Herman Cain's Dirty Rhetorical Habits

Herman Cain has a nasty rhetorical habit of accusing his prompters of misquoting him or fabricating something he said. The problem is that most of the time Cain does it, he is the one who is being less than truthful. His tactic is obviously to throw his prompter off their ground and a reflective defense mechanism when he is uncomfortable with the replay of his words.


During the Bloomberg TV debate, Herman Cain, said that Ron Paul was misquoting him on the question of whether or not he thought that an audit of the federal reserve was necessary. However, it has been shown that Cain did in fact call Ron Paul supporter ignorant for wanting to audit the fed and suchlike.



Herman Cain was his classic self when he appeared on the October 16th "Meet the Press" Sunday morning talk show with host, David Gregory. The relevant part of the show's transcript is below:



MR. GREGORY: Here's a general question. You said you wouldn't rely on wise men, so-called wise men, when it comes to foreign policy views, although you mentioned Henry Kissinger just a moment ago, that you're familiar with his writings. Generally speaking, you know, what, what you have as a great strength, I think to many, is no government experience. But you have no government experience whatsoever, and you want to do some big things. Explain that vision. I mean, would you bring outsiders in to Washington? Would you eschew the establishment of Washington and do things in a completely different way, maybe like Jimmy Carter?

MR. CAIN: Don't use Jimmy Carter as the example.

MR. GREGORY: Perhaps not ideologically.

MR. CAIN: Not ideological--don't--that's not a good example. Secondly, I don't recall saying I would not use wise men and wise women. My philosophy on...

MR. GREGORY: You wrote that in your book. "I won't lean on so-called `wise men' as other commanders in chief have done."

MR. CAIN: Well, let me explain what that means. I'm going to have a combination of people that are outside government and people that are inside government. As much as I and others talk about many of the problems that are perceived outside of Washington as what's going on inside Washington, D.C., there are some good people inside Washington, D.C., holding elected office that I am going to lean on and I'm going to call upon. But I'm also going to bring in people who understand, understand defining the right problem, knowing how to put--surround yourself with good people, and then putting together the right plans based upon some guiding principles that I have established throughout my career and I will establish as president.


There we have it. Cain always tells his prompter that he can't recall or he did not say that very things that he did say. In the above, Cain admits that he said something he claimed not to recall saying. I reckon the author of Cain's book was the usual ghostwriter.

In the end, Herman Cain's debating style is a liability ton him. Indeed, his dirty rhetorical habit shows that he is easily put on the defensive.