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28 Oct 2011 11:04

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Politics: Herman Cain aide Mark Block’s checkered past, abridged edition

  • rise Mark Block started his career in 1974, becoming, at age 18, the youngest elected official in Wisconsin’s history. He spent much of the 1980s coordinating Republican political campaigns in the state.
  • fall In 1997, Block was blocked from Wisconsin politics for a few years for allegedly doing some sketchy stuff with a special interest group. During this time, he worked at Target and his personal life unraveled.
  • recovery In 2005, Block got his mojo back by getting hired as Americans for Prosperity’s director in Wisconsin. He then met a young whippersnapper named Herman Cain, and the rest is chain-smoking history. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Oct 2011 10:02

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Politics: Herman Cain’s tone-deaf campaigning style turns people off

  • This is his first rodeo, so people make mistakes. But I wish he would have called and said ‘Bill, I’m going in another direction.’ But he never did.
  • Tea Party supporter Bill Hemrick • Discussing how Herman Cain blew him off during a fundraising event a few months back … and in the process cost Hemrick a position in his campaign. The way it happened is super tone-deaf: First, Cain spoke at an event, and was supposed to show up a private club dinner for businessmen, where roughly 200 rich guys were planning to donate the maximum $2,500 each to Cain’s campaign. (Do the math.) When Hemrick called and said “I’ll see you upstairs,” Cain responded, “Well, I’m at the airport.” That’s right, he didn’t show up. “I thought, wow, good communication there,” Hemrick noted. Not long after Hemrick, learned he wouldn’t be the financial chair of Cain’s campaign in Tennessee, a position promised to him by Cain. That’s just one example of Cain’s apparent poor campaigning style, according to The New York Times. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 22:37

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Politics: Rick Perry’s spin on a tax plan: “Cut, Balance and Grow”

  • Cut, Balance and Grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mindset. It takes money from spendthrift bureaucrats and returns it to families. It puts fewer job-killing regulations on employers and more restrictions on politicians. It gives more freedom to Americans to control their own destiny. And just as importantly, the Cut, Balance and Grow plan paves the way for the job creation, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility we need to get America working again.
  • Rick Perry • Discussing his new plan for taxes, “Cut, Balance and Grow,” which has a name clearly worded to evoke the “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan that House Republicans tried to push through earlier this year. Perry’s plan, in simple terms: An optional 20 percent flat tax, with benefits for lower-income people who would not necessarily benefit from such a flat tax. Don’t like it? Keep your current tax rate. Unlike Herman Cain’s 999 Plan, this might actually have a shot at getting through Congress. And would you look at that? Right on cue, Perry suddenly has an endorsement from Steve Forbes, the guy who banked his entire campaign on the flat tax — twice! Cain’s gonna have some gimmicky tax plan competition at the next debate. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 21:06

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Politics: George Will nails supremely unflattering description of Mitt Romney

  • It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology.
  • George Will • Discussing the rise of Herman Cain on ABC’s “This Week,” and in the process dropping a welt-producing comment about Mitt Romney — a comparison to Michael Dukakis, perhaps the weakest presidential candidate in the past 25 years. Expect this line to crop up again during the campaign, because it’s not a flattering comparison, especially coming from the guy who doesn’t like blue jeans. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 11:43

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Politics: Herman Cain, to Michigan crowd: For the poor, it’s not 999, it’s 909

  • If you are at or below the poverty level, your plan isn’t 9-9-9, it is 9-0-9. Say amen y’all. 9-0-9.
  • Herman Cain • Claiming that his much-talked-about 999 plan was intended to always be income-tax-free for the poor. 909? Isn’t nearly as catchy now, is it? Cain made this statement in Detroit on Friday, which plays into some of the criticism his campaign has gotten — that he’s not focusing on the states that will help him win the early primaries. Earlier this month, Karl Rove put this point succinctly: “He needs to get his bus to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada. If he doesn’t break through there — and to break through there, you’ve got to show up, particularly in the first three.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2011 15:01

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Politics: Oops, that’s bad: Herman Cain implicitly makes pro-choice stance

