Let’s discuss these debates separately. First, there was the debate that I saw, and that we live-Slogged, in which a bunch of nobody Republican candidates fought over the slim possibility that the eventual Republican presidential nominee will choose them to be the vice presidential candidate. The best parts of the debate came in the occasional moments of comic relief: Gary Johnson said, “I realize tomorrow may involve several months;” Herman Cain is for a 23% flat sales tax instead of all other taxes, and he’s also for something called “prebates” for poor people; Tim Pawlenty, when the host announced he was going to show a video about Pawlenty’s cap-and-trade flip-flop, actually whined, “Do we have to?” But it was generally a mess: Santorum kept hitting hard on social issues, when nobody but his base cared; Ron Paul waved his arms around like Kermit the Frog and screamed like a crazy grandpa; Tim Pawlenty was stultifying; Gary Johnson danced around the fringes of the Republican and Democratic parties at the same time; and Herman Cain kept discussing three-point plans for everything, with the first point almost always being “Find out what the hell is going on, because I don’t know.” It was about what I expected.
But then I watched the Fox News focus group and started reading blog and Twitter posts, and I realized that Republicans were watching a totally different debate. In mainstream Republican land, Pawlenty won, even though he was hammered with tough questions and couldn’t respond satisfactorily to any of them, except the time he basically said “I fucked up.” But calling Pawlenty a winner is reasonable. Even that ideological train wreck had to have a winner, and the most boring guy on the stage is de facto the least embarrassing guy on the stage. But the Twitter responses, and 100% of the people Fox News gathered to be the now-ubiquitous jus’ folks debate focus groups, indicated that Herman Cain won by a mile.
Now, I predicted that this might happen on Wednesday. I wrote: “the narrative coming out of the debate could be ‘Who’s this Herman Cain fellow?’ Which would be hilarious.” The one thing I was wrong about was the “hilarious” part. Instead, it’s confusing.
The only plan that Cain presented last night, the only actual idea he put forth, was a 23% national sales tax. And yet, the “grassroots” Republican narrative (I don’t believe there’s a genuine grassroots Republican party, I just think it’s the Republican bigwigs pretending to be common folks) is that Cain is this cycle’s Huckabee: A surprising, likable guy with a couple of out-there ideas who will come from behind to take on the establishment. Clearly, someone wants Cain in a prominent place. I thought the Republicans got their “We-need-a-black-Republican-to-fight-the-black-president” complex out of the way with Michael Steele, but it appears that Herman Cain might be able to ride that wave all the way to the national spotlight. He also has never held elected office, which contributes a great deal to his teabagger allure and could make him this year’s outside-the-Beltway Sarah Palin when it comes to the vice presidential search.
The next debate is scheduled for June 13th, and the big names are scheduled to be there. Let’s see how Cain does against Mitt Romney, and then we’ll have a greater understanding of what his goals are as a candidate.
The only narrative that came out was how they wanted to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and give away middle class tax dollars to the ultra-rich
I managed to miss BOTH debates!
If you think the ‘teabaggers’ are race neutral and the ‘republican’ side will embrace him, you’ve really mistaken. There is know more an obvious racial divide than the true teaparty folk. Smoke and mirrors…, no substance. It continues…
Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a simple text transcript of either of them.
which is why the latino and asian vote turnout in 2012 is where the margin of victory is, @3.
“We-need-a-black-Republican-to-fight-the-black-president”
E-X-A-C-T-L-Y what I’ve been thinking.
They probably thought Cain was Representative Colonel Allen West, one of the most disturbing/ed figures emerging from the teabagging fringe.
My co-worker in the next cubicle just popped his head over the divider and said “Do you want to be grossed out? … Do you know who Rick Santorum is?” To which I replied “You just found the alternative definition of his name, didn’t you?” So, now my co-worker has stumbled upon Santorum’s “Google Problem”.
Awesome.
I watched a small part of that “focus group” and it was so contrived, I sat there motionless to change the channel. It is very apparent that some strings are being pulled for this guy, some rich people want him at the top. Not sure why yet, who is he connected to?
@9 Besides Godfather Pizza?
The Paulites believe that Cain is an astroturfed product of Koch Industries because he’s attended many Koch-funded events. I withhold ultimate judgement but it looks like that may be the case.
Gary Johnson is a total dud but he’s right about economic collapse I think. Just not about the solution nor genesis. It will be blamed on US aka the deficit but it will be because a) we chose to destroy marginal tax rates; and b) the systemic issues that were not fixed AT ALL by the joke called “financial reform” Obama and the Dems gave us.
Hell will be paved with sheets of ice before I forget that Obama and the Dems had an opportunity to set things right and they chose the path of continued corporatism, police statism, militarism and enforced poverty on everybody but the richest 2%.