How Barack Obama Is Ruining the GOP Primary
Can someone tell me why we’re talking about Herman Cain as a presidential candidate?
From Cain and Michele Bachmann to Rand Paul and Sarah Palin, at least half of the names currently being tossed about in the Republican field have a negligible amount of experience in the higher echelons of government. Four years ago, an affirmative-action candidate from Illinois was decried by our party’s base as being too inexperienced to be president. His lack of proven leadership, we said, made him unfit for high office. And we were right: he is unfit for office, and much of his fumbling performance has to do with the fact that this — the presidency itself! — is his first administrative position.
Hence, the roster of candidates that are exciting the base right now is a bit perplexing. It appears, unfortunately, that many conservatives just wanted an Obama of their own. And once you settle for a Barack Obama — and, mentally, we have all ‘settled’ for him; birthers aside, we all accept the legitimacy of his tenure as president — it’s not much of a leap to accept a Sarah Palin (two and a half years as governor), Michele Bachmann (four years as Congresswoman), or even Herman Cain (a businessman-cum-radio host who lost the only race he ever ran). Rand Paul, bafflingly implying that he too may run, is counting on people to care only about ideas. All of these people, like Obama, talk a big game, but don’t really have anything to show for it where it counts.
The unnecessarily lengthy Clinton-Obama primary race is partially responsible this farce. That contest produced one of recent history’s most obnoxiously misleading dichotomies: the question of whether we should seek experience or good ideas in our candidates. Democrats had it pounded into their heads by the media that if experience mattered, their candidate was surely Hillary Clinton; if ideas, Obama. This ridiculous narrative persisted for months, but the answer to the experience/ideas argument was hidden in plain sight: we should obviously seek both. An experienced man with no ideas is nothing but a soulless bureaucrat; a warm body to fill up space (think George H.W. Bush). But a man with lots of ideas and no history of successfully implementing them is nothing but an ideologue (think Barack Obama). Despite the damage he’s done, our current president has largely disappointed the left. No surprise: all he’d ever done before reaching the presidency was run his mouth. He didn’t know the first thing about being an executive.
But he did win. And now every ideologue with a title, no matter how recently they’ve earned it, sees that it is indeed possible to run and win based solely on ideas. Never before have we seen such a torrent of rookies filling up a presidential field. As if we needed more proof of this central economic truth: incentives matter. Now that we know that a man can indeed successfully run for the presidency having only two years under his belt, it shouldn’t be surprising to see so many highly ambitious political celebrities talk themselves up. This has to stop.
This is not to say that any of the candidates currently being mentioned — including highly experienced candidates like Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, and Newt Gingrich — necessarily have what we need. It may be that no such candidate emerges and that we will have to prudentially decide on a least-worst candidate. But I think that certain conservatives, including Minority Report’s own Robert Stacy McCain, are fundamentally misapplying conservative ideas in attaching their carts to ideologues like Herman Cain. Ronald Reagan, after all — our gold standard — was great not only for his beliefs, but for his ability to successfully pass conservative legislation, even while having to deal with a Democratic Congress. The reason is clear: he had fantastic ideas, yes, but he’d also spent eight years as governor of California, fighting difficult battles and learning tough lessons. People like Palin, Cain, Bachmann, and perhaps even Chris Christie have no business running for president. With our looming debt crisis, we can’t afford to nominate anyone but a proven leader. Let’s seek that person — whoever he is — before following the Obama precedent and picking another talker.
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Owner of Stix Blog. Doug has been blogging for about 10 years, and can always be found on twitter. Part of the Gateway Grassroots Initiative. And the resident Code Monkey for The TMR Network
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33 Responses to "How Barack Obama Is Ruining the GOP Primary"
…First of all, I have been desperately wanting someone to raise this area of discussion ("this area" being who is actually qualified to run for president), before the whole GOP primary really began in full swing.
