Cain Train went from silver bullet to train wreck

Cain Train went from silver bullet to train wreck

2:53pm EST
By Sam Youngman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former pizza magnate Herman Cain's bid for the White House was an unconventional long shot from the start, but behind the colorful Cain Train a dysfunctional team has always been on the verge of running off the tracks.

The slow-motion train wreck ground to a halt on Saturday when Cain announced that he would suspend his campaign.

The breaking point was an allegation by Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White this week that she had engaged in a 13-year affair with the candidate.

Cain's presidential bid unraveled in public as women complained of sexual harassment, he forgot U.S. policy in Libya in a video interview and confused the language spoken in Cuba.

But there was also chaos behind the scene where his staff ran a free-wheeling show that seemed part book tour, part circus.

A former campaign official told Reuters that Cain was beset by scheduling mishaps, profligate spending on private jets and an entourage of handlers along for the ride.

"The people who Cain placed his full faith and confidence to counsel him are guilty of political malpractice," the former official said. "Campaign and crisis management pros will be dissecting this catastrophe for decades."

As the campaign staggered under the harassment allegations in November, Cain announced on a conference call that he was demoting chief of staff Mark Block but that decision was reversed within a few hours without explanation.

Campaign appearances were often badly planned: book-signings in Tennessee and a visit to a Texas dog-racing track rather than time in a key early voting state like Iowa, where Cain was absent for much of September and October.

The Cain team knew for 10 days that news website Politico was going to publish the first story on sexual harassment allegations against Cain, but did nothing to try to head off the media storm about to erupt.

No-one coached the candidate on the symbolic importance of filing paperwork in person for New Hampshire's "first in the nation" primary election.

A visit to the office of secretary of state in Concord to sign official papers is a time-honored tradition in New Hampshire. The walls of the statehouse gift shop are thick with photos, buttons and other memorabilia from decades of winning, losing and long-forgotten presidential campaigns.

But instead of visiting, the Cain camp mailed in his paperwork, losing free publicity and a place in history.

"SMOKING GUY"

The self-styled Cain Train was on a roll in early autumn. Support in national polls surged from about 4 percent at the start of September to 26 percent in late October, when Cain for a few weeks reached front-runner status.

Cain's affability and impressive life story was a plus for potential voters, and his simple message of economic revival, built around the catchy "9-9-9" tax plan, caught on during a series of televised debates.

But the sexual harassment allegations sowed doubts in voters' minds and exposed failings in his team.

At the center of much of the campaign confusion was chief of staff Block, an old Cain friend who became known as the "smoking guy" in a strange campaign commercial that became an Internet sensation.

Block appeared at the end of the ad, staring into the camera and drawing on a cigarette. To some viewers the clip seemed quirky and individualistic; to others, just weird.

Block, who was once banned from campaign work after allegations of election law violations in Wisconsin, worked in the past for Americans for Prosperity, and was a connection to the conservative heavyweight funders David and Charles Koch.

As Cain's campaign stumbled into November, Cain tried unsuccessfully to demote Block.

The former Cain campaign official said Cain made the move to relieve Block of his day-to-day duties on November 13, on a Sunday night strategy call.

Cain twice told his staff on the call that Block would be moved from chief of staff to senior campaign strategist as he changed to a management model of three vice presidents.

But when a press release came out Monday morning to announce the changes, Block was listed as both "chief political strategist and chief of staff."

Far from being demoted, Block kept his role and earned a fancier title overnight, in circumstances that are still unclear.

After the smoking ad briefly made Block well known in the political world, he asked his staff to inquire about securing him a live spot on NBC'S comedy show "Saturday Night Live" where he could self-parody the ad, the former campaign official said.

Once Cain surged to the top of the polls in the early fall, his campaign began to burn through the $9.4 million third-quarter fund-raising haul that legitimized Cain as a contender for the nomination.

Cain's camp rented a G4 private plane to accommodate the candidate's entourage that included Block, spokesman J.D. Gordon, a videographer and two historians Cain was paying to document his campaign for a book, according to the former official.

Republican strategist Ron Christie, a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, said that Cain's campaign was never built to last.

"In the end, he had neither the organization nor the discipline to mount a legitimate presidential bid," Christie said. "It just reeked of 'not ready for primetime.'"

(Reporting by Sam Youngman, Writing by Ros Krasny, Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Walsh)

If he had run as a Democrat, he could've easily won the nomination for that Party.

If Cain believed that he could run for president as a conservative while keeping an extra-martial affair secret from an extremely hostile media, he was incredibly naive. I'm just ticked off that it's so easy for the DNC and the left wing media to destroy any conservative with these sex scandals, real and imagined (see John McCain). Newt Gingrich can expect the mud to start flying at him by next week, at the latest.

Ultimately, Cain destroyed himself with the willing help of the media. If none of these accusations were true, he wouldn't have dropped out. Period. His problem is that he couldn't adequately defend himself against these charges which means there was likely something to them. There is just no way around it.

Bubbles, I wish you would edit your posts before you post them. The sentences running together like they are makes it hard for everyone to read.

Edit: I fixed it for you.

