Dave Weigel attended Herman Cain’s event at the capitol last weekend and a conference at a nearby hotel and he explains why Herman Cain has followed in Newt’s footsteps in building a series of organizations that can keep the money flowing in — but is not far better off than Gingrich because he pulled out of the race sooner:
Quitting the presidential race worked out brilliantly for Cain. Contrast his life with that of Newt Gingrich, still technically running for president. Cain now heads three organizations, with loosely defined goals—Cain Connections, Cain Solutions, and the Herman Cain Foundation. At this reception, he will announce a video channel called CTV. Its flagship show, confusingly enough will be called Cain TV. A short preview shows the host, a beefy joke writer named Rodney Lee Conover, mocking the life and loves of Sandra Fluke as a cartoon of the birth-control advocate sprawls lazily and lustily on a dorm room bed.
It compares awfully well to the no-end-in-sight tragedy that is Newt 2012. When he left Congress, Gingrich started founding think tanks and holding conferences that people actually showed up to—the strategy that Cain is Xeroxing. Those think tanks, now Newt-less, are shutting down. Running for president doesn’t give Gingrich space in the media to share his grand ideas. It gets him headlines about being bit by penguins. The life of the professional has-been is sweeter than the life of the has-been candidate.
There is a difference though. Gingrich could sell his connections and his legislative experience and act as a pseudo-lobbyist; Cain can’t do that. I suspect that’s why his rally and conference fizzled and attracted few people. He’s a sideshow attraction now, but he’ll continue to make money giving speeches in the finest Holiday Inn ballrooms across the country on the Christian rubber chicken circuit.
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dingojack
April 22, 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed – whadda you fizzled? The Cain Institue send me a genuine photograph of his rally… oh wait, wrong million men!
:) Dingo
'Tis Himself
April 22, 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Having been CEO of a medium-sized company and president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, Cain would generate some interest among business and financial executives and economists. Unfortunately, after he unveiled his 9-9-9 tax plan, these people turned away from him. The plan was quite obviously poorly thought out.
When I first read about the 9-9-9 tax plan, I did some back of the envelope figuring and realized that taxes would rise for everyone except the 1%. Other economic people did the same calculations and reached the same conclusion. I’ve lost all interest in Cain either as a candidate or an economist. He could be giving a talk at the convention center where I work and I probably wouldn’t bother to attend.
timgueguen
April 22, 2012 at 11:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
9-9-9 wasn’t a well thought out tax plan, it was numerology, for lack of a batter term. It was three numbers stuck together that seemed simple and looked good together. Unfortunately simple numbers that “anyone can understand” don’t automatically make for good economics.
D. C. Sessions
April 22, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Cain, like Santorum, can count on wingnut welfare for a long time yet.
Kevin Anthoney
April 22, 2012 at 2:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Should that be “now” instead of “not”?
Who Knows?
April 22, 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No fucking shit? If I were Sandra Fluke’s father I’d meet up with Herman Cain at one of his Holiday Inn appearances and kick his ass.
Modusoperandi
April 22, 2012 at 4:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
timgueguen “9-9-9 wasn’t a well thought out tax plan, it was numerology, for lack of a batter term.”
To be fair, 9-9-9 sounded solid enough when a first Pokemon told him about it.
Marcus Ranum
April 22, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Richer, right? It’s not like he was hurting for cash to begin with. He already had enough in the bank that politics need only be a hobby for him.
bahrfeldt
April 23, 2012 at 6:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
9-9-9 is scientifically and actuarialy based on the promotional sales price of a pizza.
matty1
April 23, 2012 at 9:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m probably the only one who missed this but I just had a horrible thought.
2000 Republican nominee George Bush, runner up John McCain
2008 Republican nominee John McCain, runner up Mitt Romney
2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, runner up Rick Santorum
2016 Republican nominee?
Please tell me the pattern won’t hold, surely no one wants to see Santorum on the global stage.
Trebuchet
April 23, 2012 at 10:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Matty, I’ve been saying this for some time and am far from the only one. Had a wingnut like Santorum (or Perry, or Bachmann, or Cain) been nominated there’d have been the potential for a general election debacle causing the party to swing back to the center, as happened to the Repubs in 1964 and the Dems in 1972. Now, they’re almost stuck with nominating a wacko in 2016.
d cwilson
April 23, 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Trebuchet:
Romney gives the far right their standard excuse for whenever the GOP loses: He wasn’t conservative enough.
Ironically, if Romney were to win (which looks unlikely), that would actually be more of an impetus to drag the party back to, if not the center, then at least to sanity.
So, you’re right. If/when Romney loses, the GOP is almost guaranteed to nominate someone batshit insane. If Santorum secures the nomination in 2016, then I’d be willing to bet that one of two things would happen:
1) The democrat wins in a landslide.
2) You can stick a fork in America, because we’ll be done.
Doug Little
April 23, 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What is that, a new dating site?