The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

No, Sarah Palin Did Not Call Herman Cain ‘Herb’ and Did Not Put Him Down
UPDATE: Why Doesn’t the Fox News Transcript Match the Politico Video?

Posted on | September 28, 2011 | 77 Comments

Somebody told me that Herman Cain was asked about this on CBS News and said Governor Palin was “wrong,” evidently based on media reports. But let’s go to the transcript, shall we?

VAN SUSTEREN: How does, though, a politician, though, connect with the people and get it across so it doesn’t just sound like more like, Blah, blah, blah? When the politician gets up on the air, probably many of us can sort of mouth the answers for the politician because we know these people for better, for worse, so well, and that they’re going to say. It’s quite predictable.
But how does a politician actually connect with someone in the heartland, for instance?
PALIN: That’s a great question. I think what helps is for that politician is to have a foundation of having come from the real people of America, the working class, those who make up the majority of Americans who are so extremely concerned about the direction of our country.
Take Herman Cain. Look at why he’s doing so well right now. He’s, I guess you could say, with all due respect, the flavor of the week because Herman Cain is the one up there who doesn’t look like he’s part of that permanent political class. Herman Cain — he came from a working class family. He’s had to make it on his own all these years. We respect that.
That has an automatic connection with the electorate, where we say, We can relate to him, he knows the issues, the problems that we face every day, and he’s determined to do something about it. He’s not elite. He doesn’t seem to allow us to be disenchanted with what it is that he’s proposing because what he proposes in terms of solutions, Greta, for our economy, are based on time-tested truths and common sense and true economic principles that will work.
So Herman Cain is a good example of a connection with the voters and why his message, good messenger, he’s resonating with the people.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it’s sort of interesting about — you know, in watching the straw poll votes in Florida that you were talking about, Herman Cain winning by — he trounced, basically, Governor Perry and Governor Romney, the two supposed front-runners — is that the media was so shocked, that they seemed so surprised. And I’m sort of curious as to what extent, you know, the media doesn’t really go out and talk to the American people. And you know, I wonder if people — if the people watching it from the heartland, if they were surprised that he won in Florida.
PALIN: We are not surprised that he, as a messenger of common-sense conservative pro-U.S. Constitution principles, is doing well. Many of the elites in the media were shocked.
And you know, I think it’s kind of humorous to see the way that the media is covering these candidates. Let me give you an example of this. Earlier today, Greta, on Fox News, you had a host who said Sarah Palin in the polls, she’s way, way down there in the polls. And I’m kind of scratching my head, going, Wait a minute. On another network, on CNN just the other day, they showed a poll where I was, like, within 5 points of President Obama. I was doing well, much better than many of the other candidates.
And I’m thinking all this misinformation and contradictory information, contradicting information from even hosts here on this network itself, it adds to, I guess, the disconnect even — not just the permanent political class, but many in the media also because sometimes, they don’t do their homework. And many times, a host or a reporter, they have their own agenda and they interject their agenda in the information they’re providing their viewers and readers.
So didn’t surprise me or many of us that Herman Cain was doing well, but certainly surprised many in the media because sometimes they don’t do their homework and they do perpetuate misinformation.

Well, Politico tried to “perpetuate misinformation” and between Slate’s Dave Weigel and Hot Air’s Tina Korbe, this gets turned into a kerfuffle. Read the freakin’ transcript: While Palin did say Cain was “flavor of the week” — that is to say, from the media perspective he’s the Next New Thing — she followed that with effusive praise for him as representing “the real people of America,” with whom he has an “automatic connection.” 

Sarah Palin has always been a Herman Cain fan, and is still a Herman Cain fan. I’d have to look it up, but earlier this year, she re-Tweeted one of Cain’s columns. The media are trying to gin up a phony controversy — “Let’s you and him fight,” as they say down home — and the last thing Cain should do is to believe what the media say about Sarah Palin. They’re “makin’ up stuff” again!

See also: “Politics as Show Biz.”

