Delegitimizing Herman Cain: Rachel Maddow’s loony “art project” attack

posted at 1:08 pm on November 18, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Double Standards ]   

GOP hopeful Herman Cain is down in the most recent national polls, but he is not out. He still leads the Republican field in Iowa, according to a survey conducted by Iowa State University, the Gazette newspaper, and television station KCRG. He also commands double-digit support in the Real Clear Politics aggregate.

Cain’s refusal to call it quits despite repeated missteps remains a source of ongoing consternation for left-leaning commentators, who made it their mission early on to unseat him from the presidential race by whatever means necessary. These measures included insinuating that Cain is a “black man who knows his place” and that he is a victim of brainwashing by evil (read: white) fellow Republicans. If charges like these were leveled at a black Democrat by conservatives, there is no question that the race card would come flying out of the deck.

But I digress. The most recent attempt to paint Cain as unserious comes courtesy of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who oddly claimed on her program last night that Cain’s campaign is an “art project.” (h/t Mediaite) If you find that characterization confusing, wait: Maddow is just getting started.

As a lead-in to her exposé of the real black man behind the curtain, Maddow notes that all candidates, for better or worse, make or became associated with references to popular culture. As an example, she runs a clip in which it is revealed that Newt Gingrich’s cell phone ringtone is “Dancing Queen,” by ABBA. Maddow has a good laugh over that revelation as well as a reference by Jon Huntsman to the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain (a reference, she is sure, is lost of conservatives).

She continues in same vein with Romney and Perry. Interestingly, she doesn’t ridicule the 2008 candidate whose own questionable cultural references included a scatological brushing of “dirt” off his shoulder, which was meant to deflect the criticisms of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. But again, I digress.

All of this hilarious patter is a warmup act for the main event, which comes at cue 4:13 in this video:

The art project formerly known as Herman Cain is giving us a whole different way of looking at stuff like this on the campaign trail this year. Cain … continually makes what are treated as gaffes, but even though the media treats them as gaffes, they are frankly too perfect to actually just be mistakes. More often than not, what he does that gets covered as a mistake, as a gaffe, is really a sort of genius, obscure, has-to-be-deliberate cultural reference. It’s art referencing art.

Maddow goes on for what seems like an eternity (it is actually about 2 minutes) before reaching her punch line, which is that the Cain campaign is all one big joke by—and on—Herman Cain. As an example of the candidate’s unwitting buffoonery, she cites his reference to a “great poet” in his closing remarks at the Iowa debate. Cain never actually said great—the modifier was added by online detractors and stuck. Nevertheless, the line of verse he cites is from the theme song for Pokémon: The Movie 2000, a fact that has had far-left critics rolling in the aisles ever since.

Funny, I don’t recall liberals laughing so hard when First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the first (and, one hopes, last) ever White House “poetry slam” in May. Nor were they visibly upset that the featured “artist” was a rapper named Common, whose song lyrics include praise for a cop killer.

Herman Cain has been in self-destruct mode ever since allegations of sexual misconduct on his part made headlines. His most recent goofs have included asking how one says delicious in Cuban, which is no different in principle from Barack Obama’s reference to the Austrian language. But expectations run higher for candidates than for elected officials—and should.

Ultimately, I do not believe that Cain will be the GOP nominee. That should free up the Rachel Maddows of cable TV to go after more meaningful game. Unless they’re just having too much fun skewering the black guy.

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