Maddow Makes the Case that Cain Campaign is Performance Art

[Alyrium Denryle]

Her logic is... sound.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I believe it's to distract everyone from the real threat that is Mitt Romney. Notice he's staying out of the line of fire for the most part? Obvious stalking horse (Cain) is obvious.

[Skgoa]

And this is why Maddow is the only "real" news commentator I can stand.

[Coop D'etat]

They already had one obviously fake candidate in the Republican primary that was high in the polls for a while this year in Donald Trump, Herman Cain being the same thing makes sense to me.

[Purple]

If this is true thou. Does it actually mean the world would be better of if he won?

[Lord Zentei]

Impossible to tell, since if it's true we haven't seen the "real" Herman Cain.

Although if he's even remotely as ignorant in actuality as he appears to be, then it would certainly be bad. I had assumed he was some kind of black male Sarah Palin with all of his bullshit gaffes and ignorance (not knowing what "neoconservative" meant reminded me of Palin's "Bush Doctrine" gaffe, for example).

[Alyrium Denryle]

Impossible to tell, since if it's true we haven't seen the "real" Herman Cain.

Although if he's even remotely as ignorant in actuality as he appears to be, then it would certainly be bad. I had assumed he was some kind of black male Sarah Palin with all of his bullshit gaffes and ignorance (not knowing what "neoconservative" meant reminded me of Palin's "Bush Doctrine" gaffe, for example).

The issue is when you put it all together. Some of these things are not simple mistakes. The Smoking Guy when he himself is a cancer survivor, the Pokemon thing, the Brotha From Anotha Motha thing... It is either incompetence/insanity so far beyond comprehension that it hurts, or it is a form of satirical genius.

[Eframepilot]

It's a publicity stunt to sell Cain's books and make himself into a leading pundit on Fox and other conservative media, possibly even getting a show like Huckabee. I'm sure that he never expected to be leading the polls.

[UnderAGreySky]

Jesus. She has a point.

His candidacy is probably the result of a bet between either the Koch brothers or Obama and Michael Steele.

[Silvertongue]

Wow. Poes law in action!

My jaw has hit the floor. I don't know what's real anymore. Where is Stephen Colbert to guide me?

[Darth Fanboy]

I think what is really funny is that he is able to lead polls without significant staffing presences in the states Maddow listed. If Cain actually wins any primaries and has proven that spending lots of money in a certain state isn't a requirement it could make for future interesting primaries.

[Lord Zentei]

Impossible to tell, since if it's true we haven't seen the "real" Herman Cain.

Although if he's even remotely as ignorant in actuality as he appears to be, then it would certainly be bad. I had assumed he was some kind of black male Sarah Palin with all of his bullshit gaffes and ignorance (not knowing what "neoconservative" meant reminded me of Palin's "Bush Doctrine" gaffe, for example).

The issue is when you put it all together. Some of these things are not simple mistakes. The Smoking Guy when he himself is a cancer survivor, the Pokemon thing, the Brotha From Anotha Motha thing... It is either incompetence/insanity so far beyond comprehension that it hurts, or it is a form of satirical genius.

Yes, I can see that. I was just musing on my prior conclusions about him.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Meh, don't really buy it. Most of the examples she uses are pretty excusable gaffes. Like the black walnut ice cream flavor? Honestly, the Pokemon song is the only one that really stands out as being absurd and bizarre. The rest of them are no worse than gaffes made by other politicians. With this kind of selective evidence you could really make ANY campaign look like satire. Still, hard to explain the Pokemon one ...

EDIT: What's that quote? Never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to ignorance? Yeah, I think Cain is just stupid, and his campaign managers/staff are morons, too.

[MKSheppard]

Actually, I believe that both the Cain 2011 and the Obama 2008 campaign have large amount of similarities -- both started out running as a spoiler candidate -- and both achieved unexpected traction against the perceived incumbent -- Hillary in Obama's case and Romney/Perry in Cain's case.

But that's where the similarities end and things diverge.

Obama, despite his inexperience politically, was still more experienced in politics than Cain is, due to him being an Illinois State Senator from 1997 to 2004; and then somewhat as a US Senator from 2005 to 2008; though most of his time in that was taken up by running for POUTS; so he was able to capitalize on his unexpected windfall in the polls to start transitioning to a serious campaign.

...Cain, on the other hand, has not done this as well, as we can see.

[Todeswind]

So.... Herman Cain is officially the political equivalent of an internet troll?

Somehow I'm not surprised.

[Coop D'etat]

The weakness of the Republican field this campaign seems to have resulted in an elevation of the candidates that aren't in it so much to win the nomination and try and become POTUS but those that are using the nomination process to elevate their national stature for personal gain, in which, or to push their ideology into the national discussion. I would lump Palin (who didn't run but used the possibility of her running to get in the news), Trump and Cain in the former and Paul/Bachmann in the latter. They get a lot more airtime and support than they would typically because of a willingness to pander to the Republican base and that the more experienced candidates that are or were running to actually win or at least to raise profile for 2016 or get a shot at the VP ticket aren't particularly good political talents at the American national level (in think this is a fair description of Gingrich, Pawlenty, Perry, Huntsman, Daniels and Romney as a group).