Is Herman Cain a viable candidate for the Republicans?

I doubt it. He seems too much of an outlier but I am happy to see them spending their money fighting each other for as long as possible. I believe it will be Romney.

Best thing that happened to Obama.

No. N-O. But that commercial was hilarious. That mans look of determination as he blew the smoke out…..What a guy!

He is going for the X-Files vote, and keeping the Black Guy out of the potential voters faces.
I like Cain as much as I like any Republican, except maybe Huntsman, but he really doesn’t stand a chance with Republican Primary Voters.

No. His 999 plan is for the birds.

I don’t know how long people’s memory is (or even how many jellies who are now interested in politics were even alive then), but in the run-up to the 1992 election, the Democrats fielded a relatively weak slate of candidates to run as what was assumed to be a “sacrificial lamb” against George Bush, who was fresh from his quick quasi-victory in Desert Shield / Desert Storm. As late as the latter half of 1991 he was riding a huge wave of popularity, based primarily on what was sold / perceived as that victory. Few wanted to spend the time and effort in what was widely perceived to be a loser’s campaign against a popular sitting president.

The leading Democratic candidate was a relative unknown then, too, a governor of Arkansas, of all places. I’ll bet that a lot of voters had never even heard of Arkansas.

But after the recession got started in 1991, and after a series of disastrous missteps by Bush, we had a new President: Bill Clinton.

Obama is not riding nearly as high in the polls now as George Bush was in 1991. I wouldn’t discount a yellow dog as a Republican candidate.

Hell, I could win against Obama! Heh!

I absolutely think that Republicans should nominate Herman Cain. With the Koch Brother’s massive wealth and handlers, what could possibly go wrong? And choosing Herman Block as his campaign manager demonstrates his love of corruption, which should be a strong plus among the Republican Tea Party base.

I like his bluntness, and appreciate his different looks on some issues. But by in large I disagree with his positions, and I don’t think he would beat Obama in a general election.

@CWOTUS I agree, it is definitely possible, but the possibility scares me. To know that it could happen.

No, they have no viable candidate.

@CaptainHarley serious question: what would be your platform?

Anything that makes the American people more free is what I would advocate. Details??

Details would be awesome! It would also be awesome to hear how President Obama has made Americans less free.

Just how would anyone get a flat tax proposal through Congress? How many special interests would gang up against it? If Cain seems to have any chance at all of being nominated, I think we’ll see all kinds of negative campaign ads against him being financed. He won’t have a chance. People like him because he’s funny and different. He’s a protest. He’s a joke.

No.

Things are bad now, just imagine how things would be if he won and kept a republican majority in congress. We might as well start looking to buy a house in Canada. America will become an unrecognizable third world country.

@SuperMouse

Well, we could start with his giving trillions of our dollars away, perhaps go on from there to unconstitutional actions such as ignoring Congress when the Constitution says he has to get their approval, perhaps discuss his apparent desire to make all Americans dependent on government… am I getting through yet?

No, No No. Er, I mean Nein, Nein, Nein!

Cain, at his best will probably maintain about a 27% support from his party. Given that voting has been restricted in most states, the voting machines are corrupted, and the corporate elite support the privatization of the country which reduces Union members to unemployment, he has a good chance to win. It won’t be fair, the last two Bush campaigns weren’t fair either. In case of a draw, they have a supreme court that already gave itself the right to select the president. The only thing that could bend the election in the other direction would be a landslide victory for Obama. Given his track record, that is no longer likely.

The day of the honest election is over; its just another lost part of our former democracy.

@CaptainHarley who were the trillions given to? Please provide examples of ignoring Congress (a body that has always been so incredibly cooperative with the president). Also, I would love some examples to illustrate his “apparent desire to make all Americans dependent on goverment.” That certainly hasn’t been the case in my world, any help the government was giving me to get through school or to save the house my ex-husband left me in pre-foreclosure were yanked out from under me.

Give me some concrete information – not just opinion – then you will begin to be getting through.

How about over 45% of Americans on food stamps?

(don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there) @CaptainHarley Do you have a citation for that? If it is true, don’t you think if there were more jobs, there would be less people on food stamps?

And if Obama hadn’t given away trillions of dollars to his cronies and supporters, we might actually have more jobs. Next you’ll try to place the blame for Obama’s manipulations on Bush… again. Let’s just drop it, shall we?

@CaptainHarley Done! Have a good day Captain!

@janbb

I was somewhat put off by that statistic, too (and didn’t want to see that it was true), but it probably is.

@CaptainHarley please elaborate on all of these trillions, in taxpayer money I assume, given to Obama’s cronies along with Obama’s manipulations?

FYI, according to this data from the United States Department of Agriculture dated September 29, 2011 for the fiscal year 2010, 18,618,436 households received SNAP benefits. According to this information from the US Census Bureau, for 2009 there were a total of 112,611,029 households. When I do the math, I find that the number is actually closer to 16.5% of American households on food stamps. Using the information linked by @CWOTUS, and the population figures from the census link, the percentage of Americans receiving SNAP benefits is actually closer to 14.8%. Neither of those figures is anywhere near 45%.

@CWOTUS If you read the article you cite, the headline says 45,000,000 people and the article says that is 15% of the population! Not 45% as @CaptainHarley says. Sloppy analysis dorgie!

Yeah, it was getting late in the day and I was too rushed to correct my error after I made it, but I totally conflated “millions” with “percent”. It’s still a pretty high number. Scary-high.

According to the New York Times, “Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid.”

@CaptainHarley True and deplorable. But in today’s political climate, with Citizens United v. FEC behind us, any politican who turns way large donors is doomed. At least Obama isn’t a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the corporatists. All the viable GOP candidates are, as is the RNC.

He is an enigma. Here’s an article about some of Cain’s past.

When Herman Cain and Ron Gartlan bought Godfather’s Pizza, it was the nation’s #4 pizza chain; today, it’s #10. (But at least it’s profitable, which it wasn’t when they took it over.) It sounds like Mr. Cain was the charismatic leader who simplified the menu and closed stores, while Mr. Gartlan was the details guy who made sure pizzas were actually delivered and the bills were actually paid.

In his later gigs, as a lobbyist for the Restaurant Association, on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, even as a motivational speaker, he was the charismatic figurehead, while others handled the details.

That’s why I wish he’d reveal who is handling the details for his campaign: His success or failure as President (and how his Presidency would impact the nation at large) would depend heavily on who handles those pesky details while he’s busy simplifying and being charismatic.

What about that commercial where his Chief of Staff Mark Block says, “We need you to get involved, because together we can do this. We can take this country back,“and then he takes a big drag off that cig and then Hermain Cain smiles with the background music playing, “I am America. One voice. United We Stand. One voice, to heal our land”?

@bkcunningham What about it?

Is that the same smile he used when asking people who worked for him to have sex with him?
I am actually more concerned that he didn’t know China had the bomb, which they got in the 1960’s. How extensive is his foreign policy knowledge? And this isn’t Ubecci becci beccistan, this is fucking China!

@filmfann How about Cain’s answer on Beck Stan. Here’s the video. Apparently, Afghanistan where our troops are currently engaged in a increasingly messy war, and it’s nuclear armed neighbor, Pakistan are “insignificant countries” in Cain’s mind. But then if he didn’t know China, the world’s third nuclear superpower, had atomic weapons, why should he know Pakistan has some too? Basically, Cain only seems to know one of the Stans. That would be” Donundastan”