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Herman Cain: Shall we have a cigarette on it?

"What can Herman Cain have been thinking," the lamestream are scratching their heads, shocked, shocked at what subliminal messages may be lurking within Herman Cain's new "I am America" ad.

"LOVE @THEHermanCain's cigarette ad. MSNBC going berserk but covering it," we just twittered:

Two messages: Get the nanny state off my back; Obama lies, smokes & denies.

"We can do this. We can take this country back," says Herman Cain's chief of staff Mark Block in the Herminator's controversial new ad. Update: Mark Block is a charmer. Tells Megyn Kelly there was "no subliminal message," just connecting with real Americans:  … the Cain Train is on a roll … the Cain message is resonating with Main Street America." Why no traditional organization? "It's a people's campaign. It has grown from the ground up."

Ed Driscoll just retweeted us, so we must be onto something. Willy Geist on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" is blustering with righteous indignation. What kind of a message is that to send our children? Light[en] up, friend. We're not a smoker, but some of our best friends are. Beyond that, get off our back, Big Government elitists who know better than we what's best for us. Authenticity and responsibility for our own life choices: There's a message for our children. Spin at will.

Update: Smitty at The Other McCain makes a fine point:

Great ad, but the smoking at the end makes little sense, except to floutaunt the rules. And if you’re going to do that, why not play the Ladd Ehlinger card?

And from Mark Hemingway on twitter last night:

This is either the best or worst political ad in history. 

Update II: Professor Jacobson detects "a subliminal message of defiance":

Now if he were carrying a rifle too, it might have been the best ever.

That "best ever" link goes to our own Ladd Ehlinger's Dale Peterson ad of last year!

Update III: The mighty Mark Steyn gets it:

He’s got my endorsement just for Mark Block’s cigarette exhalation. Haven’t seen anything like that since Sammy Davis Jr. took a drag in the instrumental break of “With A Song In My Heart” at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of decades back.

Update IV: Tweet of the day from @proteinwisdom:

Be honest: "Let's move!" w/ Michelle Obama? Or "Let's have a smoke, then chat up some chicks in a bar" w/ Cain's campaign guy? No brainer.

Must be one of those "dog whistles" that only members of the tribe can hear.

Update V: Huffington Post's Jason Linkins thinks it's all about tobacco:

Cain has also worked closely with cigarette manufacturers in the past. As the head of the National Restaurant Association, he lobbied against higher cigarette taxes and smoking bans in restaurants.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Sarah Palin: The Tea Party is real winner of the debate

"I was very pleased with this debate, and, you know, very excited about the validation of the Tea Party movement," Sarah Palin told Greta Van Susteren last night in a meaty analysis of the CNN/TeaPartyExpress debate that echoed our own take and set our woman-up, fight-like-a-girl heart on fire. Listen to full interview here.

While some of our favorite bloggers and columnists and talking heads debated the winners and losers of last night's CNN/TeaPartyExpress GOP primary debate, a shoot-to-where-it's-going, not-to-where-it's-been Sarah Palin disintermediated the usual premise of judging these contests. As she explained to Greta Van Susteren in a landmark "On the record" post-debate interview last night:

Here they hook up with a major news network, CNN — and more power to CNN for allowing that validation — of this grassroots Tea Party movement.

Participants from all over the nation being able, as a voice of "We the people," asking questions of these potential presidents …

The winner in this really, I believe, was the Tea Party movement.

"Greta, this is one of the reasons that many of us really love your show because you have been one on top of this issue from day one, talking about the fraud, the waste and the crony capitalism." From opposite ends of the political spectrum, the two women seem to have forged a sisterly bond through their shared mission to fight corruption wherever they may find it.

Palin and Van Susteren — the conservative Mama Grizzly and the liberal Fox News show host — may seem an odd pairing. A tough questioner, Van Susteren earned Palin's trust early on by giving her a fair hearing where others, even Fox libertarian Judge Napolitano, were buying — and promulgating — the "lamestream media's" Palin-is-Stupid narrative spin. Fortunately the Judge finally came to his senses.

