The Other McCain

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

No Joy (McCann) in Mudville

Posted on | October 3, 2011 | 37 Comments

Several commenters have been wondering why I haven’t blogged about Herman Cain’s victory in yesterday’s straw poll. Others have tried to bait me into writing about Rick Perry’s “N–rhead” hunting camp, or Cain’s comments about that controversy.

Short answer: Because there is no point in my doing so.

I’m not Michael Barone or Jennifer Rubin.

I’m not Byron York or John Podhoretz or Ann Althouse or Ed Morrissey.

Having somehow offended the god of the cargo cult, I’ve abandoned false hope and surrendered to reality: Nothing I write about politics matters and there is no point pretending it does. Rather than continue showing up at a party where I’m so obviously unwelcome, I’ve decided to heed the message and relieve the invited guests of my annoying presence.

Joy McCann knows everything about Texas and racism and Herman Cain, and she has lots of friends whose opinions she cares about.

Me? I don’t know nothing about no Herman Cain.

If you see John Frum, tell him I said hello.

Category: Cargo Cult of the Blog Gods, Herman Cain, Little Miss Attila

Comments

37 Responses to “No Joy (McCann) in Mudville”

  1. Steve in TN
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:08 pm

    Also because there is no there there and Cain should have known this before he added to the idiot roar on the non-issue.

  2. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:18 pm

    Seems to me that Cain’s only mistake was believing the Washington Post. I’m less enamored with the man than our beloved leader, but I suspect, and hope, that now that Perry’s response is out there Cain will issue an apology. If so, this will be a nonissue for me.

  3. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:23 pm

    Can I get that tiny violin from the thread below and get it to play for you?  I think you need it. 

    Okay.  You were dissed.  Completely utterly.  You have been a champion of Herman Cain from before I even knew anything about him.  You predicted all of this, including his rise.   And while I have a lot of respect for Don Barone, it is a bitter dis to be over looked for Jen “RINO Lover” Rubin.  The Blogfather did not give you a nod.  Barnone and Rubin do not need an Instalanche, but TOM?  Yeah, it needs some blog linky love. 

    You refused to burn a source (because that is just how you roll) and some other reporter scooped you.  But that is how you roll.  You have integrity.  It is more important than some scoop. 

    I would recommend you re-read Job.  When done with that, dust your self off and get going again.  You are Robert Stacy McCain, damn it!  Father of wonderful children (like Ms. Cutie McAwesome).  Devoted husband.  The Deerslayer.  Mr. Speedo.  The grizzled worn out shoe leather reporter with a beat up old sports coat and a fedora of freedom.  Have a pudding and get cracking.  Yeah the GOP conspired to ruin your Christmas and force you to spend it in Iowa and New Hampshire.  But you go where the story is.  And you are a professional. 

  4. Matt Knowles
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:23 pm

    It’s very painful to watch the candidate you’ve invested your own hopes into make such a stupid mistake.  I felt it, less personally, when Rick Perry was stammering in the Florida debate.

  5. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:24 pm

    Excuse me, the Flordia GOP conspired….

  6. Zilla of the Resistance
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:25 pm

    Stacy, is this the dark mood striking?
    I hate to see you so down.
    I hope you feel better soon.
    I, like many others, am here every single day, multiple times a day, reading TOM posts because they are good, because you offer amazing insight and humor, and because you are a damned fine writer. 
    There’s other ways to get traffic besides instalanches (which I have never ever gotten), but you may have to go back to your own rules and promote your work to other bloggers. I get most of my traffic from a handful of bloggers who link to me, from posting my links in my blogging friends’ open threads, and emailing fellow bloggers who I hope might be interested in what I write or to let them know that I’ve linked to them.
    But none of those things bring me HERE, I (and I’m sure most of your core readership) come here without ever having to be asked or reminded to come here, because I know that there always will be something interesting to read. (and because Smitty’s baby is really really cute)
    So you aren’t getting the mega bump in traffic from Insty, I bet you still get consistent traffic though. But perhaps the best way to find out why Glenn Reynolds isn’t linking to you anymore might be to just ask him.
    Anyway, I am sorry to see you in this misery. I do hope this passes either with renewed Insta-action, or the realization that you can actually live without them.
    Your work can stand on it’s own, you know it can.

