Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Either Cain's a dolt, or he thinks you are

I generally try to refrain from taking specific pro/con stances on candidates for office on this blog, but I've been insulted. By Herman Cain. And so have you. If you haven't seen it yet, please check out Cain's "assessment of our key country relations," available on his campaign website:
This map makes this 1980s parody of Ronald Reagan's worldview seem nuanced in comparison. Either this is the way Cain sees the world, or this is the way Cain thinks you see the world. Either way, it's horrifying.

Jon Bernstein writes this morning that Cain "doesn't appear to be willing and/or able to converse about basic foreign policy issues at a level that wouldn't embarrass a strong high school student." I strongly disagree. The above map would embarrass a strong elementary school student.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, this is the clincher: Rachel Maddow was right, and the Cain campaign is performance art.

Matt Glassman said...

I just can't wait to see how the Saudis react when they find out they aren't in the top SEVEN middle east countries under Cain's rubric of importance.

marv_mart said...

Where's Australia??? (not Austria)

Anonymous said...

Except the "Reagan Worldview" was clearly a parody. And this, the candidate's formal statement, makes the Reagan parody look like the nuanced view of a great statesman. Which, by comparison and whatever one thinks of Reagan, he was.

Scary in both the depth of ignorance shown and how simplistic a worldview it displays.

Megan said...

My favourite thing about that map is that it shows Facebook connections. Definitely the most informative part of the graphic.

Robert said...

Okay, granted that this is a simplistic worldview, and if it indicates the extent of Herman Cain's thoughts about foreign policy, then it's damning. But, on the other hand, when I first saw the graphic, I thought that it didn't represent every nuance of Cain's thinking, but rather an attempt to reach a web audience with something that is easily comprehensible. In other words, it's dumbed-down for the audience it's trying to reach. Think of it this way: if you took a survey of the voting public and asked them to correctly identify for each of those countries listed its relationship with the U.S., what percentage could do so? I'd say 10%, but certainly well less than a majority. That being the case, it makes sense to present foreign policy stands in this "primer" form.

Seth Masket said...

You're a generous man, Robert. Personally, I think anyone actually interested enough to want to know Cain's foreign policy stances would already apparently know more than he does. Primary voters are an opinionated lot, and they may not all be geniuses, but they probably mostly know where Brazil is, and if they don't, I doubt the designation of "friend" will educate them much.

Greg Koger said...

Great comparison to the Reagan map, Seth. Whatever made you think of it? #koger2011

Seth Masket said...

All praise due to Koger.

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