Second of all, we (Alex and I) watched Herman Cain speak together at CPAC and I thought the he was a great speaker (and I said so in my post about CPAC–see the link below), but I have yet to see how being the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza qualifies one to be president (Stacy and Steve will probably think that I'm an apostate for stating such–LOL). (However, his line in his CPAC speech–"Stupid people are ruining America"–was laugh out loud funny.
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2011/02/16/3…
And finally, you did EVERYTHING perfectly–and was in complete compliance–on your very first post!! (And, your only 20 years old–I'm seriously impressed!) Dude, you even made your own custom image–great job!
Again, thanks for doing such a bang-up job on your first post, and for starting a debate that we really need to have BEFORE the primary really gets rolling.
Take care.
X0X0, Suzi
PS–If any of you die-hard Herman Cain supporters who are contributors here want to write a post refuting Alex's and explaining why you feel that he is wrong, then please feel free. However, just remember that Alex is you colleague at TMR and not some HuffPo blogger, so please keep it civil.
PPS–Welcome to TMR, Alex!!
…in a major way, in that, you're operating under that assumption that Public Office Experience trumps all other kinds… a hypothesis that is clearly false. Take, for instance, Joe Biden or a number of other career politicians who've served "forever and a day" in office and aren't qualified (in my view) to run a lemonade stand!
I admire the question, but the retort is simple — prove to me that Public Office experience trumps Life Experience… otherwise, let the primary do what it was designed to do and let Republicans pick the best man or woman for the job… Period!
I'm curious to know your solution, since you didn't include one here, you did a decent job a pointing out that you don't like the fact that inexperienced people are running but what would you do to change that?
Good post Alex and welcome to TMR!
Steve — "Life experience" — whatever that means — does not prepare a person to be an administrator. The presidency is a job that requires a specific skill set. It's not that Herman Cain is not an admirable person, but rather that what he's done has probably not prepared him to work with Congress, finesse the media, and sway the general public to his side. Public office trumps other experience because it is mostly closely aligned with the kind of experience that the requirements of the presidency demand. That's not a substitute for good ideas — as I said in the post: a Biden/H.W. Bush-type who has plenty of experience but no good ideas is just a warm body filling up space — but ideas are not a replacement for proven competence, either. And the stakes are too high to go with someone untested.
…I posit that life experience in managing large companies and or organizations more closely aligns with the kind of experience that is required of the presidency.
where you go wrong in your reply is thus:
1) you show a bit of ignorance – not knowing Cains background while implying that he's not fit to run
2) Herman Cain has more high level administration experience than all other candidates combined including Romney
I just don't see the logic in your argument here… not only do the candidates you've used as examples have the necessary administrative skills they also have good ideas.
Do we wish all of our candidates could be elder statesmen with fresh ideas, sure, I think we all want that but how realistic is that?
Don't take this the wrong way but I imagine if you had more "Life Experience" you may look at this issue in a different way.
I know about Cain's background in the restaurant business. I'm actually highly skeptical of businessman presidential candidates — all of whom repeat the 'government should be run more like a business' mantra — because running a business is actually not quite like heading up government. The incentives are structured differently. And, quite frankly, not to knock Godfather's Pizza, but, well, it's no eBay, HP, or even WWE — Cain should successfully run for a state office first, like other CEOs-turned-politicians. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that his last campaign was a failed Senate primary bid. (And I'm sorry, but if he looked like John Thune and his name were Bob Johnson, would anyone be talking about him?)
Do you honestly think that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have proven — I mean, really proven! — that they possess the necessary administrative skills to govern? The question of their ideas and communication skills aside, both of them have spent about as much time in the higher echelons of government as Obama did when he ran. If it comes down to a motley crew of unworthy candidates (Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee, and a cast of nobodies), I'd sooner roll the dice with a talker than play it safe with a soulless-bureaucrat-in-waiting. But it baffles me that, all things considered, a person could possibly prefer Cain to, say, Mitch Daniels, or even Pawlenty.