  7. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:30 pm

    What Zilla said.  You are StacyMcAwesome to us. 

  8. FenelonSpoke
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:35 pm

    Log off the computer, make love to your lovely wife, have a good meal, enjoy your children and  then get back to work; You get the stories nobody else does.

  9. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:37 pm

    So Herman does not like the N-word.  I think he will, if hearing how Perry actually dealt with this issue, retract any criticism.  This is a non issue and typical raaaaacist baiting by the left. 

    I am more concerned that Stacy is in the dumps over being over looked.  Okay, get back in the car.  You have some reporting to do. 

  10. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:38 pm

    He is not perfect.  Herman needs to recognize that Rick Perry is no longer the guy to defeat, Barack Obama is the guy to defeat. 

  11. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:49 pm

    Yeah.  Good advice. 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTgOLLmTQI0

  12. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 4:59 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

    Watch this like 100 times and then get going! 

  13. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:00 pm

    Probably not Cain’s best moment.

    By itself, though, it’s just a single warning flare. Every candidate, no matter how promising (or conservative), will do or say things that are worrisome. We have 3-5 months (or about five minutes, if Florida gets it way) to continue learning about Mr. Cain.

    As for Perry, he was already burrying himself before the trashy WaPo tried to drop the boulder on him.      

  14. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:04 pm

    Yeah, but some recovery time is needed and, once I’ve recovered from the humiliation and demoralization, I’m confronted with the work that went undone in the meantime. 

    The Massive Cosmic Bitch-Slap of 2:11 p.m. ET Sunday occurred while I was on the phone interviewing a 2012 Senate candidate. After I got off the call, my intent was to transcribe the audio, publish the interview transcript and then write a post at The American Spectator but …

    Well, it felt like being pushed off a cliff and I find myself wondering what the hell is the point writing about a Senate candidate, if 10 months of covering a presidential campaign has earned me nothing but a reputation as hopelessly irrelevant to the political process? If nothing I’ve ever reported about Herman Cain is worth citing, now that he has emerged as a “top tier” candidate, where is the incentive to write anything at all about politics?

    It’s an existential crisis, and there’s no point trying to cheer me up. The problem is not my mood, but rather the problem is my abject and irretrievable failure.

  15. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:16 pm

    Oh and Herman:  It’s A Trap.

    Most of the MSM wants to destroy you.  Stop helping them.  Even so called friendlies at Fox are more interested in short term ratings gains than your candidacy.  In politics not all publicity is good publicity.   

  16. Zilla of the Resistance
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:21 pm

    Damnit, Stacy, being ignored by insty does not a miserable failure make!  But acting like an addict who can’t get a fix, well…

    Listen to me; you are successful with or without Glenn Reynolds linking to you. Why don’t you scroll down your own freaking blog and look at Wombat’s FMJRA and have a look at the some of the many, MANY, people who DO link to you? There’s a lot of them, even more than what ends up in Wombat’s list. Are you going to dismiss all of those great people who bring you traffic and linkery because they aren’t the one big bad old dog who has forsaken you? REALLY? 

    Forget the instacrack, have a beer made up from the many varied  grains of the dextrosphere instead, don’t make us (your friends and fans) have to stage an intervention.

  17. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:22 pm

    You are not a failure to us.  You are not a failure to your family.  Trust me, I have felt like you are feeling now.  But the only way through it is to fight. Strugle on.  It is the strugle for the goal that counts.   

    It is what a man does. Never give up.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glrU4JKV1SI

  18. Christy Waters
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:26 pm

    But Stacy McCain, you’re the one I go to for the juicy, inside stuff! I never would’ve known about the Scott Plakon endorsement in Florida, had it not been for you! 

    All these other clowns are just skimming the surface. Those who want the real (and trustworthy) scoop about Herman Cain, go to The Other McCain!