I don't understand what it is with you guys and the media... FOX News is the most watched News station and they surely were not hostile towards Cain.
Cain did this to himself. Not only because of his alleged affairs, but also because he lost any kind of serious credibility with his sayings about Libya...

TexasBlue wrote:Bubbles, I wish you would edit your posts before you post them. The sentences running together like they are makes it hard for everyone to read.

Edit: I fixed it for you.

Sorry about that.... the layout depends on the source I get it from. Most of the time it works just fine without me having to edit anything, that's why I usually don't double check.

Cain brought these ladies into the "campaign" because he was slipping a bit and needed a way out.
You can't blame his Chinese nuclear gaffe or the long Libyan pause on the ladies can you?

He knew he couldn't win the nomination so he dug up some ladies that worked for him and asked them to devise a story...

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:Cain brought these ladies into the "campaign" because he was slipping a bit and needed a way out.
You can't blame his Chinese nuclear gaffe or the long Libyan pause on the ladies can you?

He knew he couldn't win the nomination so he dug up some ladies that worked for him and asked them to devise a story...

Seriously?? I doubt very much that anybody would humiliate himself in front of the entire world when he could just throw in the towel and leave the race for a reason such as "personal reasons"...

BubbleBliss wrote:I don't understand what it is with you guys and the media... FOX News is the most watched News station and they surely were not hostile towards Cain.

Most watched cable news channel. Our network news and newspapers were certainly hostile towards the man. If you think I read conservative-only stuff, you got another thing coming. I watch network news and read numerous newspapers daily.

BubbleBliss wrote:Cain did this to himself. Not only because of his alleged affairs, but also because he lost any kind of serious credibility with his sayings about Libya...

Alleged is the correct term here. On one hand, he was convicted in the court of public opinion which was driven by the news media over here. On the other hand, if these allegations are true, he had no business running for president. This kind of stuff is now fodder for our media (with grand exceptions for Obama of course).

BubbleBliss wrote:

TexasBlue wrote:Bubbles, I wish you would edit your posts before you post them. The sentences running together like they are makes it hard for everyone to read.

Edit: I fixed it for you.

Sorry about that.... the layout depends on the source I get it from. Most of the time it works just fine without me having to edit anything, that's why I usually don't double check.

It usually lays itself in when you paste it. You should be able to tell. But if you use the little button on the far right when posting (WYSIWYG), it comes out all fucked up.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:Cain brought these ladies into the "campaign" because he was slipping a bit and needed a way out.
You can't blame his Chinese nuclear gaffe or the long Libyan pause on the ladies can you?

He knew he couldn't win the nomination so he dug up some ladies that worked for him and asked them to devise a story...

That is the most insane thing I've read yet about this. It adds nothing to the discussion because it's patently false unless you have the proof.

TexasBlue wrote:

BubbleBliss wrote:I don't understand what it is with you guys and the media... FOX News is the most watched News station and they surely were not hostile towards Cain.

Most watched cable news channel. Our network news and newspapers were certainly hostile towards the man. If you think I read conservative-only stuff, you got another thing coming. I watch network news and read numerous newspapers daily.

BubbleBliss wrote:Cain did this to himself. Not only because of his alleged affairs, but also because he lost any kind of serious credibility with his sayings about Libya...

Alleged is the correct term here. On one hand, he was convicted in the court of public opinion which was driven by the news media over here. On the other hand, if these allegations are true, he had no business running for president. This kind of stuff is now fodder for our media (with grand exceptions for Obama of course).

Do local news channels count as network news? Because our local news stations in KY were definitely pro Republican on every level. That's no surprise though, seeing that McCain won every county but 2 or 3 in the last election.

Well, to be honest it doesn't take much to convict one in the court of public opinion. It just takes some claims and some victim and the public is against you unless you can come up with some serious reasons why you didn't do it. Bill Clinton got it the same way.

TexasBlue wrote:

BubbleBliss wrote:

TexasBlue wrote:Bubbles, I wish you would edit your posts before you post them. The sentences running together like they are makes it hard for everyone to read.

Edit: I fixed it for you.

Sorry about that.... the layout depends on the source I get it from. Most of the time it works just fine without me having to edit anything, that's why I usually don't double check.

It usually lays itself in when you paste it. You should be able to tell. But if you use the little button on the far right when posting (WYSIWYG), it comes out all fucked up.

I use Chrome, so I don't have the wysiwyg button. I just copy and past... you know... old school!

BubbleBliss wrote:Do local news channels count as network news? Because our local news stations in KY were definitely pro Republican on every level. That's no surprise though, seeing that McCain won every county but 2 or 3 in the last election.

No. Network news is network news (ABC, CBS, NBC). Local news is just that; local news. That's why in certain areas candidates do well if the local news is friendly towards them.

BubbleBliss wrote:Well, to be honest it doesn't take much to convict one in the court of public opinion. It just takes some claims and some victim and the public is against you unless you can come up with some serious reasons why you didn't do it. Bill Clinton got it the same way.

Clinton got it somewhat the same way. Not entirely. The press was fairly decent to him during that period. Sure they reported it. It was big news. They didn't convict the guy though like they did Cain.

BubbleBliss wrote:I use Chrome, so I don't have the wysiwyg button. I just copy and past... you know... old school!

Get Firefox.