Herman Cain: I Was Only Joking About That Electric Fence On The Border, And Oh, By The Way, I'm Not Backing Away From My Electric Fence Idea

This, in a nutshell, is why I am afraid to nominate Herman Cain (and becoming depressed that our two possible candidates are Romney and Cain).

It's not that Herman Cain is "too conservative" or "too outsider." That's what people like to claim, when "RINOs" such as myself show skepticism about a candidate. The actual criticism offered is transformed into a non-criticism. Because there's no such thing, really, as "too conservative," so if you can transform a knock against someone into that, you're practically complimenting them.

No, my problem is that he sounds like he has no idea what he's talking about a fair amount of the time, from the Right to Return to banning the construction of mosques to consulting with experts before forming some kind of an opinion on foreign policy to, now, maybe kidding about an electrified fence, but, you know, not kidding.

Once Cain arrived, however, it didn't take long before he was asked about a controversial "joke" he recently made about installing a 20-foot-tall electrified fence along the U.S./Mexico border to keep immigrants from entering the country illegally.

Halfway through the question about the electric fence, Cain butted in with "it was a joke!"

"Let me first say it was a joke, and some people don't think that it was a good joke, and it's probably not a joke that you're supposed to make if you're a presidential candidate," Cain continued. "I apologize if it offended anyone. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa."

Only, it might not be a joke, he later said, before finally saying he just doesn't want to offend anyone.

"I don't like to offend anyone...however, I don't apologize for using a combination of a fence. And it might be electrified -- I'm not walking away from that," Cain backtracked. "I just don't want to offend anybody. It was a joke to the extent in the context of the views of that speech, but in terms of what we need to do, I fully intend to do so because I'm more sensitive to our citizens being hurt."

I'm less bothered by the idea of an electrified fence than I am about the fact that a front-running presidential candidate thinks that major policy declarations can be made off the top of his head, just noodling around, just spit-balling in front of microphones. Maybe the fence will be electrified, maybe it won't be, who knows, we need to consult with experts first. Grow up, it was just a joke, but now it's not a joke, now it's a plan we're considering.

Has "homework" and "thinking things through, in advance" become "un-conservative" over the past year?

I know, I know. I'm supposed to find his refusal to do a lick of homework "charming" and "authentic" or something.

Because successful people, as all conservatives know, leave a lot to chance and making stuff up on the fly.

It's all luck, really.

posted by Ace at 01:33 PM

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