  19. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:26 pm

    How do you go about getting a post published for the American Spectator, RSM? I’ve got a new post up now in defense of Rick Perry I’d like to submit, pretty damn good one if I do say so myself. I’m starting to think the guys getting a bum deal over this “heartless” remark and the fence.

    You should never put all your eggs in one basket this early in the process. There’s a lot to say for playing the field, especially if your job description is journalist. Now a guy like me can just shoot his mouth off and that’s fine. Maybe I’ll make a good point to some people without coming across like just another member of Ye Olde Echo Chamber, or maybe I’ll just be seen as an irritant. Hopefully not an embarrassment, but I’ve probably done that too. You’re always the last to know.

    Here’s one point you might want to ponder. The next time somebody tells you something “off the record”, you might want to ask yourself if they are really wanting you to keep it to yourself.

    I’d start thinking seriously about that secret info about the Carter official and practicing your morning news show persona.

     KA_CHING

  20. Dustin
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:30 pm

    Even when I don’t agree with you, I read your blog and find it extremely informative.

    I don’t know why you’re not getting the links for the Cain blogging.  The blogosphere seems cliqueish and silly sometimes.

    By all means, bitch about it.  I think it’s worth bitching about, because you’re working hard and doing the blogging people should value. 

    But keep blogging about Cain and the rest of the contenders.  I think Cain really messed up in his comments about Perry recently, and find them bizarre if he’s not actually hoping Romney is the candidate.  I don’t understand conservatives who prefer Romney, but I think Cain’s main problem is he’s not a slick politician (which is also his great asset).

  21. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:39 pm

    And Rick Perry is not finished yet either.  I do not think he will be the nominee, but it is his job to prove me wrong. 

    I mean, crikey, the Eagles probably thought they had it in the bag yesterday and the 49ers proved them wrong. 

  22. ltw
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:49 pm

    Become the pol-culture guru (politics-culture)… or maybe pol-couture.

  23. McGehee
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:24 pm

    Meh. Stacy, I got plenty of Instylinks in the past, but the linkage that fed me the most traffic was from (IIRC) Small Dead Animals.

    These days a link from Dustbury makes my week. A link from you would would be an even bigger Bidening deal.

    Especially since what I blog is a thousand times more likely to interest Chaz than you, but work with me here…

  24. McGehee
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:26 pm

    No. Keep blogging what YOU’RE interested in, Stacy. That’s the only way to stay motivated in the face of other bloggers’ blindness.

  25. Matt Knowles
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:42 pm

    Rest assured, I counted to make sure there were 5 a’s…

  26. Blogger Buried Alive
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 2:47 pm

    […] likely better informed coverage of an issue that caused a Cain stumble passed over for . . . well, Joy’s post, for the links to which I am […]

  27. TR
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:48 pm

    Thanks Zilla.  I think Stacy needs a soft shoulder and certainly has not listened to my advice that similar.  “Be grateful and work hard and things will come your way.”  And RSM, write the first draft of your next manuscript rather than the old poor me, poor me, pour me a drink routine.  Plenty of those losers around already.  (Change pour-me to insty-me and Zilla has hit the nail on the head.)

  28. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:52 pm

    And hey-what about them Lions?

  29. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 7:13 pm

    Exactly Joe. At some point Cain is going to have to come out and tell these bozos that he is not running as a “black conservative” he is running as a conservative Republican. Then he should say something like “Wanna know a little secret? I don’t give a crap about race issues, because they tend to be based more on demagoguery than on legitimate matters, and from this point on I refuse to address the matter beyond that.”

    That might be a little too wordy in an era when a good ten second sound bite is better than a carload of diamonds, but it would suffice to get Cain’s message out that he intends to be a President of all Americans and doesn’t intend to play the divisive race card game.

  30. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 7:17 pm

    The way I look at it anything that doesn’t get you permanent readers is a will o’ the wisp, and that includes Insty. Yeah its nice to be linked and to see that upsurge, but if they never come back that’s worse than if they never showed up to begin with.