 

"I'm not gonna let the media dictate when a drop-dead date should be," Palin answered Van Susteren's inevitable will-she-or-won't-she question:

In the meantime, I'm getting kind of a kick out of this, and I have to be honest with you. Getting a kick out of getting out there, giving a speech, making some statements about things that must be discussed, and then the very next day watching some of the candidates get out there and discuss what it was that we just talked about, like the corruption, the crony capitalism, the waste, the fraud … That perhaps is my role right now, is to get people talking about the issues that the American people deserve to hear discussed … I'm gonna keep doing that!

Mark America at US for Palin develops the theme in his must-read "Only One Republican is Shaping the Debate":

While it is true to say the Tea Party won the debate, it’s likewise clear that the themes Governor Palin has been discussing since 2008 are really the foundation of the ongoing Republican discussion.

See also Dana Loesch's insider's analysis "CNN Shows MSNBC How a Debate is Done."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Cloven Not Crested.

Dear John Podhoretz: I love you, but

John Podhoretz's twitter avatar (above) is one of our favorites, beaming father with enchanting daughter. Hard not to love the guy, and we do, but hey. This is politics!

"So unless I agree with every word you say I'm not with 'we the people'? Elitist!" tweets the divine John Podhoretz, playing with our own tweet:

You aren't one of dem fuddy-duddy Codevilla rul'g class types, are you? I always thought you were on the side of "We the people."

We were responding to Podhoretz's own provocative tweet:

If Sarah Palin runs, Mitt Romney does the Snoopy dance of joy.

Arrggghhhh! No one is cleverer and cuddlier than Podhoretz, but does he realize how condescending such tweets are to grassroots tea partiers like us, for whom Romneycare has always been a craw sticker and Palin always an authentic voice in the wilderness who speaks to us with a servant's heart?

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

James Pethokoukis: "Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North"

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, shines above Bear Lake here January 18, 2005. The lights are the result of solar particles colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere. Early Eskimos and Indians believed different legends about the Northern Lights, such as they were the souls of animals dancing in the sky or the souls of fallen enemies trying to rise again.

"Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North!" twitters the divine Jimmy P, aka James Pethokoukis, in response to this tweet of ours:

This too will pass? The drought will continue?

We were responding to Jimmy's original tweet, "Like a Texas summer storm, Perry sweeps over Iowa Straw Poll," linking to his latest must-read post:

Congratulations to Michele Bachmann, but the big political winner Saturday wasn’t in Ames, Iowa. That politician was half a country away in South Carolina, completely scrambling the Republican presidential race.

1) Online betting markets have already decided that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is no flash in the Panhandle — another Fred Thompson or Wesley Clark who sparks a flurry of interest but quickly fades. To bettors, it’s a two-horse race and a dead heat between Perry and Mitt Romney. But anyone listening to Perry’s well delivered, muscular, high-energy speech in Charleston, S.C., would probably draw the same political conclusion. He hit tea party-friendly themes and hit them well.

Neither Romney nor Perry will likely hesitate in, shall we say, contrasting their records. Romney will play up his business career as a successful private equity investor and venture capitalist and slam Perry as a “career politician” and "crony capitalist.“ And Perry will counter with attacks on Romney’s Obamacare-esque healthcare plan in Massachusetts, as well as stressing his own inspirational life story (son of tenant farmers to presidential candidate).

Jimmie left his readers hanging with this:

Assuming no other heavy hitters join the race. Perry-Romney is shaping up to be an epic brawl between two aggressive candidates with impressive resumes, both able to raise boat loads of campaign cash. Let the Austin-Boston battle begin.

"Assuming no other heavy hitters join the race"? We refer you once again to Jimmie's taunting tweet above:

Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North!

