Saturday, July 2, 2011

Herman Cain vs. Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann is a wonderful person. She is strongly conservative. Fiscally, her position is clearly on the side of balancing the budget. She has led the fight against Obamacare. She is intelligent, thoughtful and caring. As far as policy goes, she is Tea Party all the way. I believe Mrs Bachmann and Herman Cain are relatively equal on the issues. If she were to win the GOP nomination, I would have to vote for her in the general election. The problem I have with Mrs. Bachmann, and the reason I prefer Mr. Cain, is one of debate ability. I don't mean that we should debate it, I mean the Michele Bachmann, for all her wonderful qualities, just isn't a very good debater. She seems to get stuck on a single point, and when questioned, even though she is correct, she seems to leave herself nowhere to go. Often she simply repeats the same point, using the same words. It looks like she is avoiding the question, or just repeating “talking points”.

Last Sunday, I watched Bob Schieffer from CBS, make Mrs. Bachmann look like she didn't know what she was talking about. He brought up the fact that she had said the Obama Administration had issued only one oil drilling permit since the BP oil spill, and that in fact they had issued almost 300. He failed to mention that when she made that statement, she was talking about deep water drilling permits. He continued to berate her, stopping short only of calling her a liar. Mrs. Bachmann stammered and sputtered and said she stood by her statement. If I were an uninformed viewer, I would have been left with the impression that she didn't have her facts straight. She could have easily defused the situation if she had only said that she was talking about deep water drilling permits, for on that point, she is 100% correct. The Administration HAS issued about 37 shallow water permits, and some land permits, but the original statement she made was about deep water drilling permits. Sadly, when she had the chance to put Schieffer in his place, she failed to do so even though she was correct. I know she is a busy woman, but whether she doesn't have broad enough knowledge about a subject, or just isn't able to think fast enough on her feet to bring that knowledge forth, I don't know. On the subject of abolition, she said the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to abolish slavery. When asked incredulously, which of them worked against slavery, she stated correctly John Quincy Adams had. Though he might not fit the definition of Founding Father by some, he certainly was present in the fledgling government when our constitution was drafted; he was an ambassador at the time. There were others she could have mentioned. Dickinson, for one. She could have explained the 3/5ths clause, which was designed to make sure the slave states would not be over represented in congress. With that clause the abolitionists assured themselves a fighting chance to draft future law to do away with the practice. Instead she back peddled, fumbled around a bit, and came up with a line about John Quincy Adams being a boy at the time. Again she was factually correct, but the media, skillful as they are, made her look like she doesn't have a firm grasp on the facts.

What I do know, from watching, is that Herman Cain is masterful at debate craft. I watched Juan Williams interview Mr. Cain on Monday. Mr Williams asked Cain what he thought about Michele Bachmann's entry into the race in a gotcha manner. Mr. Cain was not only able to get Williams to concede the point, but Cain had him laughing in agreement in a matter of seconds. For passion, stance on the relevant issues, like-ability and background, I can fault neither. Both would make stellar Presidents in my humble opinion. The problem is getting elected. We must have a candidate with the skill of Ronald Reagan when it comes the media. Herman Cain has that skill. This is a man who got Bill Clinton to admit he was wrong about Hillary-Care's impact on small business. Bill CLINTON! Mr. “it depends on what the meaning of the word is is,” Bill Clinton. Herman Cain is rock solid on the issues, a wonderful speech maker, an intelligent businessman, and he knows how to take on the main stream media and make them look like the silly ones. Herman Cain is the man we need to nominate for the GOP candidate!

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