    I’ve been linked by CNN and Oliver Willis, and when I go out to eat its usually Taco Bell.

  31. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 7:32 pm

    “I’ve got a new post up now in defense of Rick Perry…….  the guys getting a bum deal over this “heartless” remark and the fence.”

    Well if that’s what you want to send to AS you might want to rethink your premise. This is entirely self inflicted as well as entirely justified because when the getting down to it gets down to it neither Perry nor any of his staff I’ve listened to get it when it comes to immigraton. Securing the border is only the beginning and merely a small part of the solution to the national catastrophe that is the last 40 years of immigration policy in this country. While it’s clear that Dubya didn’t get it, this might have been chalked up to one persons myopia. Now there’s another Texan running for National office who clearly doesn’t get it but assures us that the “Texas dream act” was passed by the Texas state legislature with only four votes dissenting. OK so now I’m convinced. One cannot trust ANY Texas politician when it comes to immigration, in fact I’ve concluded that perhaps I should reevaluate my opinion of Sam Houston.

  32. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 7:37 pm

    Running for president is in no way like football. In football ten of the other twenty one people on the field are trying to help you and “tripping” is illegal. In politics everyone else on the field is trying to trip you and the rules encourage it.

  33. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 8:11 pm

    The point is his overall record on immigration might not be as shabby as those two issues (Texas Dream Act and the border fence) might suggest, and that the heartless remark was a stupid miscalculation that may have been intended for his opponents, not Republican voters. He just assumed that once he explained the context of the Texas policy the voters would understand his position. He was wrong.

    Actually I think he’s all right on immigration. I’m against that damn fence myself. To be frank I think it would probably turn into a boondoggle on the order of the Big Dig and more than likely in the long run wouldn’t come close to accomplishing its supposed objective.

    Perry’s right about that, what it takes is boots on the ground, among some other things, but the fence isn’t one of those other things. Boots on the ground would make it unnecessary.

    I’m fine with the Texas Dream Act too, so long as it isn’t repeated at the national level.

    My main problem with Perry is he’s a debate klutz.

    I’d still take him over that fat-ass Christie the GOP Establishment masturbate over day in and day out.

  34. Joy
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:17 pm

    Yeah, and it’s been over a month–more like two–since I’ve had an Instalanche. Apparently, my crime in all this was to be named “Joy.”

    And there’s nothing I like more than puns on my name.

    If there were, it would be being blamed for Stacy’s down-moods, when I’ve got my own to deal with. 

  35. Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » I have no interest in anything Robert Stacy McCain says today…
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 5:21 pm

    […] can’t be bothered with his thoughts on Mark Block, Herman Cain latest straw poll, tough times for musicians, the cheap Koch […]

  36. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 11:33 pm

    As near as I can tell the only thing he gets right on immigration is border security and if it weren’t for the drug dealers and possible terrorists I’m not sure he’d care about that.

  37. 4n0ny
    October 4th, 2011 @ 3:41 am

    “Short answer: Because there is no point in my doing so.I’m not Michael Barone or Jennifer Rubin.
    I’m not Byron York or John Podhoretz or Ann Althouse or Ed Morrissey.”

    Being this late after you posted this article, don’t know if you will catch this comment, Mr. McCain, but I don’t read those blogs (nor do I care to). My 1st click for political news, especially for news on Cain (& Palin, btw) is yours. Why? Because you’ve been reliable, accurate and on the forefront – and I like your style. I’ve been saying about Cain, ‘this guy should be the president,’ since I heard him sub for Hannity on the radio – years ago. So if there is something significant to know about him (or Palin) PLEASE at least give us a heads up.

    And I’m not the only reader to feel this way (obviously).

    Perhaps an Instalanch is the golden ring for conblogs. Don’t know. Clearly there’s plenty of Joes who feel that way about YOUR blog – scrambling to get linked. 

    So THANK YOU for doing what you do. 
    (And though I’m too poor to hit the tip jar at the moment, FWIW, I have made Amazon purchases through your site.)