Hmmm. We were just thinking the very thing ourselves.

Update: Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings links:

It’s going to be a very interesting race for the Republican nomination, and I suspect that whoever emerges from it will be the stronger for it, and ready to send the president back to academia.

Crossposted at Riehl World View. 

Jack Dorsey's Twitter Town Hall: By Obama, for Obama

"The first-ever presidential forum on Twitter was undercut by the commander-in-chief himself, as President Obama answered questions from average Americans with a tide of talking points that went uninterrupted and unchallenged, short-circuiting the event’s populist potential," summarizes the Boston Herald's Jessica Van Sack, who watched Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey's "Twitter Town Hall" so we didn't have to. Above, a comely attendee lifts her iPad beside the East Room door at what one critic who blogs at Harvard Business Review is calling "a Meaningless Marketing Stunt." (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) 

"How can we make Twitter Town Halls better in the future? And not just for the US government, but any government," twittered Twitter co-founder and enthusiastic Obama supporter Jack Dorsey following yesterday's predictably stilted, "first-ever presidential forum on Twitter," unwittingly revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of American Exceptionalism and the Shining City.

"The big winner of today’s White House Twitter Townhall (besides Twitter)?" asked Bag News Notes: "Well, where do I get my own White House-edition MacBook? Then, regarding the double logo, talk about leveraging your brand." Final stats via Mass Relevance: 169,395 #AskObama Tweets. Hot topics: Jobs (32%) Budget (18%) Taxes (18%) & Education (11%).

How to make future Twitter Town Halls better? As we twittered in response,

Try to remember that here in the USA town halls are not for the GOVT but for the PEOPLE.

Beyond that, we salute Mr. Dorsey for a technological knockout, but is his creation, as he asserts, "a great first step for future Town Halls"? What about all those disintermediating, grassroots, Twitter-enabled Town Halls of two years back that gave voice to the Tea Party movement? We do applaud Dorsey's "curatorship" model, where a panel of journalists and bloggers from across the country were invited to join the President and Dorsey in the East Room to help select the 18 (too few) out of nearly 170,000 (good show!) questions submitted with the #AskObama hashtag by our fellow Americans. A couple of quotable quotes from that Boston Herald article referenced above:

“Amazing how Obama can give such a long answer to such short questions,” tweeted Drew Cline, editorial page editor of the Union Leader of New Hampshire, who was chosen by the social media site as one of eight so-called “curators” to help select questions for the forum.

“BO’s verbosity was a huge problem. An actual moderator could have made space for 100% more questions,” replied another curator, political blogger Will Wilkinson.

That was the consensus in the blogosphere and Twitterverse yesterday after Obama answered just 18 questions out of the 160,000 submissions during his live Webcast of the Twitter Town Hall. Hosted by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, the hourlong forum devolved into a typical, meandering town hall stump-athon that was a mockery of the Web site’s famous 140-character limit.

"Roughly half the questions were softballs, which [curator Drew] Cline attributed to low participation among conservatives who felt they wouldn’t get a fair shake," but a subset of questions we all knew would never make the final cut kept the twittersphere afflutter with RT's and lol's. Note: Fans of Jonah Goldberg's 140-or-fewer-character zingers may use Snap Bird to read all of his AskObama tweets using the following terms: Search: Someone's timeline, WHO? JonahNRO, FOR: #AskObama.

The last word goes to Benjamin Howe on Twitter:

Idea @RepPaulRyan: Hold a town hall, use the same tweets obama did, and answer them with the facts that @BarackObama is ignoring. #AskObama

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: Jonah Goldberg tosses us a link from The Corner!

Update III: Doug Ross of Larwyn's Linx links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Marco Rubio, "a man in a field of mice"

"I have been in the Senate just long enough to be disgusted by the reality that Washington has too many people who think their personal political careers are more important than our country’s future," says GOP rising star Marco Rubio, upstaging the Democrats and their media fellow travelers in the "MediScare" drama with a virtuoso solo performance that's bringing the twitterspere to their feet in a virtual standing ovation. Listen here.

