Meanwhile, the 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate is caught red handed committing Adultery while his Wife is being treated for Terminal Cancer, ends up having a baby out of wedlock and is being investigated for using Federal Campaign Funds to payoff everyone involved in the cover up.
Now we have a Republican Presidential hopeful being attacked for allegedly SAYING something inappropriate to some thin skinned women who DID NOT pursue the matter any further and decided to take Severance Packages because of the weakness of their charges.
Gee, did I mention the $200,000,000,000 October (Obama)Deficit that seems to be off the radar because of this silly Herman Cain gotcha story?
It ain't the Media, it's Pravda.
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