I'm going to give you Cain's quick resume
Mathematician at the Department of the Navy
Executive at the Coca-Cola Company
Vice President of Pillsbury Company
Executive at Burger King restaurants assigned region of 450 Burger King restaurants
CEO and President of Godfather’s Pizza
Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association
Chairman – National Restaurant Association
Full-time President and the CEO of the National Restaurant Association
Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Chairman – Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Radio Host
I don't really expect you to realize just how the corporate world and the Public Service world are virtually the same having never held a corporate or executive position. All I can say is that your assumptions are inaccurate.
I don't think anyone is saying we would love to have a 10 year Governor with the charm and charisma of Reagan and the electability of a saint — show me that candidate and I'll support them.
What I won't do is go out of my way to support a plastic-Simi-lucid-RiNO with the personality of a blade of grass.
And you still haven't addressed my question
Oh, well — he was a mathematician at the Department of the Navy?! Never mind, then! — Haha, no, but — I'm aware of his background in business, and I do respect it, obviously. But most businessmen — rightly, I think — seek some sort of lower elected office first. Certain business skills do translate into government, but they are different animals. From Mitt Romney to Carly Fiorina to Michael Bloomberg to — hey, Cain himself! — virtually all businessmen and businesswomen find it more prudent to prove themselves as statesmen on a state level, first. I mean, Cain himself did this! — He just flopped when he ran. He bombed out in the Georgia primary. This is not much different than Meg Whitman announcing a presidential run. In fact, it might be more ridiculous, since Meg Whitman oversaw a much larger institution.
Which question? Whether finding this magical dream candidate is realistic? Perhaps it's not. But I think that candidates are more than their issue positions and ability to speechify: Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, and Haley Barbour do get more credit in my eyes for their successful backgrounds as politicians.
This was my question
I guess it got lost while you were dreaming up smart-ass responses?
I hope you chose a candidate soon and share that pick with us here (unless you're going to do what most keyboard pundits do and wait until the hard work is done) so we can evaluate how he or she measures up!
I'm undecided, and it's not about being a lazy keyboard pundit — it's about honestly not being sure about who our best pick is. It's a year until the Iowa caucuses. I see no reason to jump on board with anyone yet. The field is astonishingly thin and is a testament to how terrible our Bush-era politicians were.
We have a bumper crop of promising conservatives from 2010 — compare how barren the field is now because of how complacent we became during the Bush years. I'd hate to have to settle, but even my top candidates right now — Daniels, for instance — don't do much to inspire. I almost wonder whether it would be best to just push for a solid majority in the Senate so the Republican Congress can just block all of Obama's proposals while we wait it out for 2016, when we can get someone like Christie.
I agree that we should all be working for a majority Senate, in fact, it should take precedence over the presidential race in 2012 imo – As terrible as I believe Obama to be the guy knows how to win elections and history is divided on the issue. It's hard to unseat an incumbent on one hand and you have the repeat of Carter on the other.
As to being undecided right now, I understand, but that's what a primary is for – don't let the quest for the perfect candidate overrule the good or the right candidate for the job!
I'm undecided too Alex–which is why I would like more posts like this (ones for, or against, any particular candidate) so that I can make up my mind. I want to hear from all parties involved, and have as much info as possible, before making up my mind.
Anywho, thanks for writing this. (Now, anyone who wants to write a post extolling the virtues of Heman Cain–or Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, ect.–please feel free.)
Take care, and have a good night.
X0X0, Suzi
PS–I've really enjoyed the debate between you guys–this is the most interesting comment thread that I've read in a while.
I agree we need more like this hopefully our new system will be easier and more inviting for our readers to comment on!
Totally agree. One of the better comment threads here in a while.
Hopefully we can get some more of these going. And as Steve said, hopefully the comment system will help with that.
Cheers Alex on the post
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I will say what Herman Cain has said. "Look at all the politicians that have run and won" Not exact quote, but you get the point. We keep on elected people that have been in the DC scene and get the mentality of the DC elites.
The reason that Reagan was a great president is because he knew how to delegate his power to good people. He has the right person for all the positions that could get things done. And a person like Herman Cain has more experience than all the other candidates combined.
I am sure that some of the Governors have some good experience in this also. But as of now, most do not compare to what Cain has done.
