Today’s blog title doesn’t come from the show directly but from a clip of Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA) that Mr. Gregory highlighted. In the clip, Mr. Issa explained that when he first ran for office, his challenge was going from the business world to Congress. He went on to say that in the case of Mr. Herman Cain and his candidacy for President, going from business man to the Presidency is a ‘bridge too far.”
However, as Chris Matthews pointed out, Mr. Cain is exactly what conservatives are looking for – a southern business man. This is where Republicans have government horribly wrong – the United States government should not, repeat should not, be run like a business. A government is not in the business of profit, it is in the business of the general welfare of its people. Should we be running huge deficits? Of course not, but Republicans seem to conveniently forget that it was Vice President Dick Cheney who said that deficits don’t matter.
Mr. Cain, with all due respect to his business acumen, is not Presidential material. The sexual harassment allegations swirling around his campaign aside for a moment, in an interview this week Mr. Cain talked about China aspiring to have nuclear weapons. The layman that writes this column has known that China has had nuclear weapons since 1964 so how could a Presidential candidate not know this. To quote Mr. Matthews, “it’s like he hasn’t read newspapers for the last 50 years.” To use a Hillary Clinton metaphor, if Mr. Cain were the President, that 3am phone call would go to voicemail. Mr. Cain as President is a bridge too far.
Also, that he would scold the news media, attempting to put the blame on them, for these sexual assault allegations is cowardice and irresponsible. Is this man not willing to take responsibility for his actions. Governor Haley Barbour on today’s program said that this smelled of what Judge Clarence Thomas went through with his confirmation hearing, explaining that if Herman Cain weren’t running for President, these allegations wouldn’t matter. But the fact is that he is running for President, and he needs to be vetted like everyone else. Because Mr. Cain doesn’t want to answer such questions, doesn’t mean they will stop coming. The long he delays in getting the facts out, the more amount of people will start digging, and dig deep they will, and should. Mr. Matthews described Herman Cain as the most confident man he’s ever seen in politics. We would amend that to be the most arrogant, evidenced by his campaign staff e-mailing the journalism code of ethics to Politico as pointed out by senior reporter Maggie Haberman.
Also a bridge too far is the personhood amendment being pushed by the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. Never in the forty years since the Roe vs. Wade decision, has women’s rights in this country been under such assault – life beginning at fertilization is a ridiculous notion. Mr. Barbour said he’s not a physician and not a theologian, but… and that’s where he should stop. It implies that theology, counter to what it says in the First Amendment of the Constitution, should be taken into consideration when making law in this country. Forget about health care mandates for a moment, these actions by Republicans, if based on the majority of the party’s faith is unconstitutional. Governor Bill Richardson is correct that this is dangerous action.
Presidential candidate who appear on the program as part of the "Meet the Candidate" series, said that fertilization goes too far, though he is pro-life with, as he explained, a few exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Throughout the interview, this column couldn't help thinking that if the Republican Party weren't so far to the right, Jon Huntsman could be the nominee. He has the approach that would draw in independent voters, especially when he says that we can not run away from mainstream science in particular on climate change.
However, Mr. Huntsman has his flaws as well, specifically on health care, which Mr. Gregory pointed out that previously the candidate said that mandates had to be worked in some way as part of the solution of reforming health care, but now he is firmly against them. We can not really hold Jon Huntsman's feet too hard to the fire on health care as every candidate and the President have had changing views on health care. It's the most complex issue that we have domestically and unless the two sides can meet in the middle, there will be no solution - too far left or too far right won't work.
With that said, the one person who is disqualified on this issue is Mitt Romney because he implemented a policy as governor of Massachusetts that works, and instead of defending the policy and explaining it thoroughly, he ran away from his original position. This has become a bad trend on many issues for the candidate. And in relation to Mr. Romney, David Gregory asked Mr. Huntsman about his Mormon and if America was ready for a Mormon President. Mr. Huntsman said that America has moved beyond religion in this election cycle.
This is naivete reminiscent of President Obama on race. There are those in the Republican party who will fight with everything they have to make sure the Republican nominee is of Christian faith, where the base of the party is firmly entrenched. One could say that the ever-changing positions of Mitt Romney are the cause for his poll numbers never really rising above 30% amongst Republican voters, but make no mistake, his Mormon faith plays a big role. It's why he won't win the Iowa Caucus. It doesn't draw confidence from the base, and it sours any potential conservative allies.
Speaking of friends, apparently President Obama doesn't have any, and it's hurting his chances for reelection. Some of the time, we look at this Republican field and think that President Obama's chances for reelection are great, but then we here a panel discussion such as this and then we think, maybe not so much. In particular, Chris Matthews pointed out that the President hasn't formed the close bonds that help a President muscle through tough legislative situations, people who willing to drop everything else to fight for him. He has many endorsers/advocates but not political warriors. Mr. Matthews cited his new book on President Kennedy as a key example of a President who could commandere such loyalty. Everyone on the panel agreed that since President Obama has been taking his American Jobs Act to the American people, there haven't been any Democratic politicians willing to stand with him. "There are more Clinton people out there then there are Obama people," Mr. Matthews said. In essence, Mr. Obama hasn't instilled fear in his opponents, he hasn't in fact bridged the apparent gap between his stand and where the others are standing.
Round Table: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel, Senior Political Reporter for Politico, Maggie Haberman and author of the new book "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero," and host of MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews.
Last Note: This Sunday was Meet The Press's 67th Anniversary - the longest running television program in history. The genius to make this the first show - putting our leaders on the spot and having them be accountable for their actions - is the reason why this column exists.
Happy Anniversary.
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