The Other McCain

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

What She Said, and What I Said

Posted on | October 3, 2011 | 23 Comments

“While the Post tries to impose an old narrative on Perry and squeeze blood from a stone, the reality is that Perry has gone out of his way to pander to left-wing impulses on race.
“This is the guy that has disparaged his own base as racist in two separate GOP debates.
“Remember? . . .
“Remember? . . .
“It sucks to be falsely accused of racism.
“Maybe Rick Perry, now under siege by the ruthless race card-playing media, will remember that the next time he’s tempted to accuse conservatives who disagree with him of heartless bigotry.”
— Michelle Malkin, “Rick Perry and the Macaca Media,” Oct. 3

“Call me crazy. Attribute my forebodings of doom to irrational prejudice. Say what you will, and I don’t care, but I felt a need to put on the record my instinctive sense that there’s something fundamentally wrong about the Perry campaign. . . . Some kind of catastrophe will result, one way or another.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “Young Minions of the Sith Lord of Texas,” Aug. 9

Look, just because I warned you something bad would happen — just because the Jedi master’s foresight has been vindicated by events — doesn’t mean that I’m happy to see the shocking fulfillment of my prophecy. And I am profoundly unhappy that the media have drawn Herman Cain into this ginned-up controversy:

Just when Rick Perry was coming up with a stronger answer on his immigration vulnerability, just when he was starting to show progress in New Hampshire, and just before he might have some good news to announce (his 3rd quarter fundraising report), comes another damaging story for the Texas governor. As the Washington Post reported over the weekend, a racial epithet had been displayed at a hunting camp that he and his family had leased. The story got additional legs when Herman Cain, the only African American in the 2012 GOP field, piled on. “I think that it shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off of that rock and renaming the place,” Cain told ABC yesterday. “It’s just basically a case of insensitivity.”

Republican primary voters don’t much care for lectures on “sensitivity” and, while it is certainly true that Mama would have washed my mouth out with soap if she had ever heard me say that word — the Texas word for “macaca,” as it were — it doesn’t benefit Cain’s campaign for him to bite the bait when the media dangle it in front of him. Political considerations aside, however, Ed Morrissey has a solid point:

I don’t find it at all surprising that Cain . . . would have an immediate and emotional reaction to this story.  It seems almost churlish to scold him for calling it “insensitive,” a rather mild criticism considering the nature of the term.

Every man is the judge of his own honor. If I say that you’ve insulted me, it only compounds the insult for you to tell me that no insult was intended, because it requires a special sort of contempt for a man to claim that you’ve insulted him by accident. If you have respect for someone, you should take care not to insult them, and so the properly respectful response when someone you respect takes umbrage is to apologize for the insult, rather than to defend yourself by protesting the accidental nature of the offense.

Whatever the history of the now-infamous “N–rhead” hunting ranch, however, I think we can also agree that Republicans feel insulted by accusations of racism, and the sooner this unfortunate incident becomes yesterday’s news, the better for all concerned.

Will this slow Herman Cain’s momentum? I certainly hope not. People are coming to know him as a candidate who speaks his mind, a trait that they appreciate even when he says things they wish he hadn’t said.

And I think we can all agree that racism in Alabama is a terrible thing.

Category: Herman Cain, Michelle Malkin, Racism, Rick Perry

Comments

23 Responses to “What She Said, and What I Said”

  1. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 7:58 pm

    Amanda Cox got set free.  She had a few worse days than you (I would imagine).  Keep the faith. 

    As for Herman, keep fighting the good fight and your efforts need to be made down field, not to the guys sitting next to you.  Perry is wrong on some policy issues that you can address, but your main opponent remains Barack Obama.  You need some better staff assisting you if you are planning on getting to that fight. 

  2. ThePaganTemple
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 8:37 pm

    Amanda Knox.

  3. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 8:49 pm

    Sorry,  my bad. 

  4. Adjoran
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 8:49 pm

    The prosecution was ridiculous – but that doesn’t mean she didn’t do it.

    O.J. Simpson walked, too – the first time.

  5. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 8:56 pm

    Rick Perry’s campaign is not in trouble over vaccines or some stupid rock in the middle of someone else’s ranch, but over a poor debate performance.   He looked bad compared to the other candidates.  And he said some really stupid substantive things that he should have immediately backed off of.  He is too liberal on some issues, most notably immigration. 