If we pick the next one in line as the GOP usually does, we will get another McCain or Dole, and will loose to Obama.
We need new blood, not old retreads.
BTW Welcome to TMR Alex. I disagree but you do have valid points
The 'next in line' thing is a myth. I'm going to make that my next post.
Says who Why did we get Dole and McCain?? They were the next in line. And by the looks of it it is either going to be Huckabe or Romney who is next in line. And if either is the candidate we will loose.
W was an anomaly in politics for the GOP
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I love how everyone claims to come in "fresh" from "outside the beltway" and "shake up traditional DC politics". Obama continued this line of promises that stretches back to "Mr. Smith", but the truth is that once you step into a parliamentary system where 538 people representing 50 states have to agree on things, you'd better learn the old system of DC elites if you ever hope to get anything done.
Sad but true.
There is a way for a group of reformers (working together) to make a difference in DC but changing the system is next to impossible, Id say!
..look at you!
This is a kickass post.
You know, If you applied this approach to equally… You would have not supported Chris Christie or Mitch Daniels for Governor!!!
Neither had served in public office before.
Imagine the audacity to think that someone could run for Governor of a state without at least serving some time on the city council or becoming a State Assemblyman or State Senator???
I would support Herman Cain for governor or senator. His experience lends him to that, I think. But president is too much, too soon.
Alex,
Welcome! Like most of what you write — or at least, like most of what I've read that you've written — this is a very good, thought-provoking post. But I must register a partial dissent. You complain about "political celebrities talk[ing] themselves up. This has to stop," you declaim.
Dream on: It ain't gonna happen! People run for president for various reasons, not all of which are necessarily to get elected.
Huckabee, for instance, ran and lost, but still won a compelling prize: a gig as a Fox news analyst, with his own Fox television show. And, as a result, Huckabee is making more money than he's ever made and has more influence on the public dialogue and debate than he's ever had.
I say this not to cast aspersions on Huckabee, who is a good and praiseworthy public servant. My only point is that you can't blame people for running for president when it is in their manifest self-interest to do so.
And besides, the more the merrier, I think. Let a thousand flowers bloom! Let's have a genuine competition of ideas and approaches.
Your complaint, I think, is with the voters: Because ultimately, they are the ones who must sanction these candidates with their votes. But in a democracy, of course, the people can never really be wrong. Their decisions rule. And so, their decisions must be rationalized or explained, not condemned as illegitimate.
Too bad someone with bona-fide proven leadership like General Petraeus isn't in the running. <div style="display:block;margin:6px 0 0"><a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save"><img src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" border="0" alt="Share/Save/Bookmark">
If you're looking for a candidate with proven success in both business and politics, I suggest checking out former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico. He built up a one-man handyman business into a statewide construction firm with hundreds of employees and became the first person elected to two consecutive terms as governor of his state — not only that, he ran as a Republican where the electorate is 2 to 1 Democrat.
Johnson has a record as well as good ideas. He'll be a presidential candidate worth watching.
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I have heard some good things about him. The only downfall I do see with him is his stance on legalizing drugs. Do not think that a lot of the core Conservatives will agree with that
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I know this Conservative does… but maybe I don't count
Johnson would be someone to watch if we was even on the radar… Hopefully he'll make a splash soon if not I'm afraid it will be too late!
Gary Johnson is already gaining a following. He placed third in the CPAC straw poll (behind Ron Paul and Mitt Romney).
http://exm.nr/eQiq5k
I heard his official entry announcement will be within the next two weeks.
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[...] . . good, Republican twin. Cancel [...]
I think it's funny that there's a big, fat, Citizens 4 Cain ad next to this post.
My recent post New York Times Accidentally Tells the Truth- Quickly Rectifies Problem
I think so also, But the views of the writers and the management are not always the same here.
It is good to have debate here though that does not devolve into personal attacks.
My recent post Michael Ramirez
@annoytheleft so I take it your negative score on the comment system is a badge of honor for annoying the left by speaking the truth on Lib/Prog sites?
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