UPDATE: Wait a minute — there is a discrepancy between the transcript and this video:

Something’s screwy: Is the Fox transcription wrong? Did Politico edit the video? What?

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin

Comments

77 Responses to “No, Sarah Palin Did Not Call Herman Cain ‘Herb’ and Did Not Put Him Down
UPDATE: Why Doesn’t the Fox News Transcript Match the Politico Video?”

  1. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 12:11 pm

    Not that I disagree about liberals, but aside from pr0n, isn’t the point of the Internet to argue insignificant points way out of proportion?

  2. rosalie
    September 29th, 2011 @ 12:12 pm

    I bet she thought about that beforehand and did it on purpose just to get the MSM all riled up.  I predicted a while back that she’s moving over to CNN one day, and I feel even more certain of that now.

  3. Garym
    September 29th, 2011 @ 1:53 pm

    Neither she nor her followers can admit even to the tiniest slip up.

    It sounds like Herb to me and I don’t give a shit either way because its no big deal. Sarah Palin is held to an impossible standard because of Tina Fey’s “russia from my house” bullshit.

     Weigel deals in half truths at best. The “refudiate” blow up was another overblown controversy spewed by haters of Palin. Alot of her “followers” plainly admitted that it was a mistake of 2 words that mean roughly the same thing, some loved the new word, and then you have progressives who never make mistakes like “57 states”. Palin admitted shortly after in a facebook post about flubbing the word and laughed it off using Shakespear as reference as someone who made up words. But in libs memories, it was a mistake of biblical proportions.

    I am a “follower” of Palin and Cain, and Herb is not the story. The story is that Politico glossed over the praise she gave to Cain to create a controversy with the flavor of the week reference.  

  4. Pete Daniels Band
    September 29th, 2011 @ 3:26 pm

    Why does it matter whether she said Herm, Herb or Herman?  Did anyone not know which candidate she was talking about? 

  5. Bill Steward
    September 29th, 2011 @ 3:46 pm

    I watched it live on Greta’s show.. I only remember her slipping up and saying it once, and at that time I didn’t know if she said Herm or Herb,  but since then, it seems to have been introduced into the video many more times.. I believe Greta will straighten out any discrepancies between the real video and these altered ones….

  6. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 5:49 pm

    Oh come on. I support Sarah and will vote for her when she gets in. No one can hold a candle to her republican, democrat or other. I went back to look at the interview again, at the highest volume, and Sarah clearly says Herb. Well, so what! What is the big deal? Why are you saying she said Herman? As an ardent supporter i too want to defend and protect Sarah as best i can but not to the extent of putting words in her mouth that she didn’t say.  

    The Governor doesn’t need us to start regurgitating the left wing’s standard redundant phrase of  “well what (s)he really said was….” No. She said Herb. Okay now  let’s move on to the white house in 2012! This reminds me of on another site a few weeks ago when the author of an article said that Karl Rove said that Sarah was ‘the only one who could win.’ After scouring the article and video clip i and many other posters just could not find that quote.

    Now if you read or heard Rove’s words it did imply that the door was open for Sarah because the other GOP candidates he described didn’t fit the bill, Sarah did. And the author took all implications from his words to mean ‘she’s the only one who could win.’  We don’t need any “what Sarah really meant was this” or “she really said that” kind of articles. The Governor says what she means and means what she says; so let’s print exactly that and not what she didn’t say. Other than that for the most part i love the articles on this site. Palin 2012!

  7. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 6:00 pm

    I need to clear a little something up. I ended my previous post with “other than that for the the most part i love the articles on this site.” I meant the Sarah Net site which linked to this site. However i have found some very truth filled articles on the Other Mccain site. Keep up the good work. 

  8. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 8:24 pm

    Looks like what we used to call “Struggle mode.”

  9. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 8:32 pm

    You should denounce yourself, based on your first sentence.

  10. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 8:33 pm

    No, it isn’t!!!!

  11. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 8:35 pm

    “Herb” hasn’t denounced Palin yet.  So she’s got that goin’ for her.  Which is nice.

