Herman Cain is Sarah Palin 2.0

[porker]

1. He is a charismatic speaker, charming, likeable, and appeals most to conservatives weary of both the political and media establishment. He is an outsider who will take on the system and reform it with common sense and straightforward, uncomplicated solutions.

2. He is a policy-lightweight. He has very strong opinions but struggles and even contradicts himself when he explains them in depth (abortion, electrified fence, Muslims in his administration, negotiate with terrorists, etc). He is most comfortable when he sticks to his talking points. Even people who like him don’t really him take him seriously. He is an entertainer, not a thoughtful intellectual.

3. He can do no wrong in his own eyes. He is stubborn even in the face of irrefutable facts contradicting him (9-9-9 is revenue-neutral, doesn’t raise taxes on anybody, isn’t regressive, doesn’t create a new type of federal tax, etc). People who disagree with him either don’t understand his positions or are taking his comments out of context. Everybody else is wrong.

4. He is always the victim. People don’t disagree with him; they smear him. His critics attack him because they are threatened by him. They fear him because he is black. Everybody (both the liberal media and the GOP establishment) is out to get him. He is a Christ-like figure being persecuted by the elites but is uniquely qualified to save the country from despair.

5. His paranoiac distrust of the media is actually harming his campaign. Instead of simply giving a straightforward denial to the harassment charges, he was overly defensive and refused to dignify the liberal smear with a response. His over-the-top reactions (calling it a “witch hunt” and a “lynching”) reveal a profound level of immaturity, paranoia, and pettiness.

In other words, his politics of division, victim-hood and resentment appeal strongly to the far-right base but are unpalatable to basically everybody else.

[redcommander]

At least he won't be the vp choice.

[Yank2133]

They are a lot alike, but I don't think Cain is a vindictive as Palin though.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Cain is more intelligent than Sarah, in that he has actually done something useful in his life outside of being an attention whore, but he's still crazy.

[Lief 🗽]

At least he won't be the vp choice.

Unfortunately Rev. Cain cannot be his own Vice President.

[King]

No. Cain actually has a quality education and a history of being gainfully employed.

Cain is Wendell Wilkie 2.0. An unelectable the GOP settles on because it wouldn't get its act together even though Roosevelt probably could have been beaten.

[Torie]

Yes, Cain is smarter than Palin. He is better educated, has a better vocabulary, knows more, and can think quicker on his feet than Palin can. He also works harder.

[Tender Branson]

I think the main difference between them is that Palin is a quitter, while Cain isn't.

Otherwise you are right, they are very similar.

[courts]

Not a very fair comparison. Cain has real world experience and seems capable of forming a coherent sentence, for starters.

[angus]

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/content/defined

No.  No.  No.  Sarah Palin is Sarah Palin 2.0.

Cain may or may not be electable, but he has little in common with Sarah Palin except those superficial facets you pointed out.  We could all find five things that each of us has in common with Sarah Palin.  It doesn't make us Sarah Palin 2.0.  

Cain isn't a Grizzly Mama.  Cain doesn't parade his daughters around, exploiting them for profit and votes.  Cain knows what the doctrine of pre-emption is.  And he can't see Russia from his corporate offices.  And I can't imagine that Cain still looks good in a two-piece.  

[memphis]

Everybody in the GOP fits your model.

[angus]

Everybody in the GOP fits your model.

Good point. 

And while we're at it, Obama fits that model as well.

[memphis]

Everybody in the GOP fits your model.

Good point. 

And while we're at it, Obama fits that model as well.

Only the first statement is true about Obama. The rest are not at all. He's not stubborn. Quite the opposite, his problem is that his first instinct is to compromise. He never blames the media for his problems. That's a GOP tactic, as is the whole victimization thing. If somebody dares to disagree with a Republican, he's automatically out to silence him or slander him. And he's heavy on policy. So much so that criticizing the length of legislation has been a key GOP talking point. 

[Likely Voter]

I agree his playing as victim this week was first time I saw parallel with Palin. Certainly the  conservative media knee-jerk attacking of the evil librul media is par for the course. An interesting question is, would they have rallied behind Rick Perry or Mitt Romney?

[Simfan34]

Everybody in the GOP fits your model.

Good point. 

And while we're at it, Obama fits that model as well.

Every one of the 88 billion people who have ever existed fit that model too.

[bgwah]

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you view China as a potential military threat to the United States?
HERMAN CAIN: I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States. [...] They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/hermancain_10-31.html

[porker]

We could all find five things that each of us has in common with Sarah Palin.  It doesn't make us Sarah Palin 2.0.  

True, but don't those 5 points get to the core of who Sarah Palin is? Not necessarily her as a person, but as a symbol for self-righteous indignation and division and hate of right-wing populism? Cain's, like Palin's, folksy charm masks the bitterness and resentment of his doctrine. He can say things like "I will make Muslims in my administration take a loyalty test," and "I will electrify illegal immigrants," and "the majority of black people are brainwashed" and "the mainstream media is trying to lynch me" and people can laugh it off as good ol' Herman just being silly. The same thing goes for Palin. She can accuse Obama of creating death panels to exterminate the elderly and disabled, and people don't fully grasp the seriousness of her charges. Cain's goofiness takes the edge off the gravity of his statements.

Cain isn't a Grizzly Mama.  Cain doesn't parade his daughters around, exploiting them for profit and votes.

Fair point. Cain probably isn't as despicable of a person as Palin is.

Cain knows what the doctrine of pre-emption is.  And he can't see Russia from his corporate offices.

These are semantics. He didn't know what the Palestinian right of return is. He didn't know what the term "neoconservative" means. He can't explain his foreign policy beyond "peace through strength" and "clarify who are enemies are so we can bomb them."

Everybody in the GOP fits your model.

Not really. Romney doesn't preach hate. He doesn't blame the media when he flip-flops. He at least pretends to care about the middle-class. By no means am I saying Palin and Cain are unique, but they definitely come from the same branch of political style and substance.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

How is Palin an "outsider"?  She was in politics when picked for VP...