The Performance Artist Known as Herman Cain and Consistent Mitt

Before I digress, there is a peculiar thing about this year's Republican presidential candidates. Rick Perry was Al Gore's campaign manager in Texas, Mitt Romney didn't vote for Reagan or Bush and voted for Paul Tsongas, and Herman Cain voted for Bill Clinton. But they all vow ideological purity. I think they may be compensating too much.

My conservative friends support Herman Cain. This is despite my repeated warnings that he is a "virtual candidate" without any organization or deep pockets. When he became the so-called front-runner, he took a month off to promote his book and he didn't travel to any early primary state. Now with the so-called sex scandal they have hunkered down to defend him. Sort of like Rush Limbaugh, who must have given them marching orders. So now in response to my views, they send me e-mails accusing Obama of having an affair with Valerie Jarrett.

By the way, the current e-mails about President Obama claim that he is seriously depressed, staying in the White House lounging in his exercise outfit. It doesn't matter that he's in Cannes and that you actually see him every day. The intense hatred of the President is something will take years to ponder. And despite this and the total obstruction from the Republicans, he has managed to squeeze out twenty consecutive months of private sector job growth in this anemic economy. What I posted earlier seems to be coming true--by the end of his first term in office President Obama's job creation record will top George W. Bush and his father's combined--three terms in office for one.

But no matter, here comes Herman Cain, the conservative's favorite and still the Republican frontrunner. It takes one of our smarter young commentators to finally get it. Rachel Maddow of the ever curious mind has been trying to find a way to explain Herman Cain. Last night show she finally drilled down deep and got it on the button--Herman Cain is a performance artist, even his gaffes are perfect.

Forget what we normally know as politics. A Koch-funded non-profit funds the first four months of Cain's campaign. His campaign manager has never been at a campaign above the state level and had been suspended for three years by the state of Wisconsin for wrongfully writing an election law. Herman Cain, a failed candidate for the Senate in Georgia, links up with Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded political organization, after serving as a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association. Herman Cain's livelihood has been as a motivational speaker on the national circuit. He embraces and is embraced by the Koch-funded tea party. A hero is made.

So we get to the Republican debates. Herman Cain in scripted closing remarks quotes a great poet and then proceeds to recite the lyrics for the Pokemon cartoon show. No one in our august media catches it and certainly his fellow candidates wouln't catch it. He next unveils his 9-9-9 economic plan, which he claims was the product of an accoountant in the Midwest. Bloggers noticed that it is very similar to SimCity, the video game. He denies it but the it's too close not to be real. He brags that he is not the flavor of the month but Hagen Daz's Black Walnut, which is forever. The flavor had been off the market for months before. He releases very cryptic ads, first of a fake cowboy film, with no political content, then one bizarre one with his campaign manager smoking a cigarette and ending with him smiling. His manager claims that they are running a campaign like none other in American history. Yesterday, Cain spoke at a Koch Brothers' function saying he was their "brother from another mother." The left goes wild about his embrace of the Koch brothers. But everyone misses that the line is from a Jackie Chan movie.

If you follow Herman Cain's policy perscriptions, you'll realize that he makes everything up as he goes along. Rachel Maddow showed the clip where he has five different positions on abortion within seconds. Basically, he has punked everyone in the media and in the Republican base. Even allegations on his sex scandal were dated 9-9-99. Yes the allegations were shown to be true but it doesn't matter. Now to shore up the conservatives, he has an ad out calling this scandal a "high-tech lynching", purposely linking himself to Clarence Thomas and the Anita Hill episode.

What's so amazing is how gullible everyone has been. Take the article two days ago in the Des Moines Register. The bulk of Republicans earning $50,000 or less really believe the 9-9-9 plan would save them money on their taxes, when virtually every economist--conservative and liberal--has shown they will pay several thousand more in taxes.

This is one of the most amazing performances in our political history. Tonight Herman Cain debates Newt Gingrich and it will be shown on C-Span as the Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Despite all this nonsense, Herman Cain actually leads the polls in Iowa and South Carolina primaries. An event yesterday with Land from the Southern Baptist League and Jim Wallis of the Sojourners had the conservative evangelist demanding that Cain come clean on the serial sex allegations. Already we are up to 6. Despite the allegations, his poll numbers still rise.

There is another dimension to this charade that needs to be pointed out--the central role of the Koch Brothers in elevating Herman Cain. As one reader of this blog noted to me, the amount of money being poured into our political system by the Koch Brothers is tip money for them. It may look big to others but they are just playing games. The Herman Cain candidacy reveals their intense cynicism about our political process and their real view about politicians.

They are geniuses in knowing that the Republicans will always defend someone against the media, that all experts like economists will always be dismissed, and that just keep a formula simple and people will buy it. That people who I know to be serious about other matters buy this whole thing is alarming. Just think about the success of the Koch Brothers in changing the opinion on climate change. They have funded every study in the United States against global warming and now every Republican tows their line.

What stunned me was the Bloomberg piece which showed how the Koch Brothers stole oil from the Indian nations and busted the sanctions against Iran. No sooner did this revelation hit Washington then AIPAC, the premier Israel lobby, issued a statement basically absolving the Koch Brothers of any misdeeds.

So we end up with the Mormon Bishop Willard Romney speaking before the Koch Brothers' operation yesterday. Romney, who had said in New Hampshire, he has been "as consistent as a human being can be", ends up with an astonishing speech where the numbers don't add up and can't add up. Democrats I know believe Willard is running as a conservative to win the nomination but really is a moderate. This is the same conceit people had about McCain in 2008. The 2008 version of McCain bore no relationship to the media darling of the 1990s. The same applies with Willard.

Mitt Romney proposed keeping the Bush tax cuts, elimnating the estate tax, raising defense spending (which has doubled in real terms in a decade), eliminating foreign aid to any country that doesn't agree with us, raising the age of eligibility for both Social Security and Medicare, turning the Medicare program into Paul Ryan's voucher care system, eliminating AMTRAK, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Endowment for the Arts, and all funding for Planned Parenthood. He is on the record for a Personhood Amendment to the constitution, which would be a theocratic solution to abortion. He would limit government spending to 18%, which it hasn't existed since the late 1960s. The unofficial numbers have his program adding $8 trillion to the national debt. He claims he will eliminate $500 billion in government spending his first year. He also claims that he would let Israel lead in our policies to the Middle East and China to play the leading role in humanitarian assistance. And, of course, he would have stayed in Iraq. Why? No one knows.

This is really and truly not the Willard "Mitt" Romney of even his Massachusetts days. Anyone who believes this radical agenda is moderate needs their head examined. But he is seen as "more reasonable" to the Washington punditry. Romney senses that the time is now for the 1% to go in for the kill. This is what all his policies are about. If you consider his economic policies, the further shrinkage of government would only compound the recession. After all, consider how good Obama would look if Governors Kasich, Chris Christie, Scott, Snyder and Walker had not been gutting state governments. To further shrink government, particularly at a national level, would imprison the 99% of Americans in an economy of very low growth for years to come. Mitt is for the final looting of America.

So you can see why the Koch Brothers play their game. No one on the Republican side is serious and that's what they are banking on.