Cain’s Paine
By SOPHIA ROSENFELD
NYT
Who knew that all you need to be president of the United States is a modicum of common sense? All year, the candidates for the Republican nomination have been touting their intimate relationship with this humdrum way of seeing the world. Michele Bachmann claimed that “everything I needed to know in life I learned in Iowa,” which she left at the age of 12. Rick Perry told Iowans that unlike the current president, he doesn’t have a lot of interest in “studies” when it comes to restoring economic health. “We know what the problem is,” he said. “It’s not magic, it is actually common sense.” We shouldn’t “spend all the money.” Even decidedly unfolksy Mitt Romney announced this week at a gathering of Americans for Prosperity, “I believe we can save Social Security with a few common-sense reforms.”
But no candidate has tried harder to link himself to this everyday pragmatism than Herman Cain, the former C.E.O. of Godfather’s Pizza, whose “Common Sense Solutions” bus tour functions as the centerpiece of his “unconventional” campaign. And no one has been pushing the connection longer. More than a decade before his fellow Tea Party star, Glenn Beck, offered up his best-selling “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense,” a 2009 rewrite of Thomas Paine’s great pamphlet, Cain had already published a how-to book called “Leadership is Common Sense.” He had also granted himself the title “President of the University of Common Sense” on his radio show in Atlanta. For Cain, common sense has come close to a mantra, one that is regularly repeated by his fans as well.
The tagline is showing more than a little wear and tear at the moment — despite Cain’s best efforts to keep it alive. Over the past few days, he’s tried hard to contrast himself not only with with political strategists, who have turned choosing a president into “an absurd game,” but also with “a troubled woman” whose “false accusations,” he claimed, “exceed common sense and certainly the standards of decency in America.”
(More here.)
NYT
Who knew that all you need to be president of the United States is a modicum of common sense? All year, the candidates for the Republican nomination have been touting their intimate relationship with this humdrum way of seeing the world. Michele Bachmann claimed that “everything I needed to know in life I learned in Iowa,” which she left at the age of 12. Rick Perry told Iowans that unlike the current president, he doesn’t have a lot of interest in “studies” when it comes to restoring economic health. “We know what the problem is,” he said. “It’s not magic, it is actually common sense.” We shouldn’t “spend all the money.” Even decidedly unfolksy Mitt Romney announced this week at a gathering of Americans for Prosperity, “I believe we can save Social Security with a few common-sense reforms.”
But no candidate has tried harder to link himself to this everyday pragmatism than Herman Cain, the former C.E.O. of Godfather’s Pizza, whose “Common Sense Solutions” bus tour functions as the centerpiece of his “unconventional” campaign. And no one has been pushing the connection longer. More than a decade before his fellow Tea Party star, Glenn Beck, offered up his best-selling “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense,” a 2009 rewrite of Thomas Paine’s great pamphlet, Cain had already published a how-to book called “Leadership is Common Sense.” He had also granted himself the title “President of the University of Common Sense” on his radio show in Atlanta. For Cain, common sense has come close to a mantra, one that is regularly repeated by his fans as well.
The tagline is showing more than a little wear and tear at the moment — despite Cain’s best efforts to keep it alive. Over the past few days, he’s tried hard to contrast himself not only with with political strategists, who have turned choosing a president into “an absurd game,” but also with “a troubled woman” whose “false accusations,” he claimed, “exceed common sense and certainly the standards of decency in America.”
(More here.)
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