"THIS is how it's done … a man in a field of mice … take the fight to the Dems," twittered ecstatic Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin this morning, joining the throng of us narrative chasers out here in cyberspace retweeting and blogging about newly-minted Florida Senator Marco Rubio's response to the Democrats' "Mediscare" spin. In "Looking for Medicare Solutions, Not Politics As Usual" the first-generation Cuban American hottie uses the example of his immigrant parents to disarm opponents:

For me, Medicare is not a political talking point. My parents immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. They worked hard for over 40 years to provide their children the chance to do all the things they themselves could not. But they never made much money.

As a result, they retired with precious little in savings. Medicare was and is the only way they could access healthcare.

Having lured his listeners with emotionally charged personal evocations of the American Dream, he reels us in:

Rep. Paul Ryan has offered a plan that would make no changes whatsoever for anyone age 55 and older. I support it because, right now, it is the only plan out there that helps save Medicare. Democrats oppose it. Fine. But, if they have a better way to save Medicare, what are they waiting for to show us? What is their plan to save Medicare?

Either show us how Medicare survives without any changes or show us what changes you propose we make. Anyone who supports doing nothing is a supporter of bankrupting Medicare.

Paul Ryan noticed and twittered a link to Rubio's speech, with editorial content:

Strong message from strong leader.

"I'm telling you, these two would make an unbeatable ticket," twittered diggrbiii aka RB of The Right Sphere and Big Journalism, linking to Ryan's tweet:

Rubio and Ryan should announce they're running on the same ticket. Today. And then go on a year-long speech tour.

Politico's Ben Smith reports that “American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas said in an interview today that he thinks the eventual Republican nominee would be well advised to offer Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio a slot on the ticket — and that Rubio, if asked, would likely assent.” According to a new Gallup poll, Romney and Palin are leading the field. Palin/Rubio. Rolls right off the tongue.

Related: The Right Sphere's Brandon Kiser has a dream:

This is probably all a pipe dream, but you have to agree with Jonah Goldberg when he says ”politics is about moments, and this one is calling [Ryan]. Unless someone suddenly rises to the challenge, the cries of ‘Help us, Paul Ryan, you’re our only hope!’ will only get louder.”

Looks like someone named Marco just did.

Update: Fun banter with Brendan Loy on twitter, referencing the "man in a field of mice" of our title:

Brendan: He should do something about that. Maybe get a cat.

We: Or maybe a mama grizzly.

Update II: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update III: Doug Ross aka Director Blue links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Sarah Palin redraws the electoral map: "The 2012 election starts here" in Madison, WI

"Hello Madison, Wisconsin! Woo. You look good. I feel like I'm at home. This is beautiful." Sarah Palin welcomed a grateful mini-multitude of Tea Partiers braving snow and rain to greet the Mama Grizzly of All Mama Grizzlies at the steps of the State House this afternoon. "These are the frontlines in the battle for the future of our country. This is where the line in the sand has been drawn, and I am proud to stand with you today in solidarity." LOVE that anti-statist Polish trade union reference! Update: Transcript.

Sorry, Iowa and New Hampshire. Sarah Palin just redrew the electoral map in a rousing challenge to President Obama's creeping statist agenda in front of the State House in Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon. We watched and live-tweeted her Tea Party keynote. A few excerpts from our own and others' tweets (hard keeping up! Will link later when a transcript becomes available) to give you the flavor:

Our president isn't leading … the only future that Barack Obama is looking to win is his reelection.

You ignored us in 2010, but you cannot ignore us in 2012. You willfully ignored the will of the American people. You ignored it when you rammed through Obamacare …

Madison, you defended that 2010 electoral mandate. You are heroes. You are patriots.

The 2012 election begins here. We will take the courage and the integrity that you showed all of America.