    It is fatal only if Rick Perry makes it fatal.  And it seems like he is making it fatal.   But it is way early to pronounce him DOA.  He can survive this if he gets his shit together.  Just like Romney needs to get his shit together on health care. 

    Herman Cain is doing well because he is a good candidate.  And he is taking advantage of the weaknesses of Romeny and Perry.   But Herman needs to get way more savy with dealing with the media.  Wolf Blitzer is not his friend (and neither is any other media guy).  RSM is not one of those media guys, he is an honest reporter who cares deeply about this stuff.  He is a friend. 

  6. Christy Waters
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:01 pm

    While I wish Herman Cain hadn’t taken the bait, all it proves is that the man’s human. And if the so-called Cain “supporters”, who now wish to withdraw their support, want to choose this petty cross to die on, then I don’t want to hear any bitchin’ and moanin’ when a President Perry decides to use their money to grant largesse to the illegal community. After all, isn’t that the reason so many Perry supporters jumped ship in the first place? 

    Hmmm, There seems to be an epidemic of collective amnesia, all of a sudden.

  7. DaveO
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:11 pm

    IMO the Progressives have started a fire that we conservatives can throw gasoline on. Cain could lead the charge on this: Dems will do anything, including investigate claims of a rock with a racist epithet painted on decades prior to a candidate running for President – but they can’t investigate claims of a candidate who was a member of the CPUSA’s “New Party;” or who somehow failed to hear his racist, anti-American preacher for over 20 years.

    Conservatives get painted with the raaaaacist brush by indirect association, i.e. stray people and plants at TEA Party rallies. Time to paint Progressives with the racist brush by direct association: KKK, NBPP, Jeremiah Wright and a host of others.

     

  8. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:14 pm

    In 2011, the way you call someone a racist without taking responsibility for calling someone a racist is: “insensitive.”  Cain sided with the race-baiters of the MSM and called a fellow Republican a racist, and it wasn’t a off-the-cuff response, either.  It was planned, in pre-arranged interviews on both Fox News and ABC.

    The 9-9-9 plan sucks too.

    Bye.

  9. McGehee
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:16 pm

    Bye.

  10. Adjoran
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 9:20 pm

    Malkin has it in for Perry, possibly due to her irrational views on vaccination policy, but Stacy and others – myself included – saw through the Glorious Conservative Hero fanfare which preceded Perry’s actual entry in the race.  And that goes double for Christie . . .

    Cain would have been well advised to follow the old wisdom:  nothing is often the smartest thing to do, and always the smartest thing to say.

    The rock was painted over nearly 30 years ago, Perry or his family never owned or leased the property, most of what he was hit with was total fabrication by old media types desperate to damage Republicans in any way they can.

    The whole idea of a perfect conservative candidate is mostly myth.  The Republican Party nominated exactly two “true conservatives” in the last century:  Harding and Goldwater.  Coolidge was a conservative, but already an incumbent when nominated.

    Reagan raised taxes and spending in California, NEVER promised to cut federal spending (only to reduce its rate of growth), put import quotas on Japan, allowed domestic spending and deficits to explode in order to get his defense package through, raised tax rates after cutting them, and granted amnesty to illegal aliens.  He would be mocked as a RINO today.

    Even Goldwater’s opinions – especially in his later years – trended more toward libertarian than conservative on social issues.

    Those awaiting that perfect conservative will have the Obama backers for company – those are still waiting for their magic unicorn to poop Skittles on their pillows.

  11. StoneGate a Non-Issue for Herman Cain | The Lonely Conservative
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 6:11 pm

    […] 2011 By Lonely Conservative No comments yetHerman Cain got drawn into the duplicitous media’s ginned up controversy over a stone on property leased by Rick Perry’s family that once bore a racial epithet, […]

  12. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 10:55 pm

    Somebody did it, but for her to go all knify on her roommate seems unlikely (although possible) to require some real evidence and motive to get a conviction.  Clearly there is more to this story than anyone has heard (openly).  The prosecution has the burden to prove its case, even in Italy. 

  13. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 10:56 pm

    meh… was a cheap shot from the WaPo aimed at Perry.  Typical kick ’em while he’s down mentality we’ve come to expect from our leftist friends in the lame stream media.  Unfortunately for Cain he got caught in the blast zone through his own unforced error.  A rookie mistake, to be sure, but probably not a fatal one.   IMHO, anyhoo….

  14. Joe
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 10:58 pm

    Who sent you kryon77?  Where do you come from?  Let me guess, if I am facing north, you would be due west? 

