Herman Cain, the Polls and What Race Has to Do With It | The Nation
RSS FeedHerman Cain, the Polls and What Race Has to Do With It
Yes, they Cain! On Thursday, Zogby released a poll showing Herman Cain not just tying or slightly topping Romney and Perry in the GOP primary race, as he has been for a couple weeks now, but pulling 20 points ahead of Romney, 38 to 18.
And nobody believes those numbers.
Actually, nobody in the media has really believed Cain's rising popularity for a while, figuring it's just the latest in the Trump/Bachmann/Perry series of boomlets. But a twenty-point lead has to be more than a technical glitch, even for Zogby. And if it's not true that 38 percent of Republicans dream of one day saluting a President Cain, then the numbers must mean something else. Maybe it's a media hall of mirrors: Republicans doubling down on their love for Herman Cain because they don't like the media laughing at them for claiming to love Herman Cain.
It hasn't been easy for the political press to say exactly why it thinks Cain's supersonic rise isn't real. They'll say that Cain is a "placeholder" or "a nice protest parking place for Tea Partisans disappointed by the Bachmann and Perry adventures." All that's true. But what few seem to consider is the man's race.
A few days ago on WRRN's Richard French Live, however, former NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter and former Connecticut congressman Rob Simmons, a Republican, got down to it, musing that Cain's appeal to white conservatives is related in large part to the Bradley Effect—the phenomenon of white people who, for fear of appearing racist, tell pollsters they're going to vote for a black candidate but actually vote white (named after LA mayor Tom Bradley, who lost the 1982 gubernatorial race after polls showed him far ahead). French admitted he was relieved his guests brought up the Bradley Effect, so he didn't have to.
I understand the feeling. In an age when even the most rabid birthers and mosque molesters fly into a rage at the suggestion they might be bigots, it's become impolitic to state the obvious: that a lot of Tea Party types are crazy for Cain because he shields them against charges of racism. As the current hard-right favorite, Cain is proof of widespread Tea Party colorblindness, writes conservative pundit Ron Christie.
Some conservatives even want extra credit for favoring a "real black man," as Cain calls himself, over someone like Obama. Laura Ingraham (who wrote in her Barack Obama "diary" that Michelle Obama eats baby-back ribs at every meal) clumsily endorsed that notion last week when she said that Cain "would be the first black president, when you measure it by—because he doesn't—does he have a white mother, white father, grandparents? No, right?"
Cain's candidacy can be used as a weapon as easily as a shield. It's a way for frustrated Republicans to sic it to Romney and Perry for their various rightwing apostasies, telling them, "We distrust you so much, we'd sooner vote for a black guy."
Let's be clear: Cain's race is not the only reason for his popularity. In the conservative American Spectator, Aaron Goldstein came up with Nine Reasons Why Republicans Ought to Nominate Herman Cain. Only one, Number 7, was "He Would Make Liberal Charges of Racism Look Really, Really Stupid." Others were "He's a CEO," "He Has Never Held Elected Office," and "He Worked at Burger King."
Of course, Cain also spews all the right anti-Obama, anti-liberal fairy tales, like telling the Occupy Wall Street protesters "if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" and calling blacks "brainwashed" for voting Democratic. Coming from an African-American, that has tremendous value for the right. (Number 1 in Goldstein's reasons to nominate Cain is "He Has No Sense of Entitlement.") Like the motivational speaker he is, Cain is helping a lot of Republicans feel better about themselves.
And so far, he's been running more of motivational book tour than a real campaign for the presidency (just try to find Cain in New Hampshire). His candidacy has more in common with Trump, Gingrich, and others in the Murdoch Primary who've glommed onto the GOP race to promote their business-friendly brand.
But as Cain rises in the polls, he is undergoing more scrutiny and is inevitably tripping over facts that don't fit his sales pitch. Cain told Lawrence O'Donnell Thursday night that he wasn't involved in the civil rights battles of the '60s because he was in high school. "If I had been a college student, I probably would have been participating," he said. When O'Donnell pointed out that Cain was in college from 1963 to 1967, "at the height of the civil rights movement," Cain went into brain-freeze, saying, "I graduated from high school in 1963, OK? I didn't start college until the fall of 1963." Huh? (Here is the fascinating follow-up discussion about the interview itself, and here is Jon Stewart on Cain's "I don't have facts to back this up, but" line of argument.)
Pasteboard positions like Cain's will shred quickly enough, at the hands of the right as well as the left. National Review blogger Kevin Williamson has already taken down Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan by calling it "Nein! Nein! Nein!" And eventually Cain's Tea Party friends may find he's not quite the shield they thought. A Red State blogger says he's "seriously angry" with Cain for calling Perry's use of the "Niggerhead" hunting camp "insensitive." "Conservatives already have to fight the race card smears by the media and the left," writes agconservative, "we don't need to have them confirmed by leaders in our own movement."
Bradley Effect or not, I almost feel bad for Cain. He seems to really believe it when he insists that, unlike former Trump, Bachmann and Perry fans, "Cain supporters do not defect."
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Comments
I worked for and voted for Obama, so I ask the following without cynicism, but what happens to all the millions of GOPers who have overtly and covertly expressed their bigotry against Obama from day one if Cain pulls it out for the nomination? Will they stay home, or vote for a black man who represents their views? In short, what gets trumped, ideas or prejudice?