We will fight for America. And it starts here in Madison, WI. It starts here. It starts now. Mr. President, GAME ON.

"Whaddya think, Jim? She going for it?" Melissa Clouthier twittered James Pethokoukis following the speech. Jimmie P's (that's what Larry Kudlow calls him) reply:

Talked to someone other day who knows Palin. Said he didn't know if she'd run. Sounded like a candidate today … In addition, she may not know yet. Won't run traditional campaign if she does.

"Sarah never does anything in the traditional way!" we protested. The conventional wisdom had it that the President himself had opened campaign season with his tin-eared, confrontational debt-reduction speech Wednesday, but disintermediating the powers that be via her own eclectic mix of media old and new, "shooting to where it's going, not to where it's been," Palin once again caught traditionalists off guard.

A special shout out to Brian of The Right Scoop for providing the timely live feed for all of us insatiable consumers of political fodder.

Update: Forgot to mention the parallel story picked up from twitterbuddy Michael Haz, who was on the scene:

Protestors blowing sirens, drumming, cowbells, whistles to drown out free speech … giving Palin the finger … closing in. Right behind me. Screaming. Ringing bells. I can smell them.

Update II: Story trending on Memeorandum. Update to the update: Top story next day!

Update III: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update IV: Quote of the Day Honorable Mention from Josh Painter at Texas for Sarah Palin.

Update V: Professor Jacobson links in a triumphant "Fight Like A Girl":

But even more than that, Palin took a phrase usually considered an insult and turned it into a compliment.

In one sentence, Palin did more to advance the cause of women in politics than all the Women's Studies Ph.D's in all the universities in this country combined.

Update: Sissy Willis reminds us of the day.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

"Newt Explore" sounds like someone is lizard huntin'

A blast from the past. The effervescent Bill Whittle, whose latest video, "The end of the beginning," explains why "the unions can't win in Wisconsin or anywhere in the long run" because "the world has changed so much as to make progressivism an anachronism," already had Palin Derangement Syndrome sufferers' number (above) back in August of 2009. 'Course so did we, way before that.

"NewtExplore2012 ... The very name of your twitter acct destroys the soul," we twittered Mr. Gingrich this afternoon, just off what Politico called a "rough week":

Good GAWD. Try someth'g livelier like SarahPalinUSA fergossake!

"NewtExplore sounds like someone is lizard huntin'," twittered savethiscountry. "Under a rock" comes to mind!" rejoined ginthegin. So many great twitterbuds, so little time? Bottom line, though, is that Newt has had his day in the sun. Time to step aside and let the fresh new faces of constitutional conservativism shine their lights on God's "almost chosen people."

Update: Forgot to mention the telling graphic note of cluelessness at Newt and Callista's NewtExplore website, an off-the-shelf stock photo of flag-waving "supporters." Can you say perfunctory? You're not listening, Mr. Gingrich.

Update II: The totally awesome James Pethokoukis gives us a nod!

Update III: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update IV: Thanks to Joe Citizen in the comments, who points out that newts are not reptiles but amphibians. Here's an excellent key to the differences and more from Wikipedia re herpetology, the study of the two groups of poikilothermic, ectothermic tetrapods. We've been a big fan of both since childhood, when frog catching and turtle keeping were two of our great passions. We even had a small alligator for a time.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Rick Santorum wants Sarah Palin back in the kitchen, barefoot & pregnant?

"If people want to write more than 140 characters, they need to start a blog," and "Let us cut off the ramblers," wrote fellow twitterers yesterday in a TweetDeck Support thread responding to a gratuitous "upgrading" of the app with something called Deck.ly that made longer tweets the default. We commend the Twitter staff for responding in record time with an option to disable the bug feature for us purists who share Thomas Jefferson's view that "the most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." Above, house next door boarded up. There goes the neighborhood.

