Herman Cain Touts Management Skills, But Ex-Aides Tell Story Of Campaign Dysfunction

The New York Times:

If Herman Cain feels his management skills are up to any challenge, some of his former staff members think he should have started with the disorder in his own campaign.

Mr. Cain has hardly shown up in New Hampshire and Iowa, they said, spending the bulk of his time on a book tour through the South. He occasionally mishandled potential big donors or ignored real voters. His campaign churned through the small staff; last week, his campaign announced the appointment of the veteran campaigner Steve Grubbs, his third Iowa leader in four months.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

 

 

Comments

[Fattonecat]

12:23 PM on 10/28/2011

He's trying to develop a personality cult. The guy is showing us he's a LOON.

[Littlewords]

10:53 AM on 10/28/2011

And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.

....pure hilarity from the clown candidate campaign.

[mike23oo]

09:57 AM on 10/28/2011

The media is trying to push Romney on us. Romney is the same junk as Obama minus the skin color. Herman Cain all the way! I don't believe the media's lies , last time they pushed the weakest republican canidate and look where it got us..

Folks don't fall for the Media's tricks and poll lies.. Believe in Cain.. We don't need another lawyer or career politician in the white house. We need someone with COMMON SENSE and management skills. Cain is this countries only chance in a return to a prosperous America we all once knew and loved!

[Gudrun]

02:26 PM on 10/28/2011

I am listening to what Cain himself is saying, that is really all you need.

[Stan Cunningham]

08:44 AM on 10/28/2011

This is just more Lib. lies!

[catbyte]

09:50 AM on 10/28/2011

Riiiiiiight, Stan. Herman Cain's campaign has been infiltrated by evil George Soros-funded liberal tricksters whose sole intent is to make your guy look like a boob.

Sorry, fella. He's doing a masterful job at doing that all by himself. Deal with it.

[mike23oo]

10:20 AM on 10/28/2011

I agree the harshest comments were frme someone that "said a former staff member in Iowa, who asked for anonymity.".. This former staff member really exist?? if so why they wish to remain anonymous ?? More likely than not this person never existed. What the times article said IS JUST A BUNCH OF LIES.

Obama is terrified of Cain.. However it may appear Cain does not have the needed "take the money and promise everything ( but deliver nothing)" skills that Obama has.

[roc-o-rama]

11:54 AM on 10/28/2011

I'm sorry to break this to you but Obama's in-ability to deliver is the fault of the ReTublican Congress unwilling to be bi-partisan and obstructs at every given chance, even my high school age child sees this. Your rebuttal to article's mystery staff member makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist.

[JaneK13]

08:39 AM on 10/28/2011

This reminds me of the time Herman Cain looked around at his follow GOP candidates and remarked, these are the folks runnin' your government, "how's that workin' out for you?"

We do need an outside "non-politician." Every other candidate (including Obama) has political cronies and colleagues to whom they owe "favors." Let's not kid ourselves. Mr. Cain is the only one who has never been tainted by the corruption that infests government (never been elected or a gov't employee.) He will work for thePeople who elected him, not for some big donor or party that gave him tons of money.

Everyone wonders why Herman Cain has no staff. It's because he won't spend money he doesn't have. And, he will not make "deals" in return for special "favors." The story goes the GOP tried to give him a handler..one of those "professionals" who tells a candidate how to talk, walk & dress. Cain fired him and said he can handle himself. Herman Cain is truly a man of the People and will work for The People first!

Cain is smart, successful, experienced and he will bring a lot of business expertise to the job. What's not to like???

[catbyte]

09:56 AM on 10/28/2011

What's not to like? Oh, Jane, let me count the ways...How about his crackpot 9-9-9 Plan that will significantly raise taxes on everyone but him and others in his tax bracket? How about his unserious approach to foreign policy and disrespect towards other nations ( Uz-beki-beki-beki ha ha)? His utter lack of government experience? It may seem like a good thing that he has no government experience but it's not. You cannot run government like a business. Their objectives are 180 degrees apart and to run government like a business is a prescription for disaster. I could go on, but you get my drift.

[mike23oo]

10:00 AM on 10/28/2011

Agree F&F , No more lawyers and career politicians.. send in Cain to whoop the butts of these useless progressive politicians!

[catbyte]

10:20 AM on 10/28/2011

mike, what is your idea of an ideal government?

[MARTYB]

06:22 AM on 10/28/2011

That is "old, old school", from my Grandmother: "And boy ya bet not open yo mouth unless i say so"

[Ken Ritz]

03:08 AM on 10/28/2011

Jeez, who made him the Queen of France?

[mike23oo]

10:02 AM on 10/28/2011

Yeah ... well Obama does it all the darn time and now Cain catches gripe for doing so?? Double standard for Dems and GOP...

Whatever

[Tanya OaksBrooks]

03:39 PM on 10/28/2011

Obama does it all the time? Prove it.

[IndependentAndProud]

12:55 AM on 10/28/2011

I'm not surprised.

[FL TallMan]

12:47 AM on 10/28/2011

Looks like Cain has taken that 'Godfather' thing a bit far in trying to keep staffers and ex-staffers silent.

Cain's recent, and soon to be short-lived, surge in the polls took him by surprise just as it did others. He's on a book tour and doing this campaign thing to sell books, period. He never expected that people would maybe actually pay attention to him. That is why he has such a shoddy organization.

As I've said, by January he'll be just a fading memory.

[mike23oo]

10:23 AM on 10/28/2011

Staffers that wish to remain anonymous... really now.. prove they even existed in the first place. You folks fall for the simplest political tricks in the book.

[Godiva]

11:42 PM on 10/27/2011

Unfortunately, Herman Cain is setting his race back about 200 years. He represents something African Americans despise, acting like a good servant and towing the line for his Koch masters. He is embarrasing...

[SueMVetforObama2]

11:13 PM on 10/27/2011

In all Polls, someone else in the Tea-Publican slate is leading. WhotheHe// is on first?

[nomobull]

09:53 PM on 10/27/2011

some people confuse arrogance with confidence.

[Querent]

09:15 PM on 10/27/2011

At this point in his campaign, under his circumstances, it would be amazing if Cain's campaign was not in a state of chaos. But he's going to have to get it together pretty soon. If he somehow manages to win in Iowa, he's off to the races. But the conventional wisdom has always been that it takes direct contact with key political players and a very wide public exposure to win in Iowa. Cain has been polling very well there, though.

Iowans are jealous of their prerogatives. They may refuse to vote for Cain just because they have never personally met him. But in reality, this is Iowa's first real chance to prove their caucuses are crucial. If they go for Cain in the face of his physical absence from their state, and then Cain wins the nomination, Iowa will become mandatory for Republican candidates in the future.

My bet? Cain won't be able to organize his campaign fast enough to get the leverage he needs, and will dwindle away rapidly after Perry wins the caucuses.

[DeeFromTheD]

09:11 PM on 10/27/2011

Cain thinks because he has a bullethead, he's a big shot. His attitude is like: "It's a pleasure for you to meet me". Very arrogant and haughty.

[john rajah]

09:05 PM on 10/27/2011

Queen Elizabeth II of Great(huh?)Britain also expects people not to speak to her unless they are spoken to

[IndependentAndProud]

12:56 AM on 10/28/2011

That's not specific to Liz 2. It's that way with all British monarchs.

[john rajah]

02:55 AM on 10/28/2011

And now with GOP Presidential contenders