  • So what I’m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.
  • GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain • Expressing his views on abortion on Piers Morgan Tonight. We applaud Cain for being willing to split with his party’s orthodoxy, here, but in doing so he’s exposed himself to a damaging contradiction; he also said he believes life begins at conception, and that abortion was appropriate “under no circumstances.” What that means to a passionately anti-abortion GOP base is that Herman Cain, while believing a fertilized egg is in fact a human life, is not willing to defend that life through the law. And if he was striving for independent appeal (which wouldn’t work even if he supported abortion rights wholesale), his personal objection to abortion under any circumstance blunts that. Cain’s Twitter account has since said he is “100% pro-life,” which follows exactly with what he implied before; pro-life personally, but not legislating his opinion. This could be a critical blow to Cain’s recent success in GOP polling. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Oct 2011 20:01

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Politics: Stumpin’ in Sin City: Three things to look for in tonight’s debate

  • Hello, and welcome to yet another GOP debate! YAY WE’RE SO EXCITED! Hopefully Anderson Cooper won’t screw this up (don’t take any tips from Wolf Blitzer, bro). Here are a few things to look for during tonight’s debate:
  • Herman Cain …has the most to gain, and the most to lose. He could solidify his standing as the co-frontrunner and anti-Romney candidate by giving thoughtful answers to substantive policy questions, but if he’s caught flat-footed, it’ll confirm to many that he is, in fact, the (pizza-toned) flavor of the week.
  • Mitt Romney …has so far been able to coast along simply by not screwing up, but this debate could be different. Given Cain’s momentum, Romney will have to go at least somewhat on the offensive, or risk getting flattened by The Cain Train. It’ll be interesting to see whether he goes all-out against Cain.
  • Rick Perry…could, in theory, make a comeback tonight. But that was true about the last debate, too, where he not only failed to capitalize on the opportunity, but didn’t even really seem to care about capitalizing on it. On the plus side, his performance will likely be hailed as a success if he doesn’t fall asleep at the podium.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

18 Oct 2011 17:33

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Politics: Herman Cain keeps voters in the dark on his advisers

  • The Cain Brain: In advance of tonight’s GOP debate, everybody is tabbing new polling frontrunner Herman Cain as the man to watch. Since last debate, however, he’s absorbed scrutiny over his foreign policy credentials (or lack thereof), which has been exacerbated by Cain’s refusal to name his advisers. He himself spoke to this strategy in Tennessee last week: “I’m not going to tell you! They’re my advisers, not yours. They just want to know who my smart people are so they can attack them.” This is a tact that we don’t think will benefit Cain. Voters like to feel as if candidates are being more open than they need to, not less. Employing a “need to know basis” sort of argument over his adviser’s very identities just comes off badly. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Oct 2011 23:28

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Politics: Herman Cain takes a stroll towards becoming president

  • He’s not running for president; he’s sort of strolling for president.
  • George F. Will • On Herman Cain. If Cain is strolling for president, Newt Gingrich is crawling for president. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Oct 2011 11:15

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Politics: Herman Cain, deeply tied to the Koch brothers? Say it ain’t so!

  • Cain allegedly has deep ties to the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. The currently-soaring presidential candidate has built up his base with GOP voters through an image that he’s a non-politician who’s not beholden to anyone (and makes a good pizza). But Cain has a history with the controversy-laden Koch brothers that he does not promote very heavily — at least not as heavily as his business career. The Associated Press’s article on Cain’s deep ties to Americans for Prosperity found some fairly surprising things:
  • surface Cain has a campaign manager, as well as a number of campaign aides, who once worked for Americans for Prosperity.
  • deeper Rich Lowrie, the apparent Sim City player behind Cain’s easy-to-follow 999 plan, served on AFP’s board of advisors from 2005 to 2008.
  • deepest Cain himself built up AFP in 2005 and 2006, collaborating with Mark Block to build local chapters throughout the country. source
  • » Ties that still stand: While Cain no longer gets paid for his appearances with AFP (he used to, before he started running for president), he is still active with the group. For example, Cain will speak at an AFP event in DC on November 4, despite the fact that most of the other presidential candidates will be at a dinner in Iowa. The caucus is in Iowa; what’s this guy doing in Washington? Wait a second! (photo by Flickr user Gage Skidmore)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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