  15. Anonymous
    October 3rd, 2011 @ 11:12 pm

    I know when I go hunting I always bring a bucket of paint so’s I repaint old rocks.

  16. Brian D Paasch
    October 4th, 2011 @ 12:32 am

    Ha! I actually beat Stacy to the punch on asking what the heck Cain is doing singing to MSM’s music and piling on Perry for their agenda garbage. Even linked Stacy in the process. But does he give me a nod back? Noooo. Bad linky karma! THAT’s why you get no instalanches with your lunch today!

  17. Anonymous
    October 4th, 2011 @ 12:56 am

    Romney can’t get his shit together on healthcare. He can scrape it into a pile or spread it flat on a rock or roll it into little balls but at the end of the day it’s still the same old shit.

  18. DaveO
    October 4th, 2011 @ 1:39 am

    Irrational views on vaccination: you haven’t been following what Obama’s Science Czar. Concurrent with the HPV vaccine issue was John Holdren’s beliefs coming to life: forced sterilization of women without their consent.

    Hardly irrational if one of the guys responsible for clearing a vaccine for public use always wants to use the public health sciences to promote malthusian goals.

    Folks are loving on Harding, and disregarding Teapot Dome and other scandals that made his presidency the most corrupt since Grant’s, and set the mark that Clinton beat after 1997.

    There may not be a perfect conservative, but even Obama will represent himself to the American voters as having conservative values and goals (but non-dogmatic enough in order to get things done). Perry and Romney are John-McCain-redux.

  19. ThePaganTemple
    October 4th, 2011 @ 2:47 am

    More than likely we’ll never know the answers. Probably some bratty little Italian aristocratic asshat student from an influential family would be my first guess. The murder victim probably laughed at his dick size, for all we know. For that matter, the prosecution could have got it right, but royally screwed up. Its understandable to feel some emotion, but it seems to me like he took it too damn personally and let it get the better of him.

  20. Paul Zummo
    October 4th, 2011 @ 2:49 am

    The funny thing is that Malkin’s shrieking pursuit of purity is helping moderates (McCain in 2008, Romney in 2012) get the nomination.

  21. Anonymous
    October 4th, 2011 @ 6:45 am

    You got me.  I’m on the blog team for the Perry campaign, and I wear my cowboy hat to sleep.  (Except I’m in New York City, and I’m not a Perry fan.)

    This was not a high-pressure situation; it should have been easy for Cain to bat away the N*head story, by noting the source and calling out the cheap race-baiting.  Instead he gave into the easy temptation to join in, and that’s not Presidential mettle, in my opinion.

  22. ThePaganTemple
    October 4th, 2011 @ 12:22 pm

    Perry is not that liberal on immigration, he’s being forced to play with a lousy hand. Remember, states don’t have the power to enforce immigration law. That’s the whole problem with the Arizona law. They can add extra people to the border, but other than that and other than calling ICE when they find somebody is illegal, there’s not a damn thing they can do. You can establishing sanctuary cities, which is technically against federal law, but the feds won’t do shit and fall back on state’s rights. But the minute they go about trying to find out whether somebody is here illegally, they face all kinds of road blocks. The feds are bought and paid for by the immigrants lobbies, including probably the SEIU. That’s the problem.

    So Perry has this quandry where he has all these people with whom he is very limited as to what he can and can’t do about them, so he gives a few kids a break and let’s them attend college at in-state tuition rates and awards a few scholarships. As long as those scholarships are based on merit, what’s the big deal? No its not a good situation but it beats keeping these kids hidden in the shadows where many of them would end up turning to crime and even joining criminal gangs.

    If you don’t like the way Perry or any other governor deals with immigration issues then the thing to do is demand the fucking feds enforce immigration laws as it exists on the books. Then it won’t be an issue.

  23. ThePaganTemple
    October 4th, 2011 @ 12:34 pm

    I’ve been thinking for some time that what you call “true conservatives”,  most especially the Tea Party, are actually the true “RINO” faction. When you look over the whole history of the Republican Party, there were as you noted very few actual true conservatives, especially at the national level.

    In fact, I think the only true conservative faction of consequence prior to the Reagan era were the Birchers, and they were largely derided by the party, almost universally.

    So when you stop to think about it, maybe conservatives should proudly adopt the RINO mascot, because if you go by history, they are the ones who are “Republican In Name Only”