Election 2012

Herman Cain’s Bait and Switch

Given Herman Cain's recent and likely transient surge in the polls, everyone's been waiting for him to make his first big mistake before passing the torch off to the next front-runner. Today, he may have made that mistake.

Here's Herman Cain speaking on the subject of Occupy Wall Street.

CAIN: I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! [...] It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.

Republican voters may agree with Cain, in a masochistic sort of way, that Americans should blame themselves for not being among the ranks of the rich and shameless, but I highly doubt a majority of them would agree that Wall Street deserves none of the blame. Certainly a majority of Americans as a whole would not agree.

Cain is trying to tap into the notion, which is very prevalent among conservative voters, that we must protect the system because one day we're all going to be rich.

It's a bait a switch.

First they dangle the carrot in front of you by telling everyone that they too can own their own business and live like Kings if only government would get out of the way, and then after you've voted for them, they do their very best to ensure that you will never join The Big Club, as George Carlin would put it.