  12. The Camp Of The Saints
    September 29th, 2011 @ 6:09 pm

    Bob’s Musings: Odds And Ends And Sods…

    Bob's Muse -Governor Rick Perry’s description of those of us who are against tuition breaks for illegal aliens as ‘heartless’ continues to do him damage.  In an interview with Newsmax, he tried to undo some of it [tip of the fedo…

  13. Garym
    September 29th, 2011 @ 11:02 pm

    Dohh!! Your right K-Bob. I concider myself denounced. ; )

  14. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2011 @ 11:48 pm

    It appears that he is sometimes called Herb Cain in Florida.  Here’s one example:
    http://clarkcountypolitics.blogspot.com/2011/09/herb-cain-takes-florida-straw-polls.html

  15. Anonymous
    September 30th, 2011 @ 12:09 am

    I thought she was movin’ on up to the White House

  16. Please Make Her Stop Talking!
    September 30th, 2011 @ 1:15 am

    I listened to the clip.  Yes she keeps saying “Herb”, even after Greta says Herman.  Mercifully the player crashed after about 9 minutes of this droning on and on.

  17. Fox News is Embarrassed by Sarah Palin – Here’s Proof « Malia Litman's Blog
    September 30th, 2011 @ 2:12 am

    […] My article included a link to a Fox News web site that worked when I posted it. Two days later the video is not available with a simple explanation “Page Not Found.” Perhaps Fox News is hoping that their transcript, which contained the correct first name for Mr. Cain, would be the only evidence still existing of that interview. Here is the transcript. However even the transcript revealed that Fox had been embarrassed by Palin’s use of the name Herb, and they corrected her in their transcript. […]

  18. Theresa 'Darklady' Reed
    September 30th, 2011 @ 8:57 am

    Why does it matter?

    Because coming up with a nickname for someone without their permission seems disrespectful and overly familiar, IMO. If she wants to work with world leaders, she needs to learn *now* that this kind of thing is not diplomatically appropriate. 
    Of course, that assumes that the narcissistic ninny gives a damn how anybody else feels about anything…

  19. Anonymous
    September 30th, 2011 @ 9:11 am

    Sarah clearly said “Herb” and it was more than once.  Nobody altered any
    tape to introduce it a few more times as one person said and if it now
    says “Herman”, the original tape has been changed.

    Why is it that whenever a mistake is made by Sarah, it can’t just be
    accepted as, “Oops! Excuse me, Herman. I meant no harm.”  He’s a
    gentleman.  He’d smile and willingly accept her apology.  Instead, you
    all want to pretend that she can’t even make a mistake?  She’s not
    perfect. 

  20. Pete Daniels Band
    September 30th, 2011 @ 3:32 pm

    For one, she knows Herman Cain and they get along well.  Two, Palin just got 3 days of media coverage for Cain with this trick.  Net result is that millions more people have been introduced to the Herman Cain the candidate this week than if she hadn’t pulled a slick one. That there is mastery.

  21. Anonymous
    September 30th, 2011 @ 3:35 pm

    Which is most proper?

    Herman Cain
    Herb Cain
    Nine Nine Nine
    Herm Cain
    The Herman
    Hermanator
    The Herman Cain

  22. Guywil
    September 30th, 2011 @ 3:47 pm

    She called him Herb Cain. Even Helen Keller could tell what she said.

  23. Anonymous
    October 1st, 2011 @ 12:18 am

    How do you know Sarah didn’t have Cain’s permission?

    There’s a narcissistic ninny here but it ain’t Sarah.

  24. Anonymous
    October 1st, 2011 @ 12:31 am

    Don’t be calling me Herb, Sarah Lou. It’s Hermie-baby to you, love.

  25. Anonymous
    October 1st, 2011 @ 1:39 am

    Turn the channel, drama queen.

  26. Anonymous
    October 1st, 2011 @ 1:40 am

    Nitpick much?  Someone needs a life.

  27. Anonymous
    October 1st, 2011 @ 4:17 am

    You can call me Peaches, but don’t call me Herb.