I find it kind of odd to have a lily-white journalist like O'Donnell hectoring Cain about his blackness. I can't help but think that if a white journalist had criticized Obama about his lack of involvement in the African-American experience, that journalist would have been decried as a ......... racist. There, I played the card.
" the Bradley Effect—the phenomenon of white people who, for fear of appearing racist, tell pollsters they're going to vote for a black candidate but actually vote white "
I haven't heard anything about the 'Obama effect', in which supposedly intelligent liberals, acting on "white guilt" (Shelby Steele), elect a candidate who is utterly unqualified for the office.
Linoman, the plural of COLUMNIST is COLUMNISTS.
Your spelling has improved tremendously over the past few weeks. I've been watching. But this "no S on IST words" is one of the latest dumb-guy mistakes, and very easy to correct.
Glad to help out someone who has already improved so much.
Isn't this rather odd....but interesting?
Melissa H-Perry penned an article accusing white libs of being racists and there were almost 500 comments!
Here, Ms. Savan opines "a lot of Tea Party types are crazy for Cain because he shields them against charges of racism.", and there is sooo little! And this is the first time The Nation has penned something directly Cain!
Cain's being a big-C Conservative is genuine and his being black is, how shall we say, icing on the cake! While I'm concerned that he lacks political experience, so many more seems to believe that's actually a Plus......can't argue that's about as Anti-Establishment as you can be!
Anybody notice Joe the Plumber is filing in Ohio to run against a Dem lifer?
This is by far, the best commentary on the present GOP dynamics!
Color me an Anti-Establishment voter!
3. posted by: cka2nd at 10/10/2011 @ 2:18pm
posted by: 2HAPPY at 10/10/2011 @ 11:09am
Where's Masque when we need him? No one would need to cite your support for Herman Cain to make the case that you were racist, Happy. All they'd have to do is slog though your posts here at The Nation, including the ones from your fellow conservatives calling you out for racist comments, to see that you are either a racist or sure enjoy spouting off like one.
===
Whether I am or not a Racist, I will say that I absolutely do NOT abide by political correctness.....for ALL Libs and many PC-cowed conservatives and moderates, I have no doubt that, when in doubt, they (just like you) would assume I am a Racist.
I am OK with that!
For some who don't know me as well.....I will just restate that my passion is charter schools for disadvantaged students......that's sure to gain me status with the KKK.
A great and informative read. very inspiring.Always backing them.
posted by: limoman at 10/10/2011 @ 12:22pm
"In the last week we have had MHP, Leslie, young Ben, Jamelle and other columnist here at the TN claim anyone on the right is a racist."
Please cite the titles or web addresses and I'd be happy to have a look and see if I agree with you. Stranger things have happened, I know, but, as I've often stated here, I don't like stereotyping of or by anyone on the political spectrum, and I've defended lvliberty, at length, against the charge of racism.
And I though MHP was charging liberals with racism for being unhappy with Obama and actually saying something about it (as opposed to doing something...)?
posted by: 2HAPPY at 10/10/2011 @ 11:09am
Where's Masque when we need him? No one would need to cite your support for Herman Cain to make the case that you were racist, Happy. All they'd have to do is slog though your posts here at The Nation, including the ones from your fellow conservatives calling you out for racist comments, to see that you are either a racist or sure enjoy spouting off like one.
How come nobody has entertained the possibility that someone shared with me. That Cain, like Steele, was chosen only to challenge Obama without appearing racist...while being really racist. The Black commentator asked, "If one can attack a Black man with a help of another Black man would that be convenient for some racist elites to topple a guy because he is Black...without appearing racist?"
Interesting question. What does the author and the respondents have to say?
posted by: 2HAPPY at 10/10/2011 @ 12:09pm
Yep, we are Racist for supporting Cain and we are Racist for opposing Obama.....
In the last week we have had MHP, Leslie, young Ben ,Jamelle and other columnist here at the TN claim anyone on the right is a racist. It begs the question , is this a requirement and condition for employment by KVH here at TN that one must cast all who disagree with them as racist?? It would be interesting to have all these big government lovers be investigated by the EEOC to answer that question.
For you Romney supporters out there......don't worry.....we'll take him, with enthusiasm, over Zero by $5~6 Trillions!
SAVAN: ".....it's become impolitic to state the obvious: that a lot of Tea Party types are crazy for Cain because he shields them against charges of racism."
Thank you Ms. Savan! It's exactly this type of commentary we need......didn't I say you deserved a raise? It's the same type of coverage we've seen from the "political press" of JournoLists who `covered' the `fringe' TEA Party. Without you providing `color' for our racist support of Cain, how could we ever live with ourselves?
As I've already flogged for Cain a half-dozen times here.....that's obviously the `proof' YOU need that I am a Racist. Yep, we are Racist for supporting Cain and we are Racist for opposing Obama.....
What a wonderful country we have....LOL!
I was on the verge of making my first political donation this past weekend, for Cain.....but I do have some lingering doubt as to whether he's "in it to win" or is seeking publicity as the `Flavor of the Month'. We'll see....
I repeat, if Romney and Cain are the last two, Cain will The One for us 2nd Generation Hopeys and Changeys....Cheers!
Raising Cain!
Herman Cain is a Yes Man. Cain is having the time of his life. The only thing on his mind is his next Book Deal.
Cain is in the spotlight. Let him savor this moment because is will soon be over.
The racist Right & teaPartier's will let Cain remain the front-runner only if Cain is obedient 2 their every word. Word that comes from the Board of Directors
( The Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, corporate Fat Cats among others ).
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