Herman Cain at a Boortz and Hannity event in 2008Photo: John Trainor
Herman Cain has been described as an “a true longshot underdog” in the 2012 race for president of the United States, but he’s also a popular talk-show host and telegenic former CEO with no political baggage who is weirdly popular with the political press, and he might even be the first Republican to announce his candidacy.
He’s also a dyed-in-the-wool climate change denier. His current website, hermancain.com doesn’t reflect it, but a cached copy of one of his opinion pieces from 2009, at his old site, hermancain.org, which now redirects to his .com, lays out his views unambiguously:
It is outrageous that the head of the United Nations, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama Administration are all dismissing these revelations [the manufactured “Climategate” scandal] as they push onward with their political agenda in the face of scientifically manufactured results.
This is no longer a controversy. This is conclusive. And once again, liberals choose to ignore the facts.
It’s a scam.
This = not good. Cain is yet another Climate Zombie who, despite being a smart guy (he has a degree in mathematics; he sits on the board of companies like Whirlpool) has been taken in by a Conservative culture of anti-science nonsense.
But what is great is this 2006 radio ad for Herman Cain’s candidacy for (I think) Senate, in which he lampoons an imaginary opponent for being a jobless layabout who, for that reason alone, would have no reason to vote Republican.
True fact: The ad, which was posted by Right Wing Watch, closes with Cain’s interlocutor declaring that if he knocked up a woman who was not his wife, he would not “snuff his seed,” i.e. ask the woman to get an abortion. At which point Cain declares that if that’s the case, maybe this anonymous fop does have a reason to vote Republican, after all!
Get it? No? OK good, because neither do we. Full transcript follows. But you really should just listen to the ad, because I guarantee that by the end of it, you will be ready to join my campaign to make “I don’t snuff my own seed” the phrase of 2011.
* * *
Woman’s voice: Paid for by America’s PAC.
Layabout: The night’s still young! C’mon, let’s head to the river and try out the slots!
Herman Cain: Naw, I gotta get home. I promised Cathleen I’d help the kids with their homework.
L: (sarcastically) Y’know, the Army really changed you.
HC: War does that. It makes you value what you’re fighting for.
L: (continuing in the same sarcastic? incredulous? radio? voice) So, I suppose you want me to vote Republican, like you and your soldier buddies.
HC: (concilliatorily? patronizingly?) Not at all, you’ve got no reason to.
L: How’s that?
HC: Well you don’t work for a living, so what do you care about keeping taxes low?
L: Hey that’s cold!
HC: You cheat on your wife, so why would you want an amendment to protect marriage?
L: Hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!
HC: And I know you’re not going to enlist to defend your country.
L: Not everyone’s as slow as you are, bro!
HC: And if you make a little mistake with one of your hoes, you’ll want to dispose of that problem tout de suite, no questions asked.
L: No, now that’s too cold! I don’t snuff my own seed.
HC: Huh? Really? Well maybe you do have a reason to vote Republican!
exeunt
