I think Herman Cain finally stepped in rightie ideological doo-doo.
Last night, Herman Cain made a big splash when he backed into pro-choice language on abortion last night on CNN — apparently by accident — when he said he is personally fully against abortion but doesn’t think that the government should tell women what to do.
Oops. Greg Sargent continues,
Republicans certainly would never nominate anyone who was actually pro-choice, and anti-abortion activists won’t forgive anyone who stumbled this badly on the issue, even if he walks it back back (as I expect he will) and clarifies that he misspoke himself and he’s actually 100% pro-life.
And in fact Cain walked back big time today.
“Yesterday in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, I was asked questions about abortion policy and the role of the President.
I understood the thrust of the question to ask whether that I, as president, would simply “order†people to not seek an abortion.
My answer was focused on the role of the President. The President has no constitutional authority to order any such action by anyone. That was the point I was trying to convey.
As to my political policy view on abortion, I am 100% pro-life. End of story.
Yeah, I don’t believe it, either.
Can Cain recover from this? I understand he had a pretty good debate this week —
What’s more important to righties — sticking it to the poor and undeserving, or forcing women to pay for their sexuality? We may see.
http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/republican-hicks-and-holy-rollers.aspx
Thanks, erinyes, for the link. I’ve read Margolis before, and don’t know why I haven’t bookmarked him – but I have now.
And he was writing about the hyper-religious anti-intellecutalism in rural Red America, and he mentioned the Taliban, which I always felt was a very apt comparison.
But also it got me to thinking (not always a good thing 🙂 ) – today’s hyper-religious, anti-intellectual, anti-urban right, in this search for their potential Presidential candidate, can also be viewed as the Khmer Rouge (literally translated as Red Cambodians) in search of their own Pol Pot.
We can call our Red Heartland Conservatives ‘The The A’mer Rouge.’
The Khmer Rouge (theoritically Communists) killed millions, displaced millions, hated cities and knowledgable people, and basically set up a systematic way of moving people out of cities, and either starving, working, or beating them to death – bullets were too precious, more precious than lives. People were particularly targeted by the ignorati thug followers if they were Doctors, Professors, Lawyers, Teachers, or any careers that required more thought than the growing of rice.
For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge
Or watch that great film, “The Killing Fields.”
The A’mer Taliban Rouge, no – Christ’s A’mer Rouge – I think this is a pretty apt description of where, God forbid (what can an agnostic say instead?), we may be headed. I can see a combination of “The Handmaids Tale,” and “The Killing Fields.” Can’t you?
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Oh, and as far as Cain’s ‘Whooops!’ moment, well, I think both he, who’s been surprised that his little self-marketing scheme has been as successful as it’s been, and the people who reluctantly vote for him in these polls, may have found a way for “The Accidental Candidate” to find a gracious exit, where he “Mea Culpa’s” out, the people who’ve voted for him in polls can breathe a sigh of relief, and can now focus on someone more likely to be nominated, and Cain can still sell his books, and maybe get a spot on FOX News.
Oh, they can’t and won’t be as rough with him as some others who may have committed this, or any, Conservative sin. After all, their support for an even Blacker man than Obama has been proof to themselves that the Liberals are the real racists.
Never mind ‘interesting,’ we know that one, but did the Chinese have anything to say about living in “STUPID” times? I think that would be more relevant.
These are all good for us. If Cain or Romney ever figured out that the road to the WH was via the Middle Way, we would be sunk. But they’re more concerned with ideological purity than winning, or they’re convinced that winning comes through ideological purity, that they will eventually lose. Cain has a lot of personality, and Romney just looks like a president, and I think their instincts tell them something different, but the purity test shoves them way to the right, making their ability to win in the general nearly impossible. Obama should get beat in ’12, but I think he’s gonna win.
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