"Knuckle-Dragging Neanderthal Community outraged at Sarah Palin's truth telling. Rick Santorum busy changing diapers," we twittered this morning in a 140-character-or-fewer analysis of internecine battles flaring up amongst cabin-fevered members of our tribe. It's SO sandbox, as TIME explains:

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who is exploring a bid for the Republican nomination, told S.E. Cupp, who hosts an online radio show on Glenn Beck's website, that Sarah Palin is skipping CPAC because of her "business opportunities" and "other responsibilities" such as raising her five children.

"I don't live in Alaska and I'm not the mother to all these kids and I don't have other responsibilities that she has,” said Santorum.

Sarah reloaded and came roaring back with vintage Palin on Hannity last night:

Sarah Palin made clear Wednesday night that she took offense at Rick Santorum’s suggestion she’s not attending CPAC because she’s out making money and taking care of her kids, calling his claims “uninformed” and saying she will leave it to his wife to label him a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.”

We loved twitter buddy Ruth Anne Adams's 140-or-fewer-character retort: 

WTF is Santorum talking about? Last I knew, he had 4 [correction: 7] kids to raise, too. That sexism ain't so subtle, Rick.

And in response to our own diaper-changing tweet above:

I thought so, too, when I heard it. Santorum? Prig.

Back to CPAC, where Snippy Santorum and others representing various points on the spectrum, aka "legs of the conservative stool" — social, fiscal and national security —  are throwing their hats into the ring. Chris Cillizza sets the scene:

The Conservative Political Action Conference — a sort of unofficial kickoff to the 2012 presidential race — opens today in Washington, D.C.

The three-day gathering will feature speeches by seven men and one woman — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — in various stages of deciding about presidential runs.  

"Of the eight speeches, none will draw more attention than the one Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will deliver tomorrow," says Cillizza:

Not only will Daniels be speaking at 7:30 pm — a spot likely to draw a large audience — but he will also have to deal with the fallout from his past calls for a "truce" on social issues. CPAC attendees are vocal — both for those they like and those they don't — so Daniels will need to be at his best to win over what almost certainly will be a skeptical crowd.

The social issues. It could get nasty. Some of our best friends on Twitter and in the blogosphere are taking sides. The Right Scoop covers the bases, suggesting some may be overreacting. Meanwhile, we're watching CPAC live on the desktop:

This year’s conference will also feature many nods to the growing prominence of the Tea Party. In fact, CPAC will be book-ended by two favorites of the movement — Bachmann, who is one of this morning’s first speakers, and freshman Florida Republican Rep. Allen West, who accepted the coveted closing-night keynote speaking slot at the conference.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: From Doug Ross, who links:

Santorum responded, "I've discussed this with Sarah through an intermediary. She's fine I'm fine. This is another instance of liberal media [Politico] spinning a comment by implying something that just wasn't there."

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

Tea Party to Mitt Romney: It's the authenticity, stupid

"Guess which grandchild heard that Papa might run again?" goes the ersatz we're-just-folks caption (above) on the front of a Christmas card from "The Romney Family" that just came in over the transom. Inside is another photo of the whole clan with a traditional "Merry Christmas" message. But flip it over and you get this:

Paid for by Free and Strong America PAC, inc. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

No candidate or candidate's committee to see here. Just those cute grandkids talkin' 'bout Papa Romney. We can't help but think that Governor Romney's handlers have been monitoring Sarah Palin's ongoing, energetic embrace of the full panoply of media, old and new — most recently the riveting "Sarah Palin's Alaska" — and mistaking the trees for the forest, or something like that. A family photo against an expansive All-American landscape doesn't do it. There has to be something behind the pretty picture. Bottom line, Papa Romney, you ain't no Papa Grizzly.

Check out the Boston Globe's token conservative columnist, our own Jeff Jacoby, for a reminder of the former Massachusetts governor's credibility problem, "The great RomneyCare denial." It's the authenticity, stupid.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.