•I have no idea whether Cain will weather the sexual harassment stories, but he actually did a fine job in the debate – more of a friendly, mutually-supportive chat – with Newt Gingrich on C-SPAN over the weekend. When the two of them start talking about deregulation and interchanging words like “enterprise” and “empowerment,” it’s enough to make you feel as if Jack Kemp is still alive and that whole Bush thing never happened. Sigh.
Maybe Cain is basically an econ-oriented libertarian and – dangerous though this could prove – just never gives much thought to either foreign policy or abortion. He’d better start doing so pronto, but that’d be better than him simply being insane, obviously. (Most of the GOP candidates are at least a bit nuts, aren’t they? What sane person runs for office, though?)
By the way, in addition to being a businessman, impromptu singer, joker, quasi-libertarian, fuzzy-reasoner, minister, and guy with spotty foreign policy knowledge, he was also a mathematician specializing in ballistics for the Navy when he was a young man. Math? Theology? Libertarian tendencies? It would almost be odd if he didn’t say something strange once in a while. (Maybe he’s even the systematizing but socially inept type Evan Isaac has dubbed an “Aspergo-capitalist.”)
•Ultimately, the GOP nomination will probably come down to who wins the four January primaries and thus has early momentum, I suppose, and though Romney clearly dominates NH, Cain now leads him in SC by 33-23 and – get this – leads him in Iowa 30-15 (!?!). They’re tied in FL.
(Iowa also went big for Obama back in 2008, with conservative voters even switching parties to vote for him – in a 96% white state, which is interesting. Janeane Garofalo or someone will probably find a way to rationalize that white people just want to see black people fighting each other. Boxing? Need I say more? You’re listening to Air America. No, wait. You’re not.)
•As I mentioned at FEE this weekend and am happy to explain again tonight at McGee’s (RSVP to Chadwick[at]AmericasFuture.org if you want to join that group’s gathering there from 6:30-9:30), this year I might have to jump ship and vote Libertarian Party again, though, in the unlikely event Ron Paul switches parties again – and I think if he took Jesse Ventura up on his offer to have Ventura as his LP running mate, he might get extra publicity and end up being a serious spoiler. Do something to make it a less tempting option, GOP – do something to make it a less tempting option.
Actually, since Paul (as people perhaps forget) endorsed the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin in 2008 and has expressed some sympathy for both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street – and since Ventura came from the Reform Party – perhaps the ideal outcome next year would be a Paul/Ventura Republican-Libertarian-Constitution-Reform(-Tea-Occupy) ticket, surely America’s best hope for overcoming factional divisions.
I also offer the New York Post the following headline, free of charge, for when the Occupiers finally get removed from Zuccotti Park: “OWSted!!”
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