[ 2011-11-15 ]

Herman Cain appeared confused when asked about the Libya uprising

Now it’s Cain’s turn for that embarrassing ‘oops’ moment
Herman Cain’s faltering grasp of foreign policy
issues reached a humiliating nadir last night as
video footage emerged to challenge the status of
Rick Perry as the Republican Party’s most
gaffe-prone presidential candidate.

Asked whether he agreed with President Obama’s
handling of the Libya crisis, the former pizza
executive appeared dumbstruck by the question.
After 19 seconds of consideration, he asked:
“President Obama supported the uprising,
correct?”

The interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
editorial board was recorded a few hours before Mr
Cain’s wife Gloria made her national television
debut. In an interview broadcast on Fox News last
night, she defended her husband but admitted that
she “really didn’t know what hit” her when
allegations of sexual misconduct appeared earlier
in the month.

Mr Cain has maintained a relatively steady
position among the front-runners for the
Republican nomination despite claims of sexual
harassment made by four women. Opinion polls,
however, have consistently found that many voters
have concerns about his lack of foreign policy
experience.

After appearing to dodge questions on
international relations in the recent debates, Mr
Cain was caught out by a simple query posed by the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday. “So, you
agree with President Obama on Libya?” he was
asked.

After a long period of reflection, he said:
“President Obama called for the removal of
Gaddafi? Just wanted to make sure we’re talking
about the same thing before I say, ‘Yes, I
agreed. No, I didn’t agree.”

He looked up, paused and then began to answer.
“I do not agree with the way he handled it for
the following reason…,” he said, before
trailing off. “Nope, that’s a different
one.”

Mr Cain shifted in his chair, fiddled with his
jacket and said: “I got to go back and see. . .
I got all this stuff twirling around in my head.

“Specifically what are you asking me if I agree
or do not disagree with?”

His interlocutor patiently repeated the question,
and Mr Cain finally delivered a hesitant version
of his customary talking points on the conflict.

The former motivational speaker had not been at
his best, admitted aides, but he was suffering
from a lack of sleep.

“We were all going on four hours sleep, so he
was tired,” said J. D. Gordon, Mr Cain’s
spokesman and national security adviser. “When
he got the Libya question, it took him a while to
get his bearings on it, but he got the answer
right.”

A few hours later, Mr Cain’s wife appeared in a
television interview for the first time. She told
Greta van Susteren that she was very nervous but
she struck a defiant tone, warning that she was no
“little woman at home” in the Cain household.

She admitted that her daughter was “angry” at
the allegations and seemed to display her own
frustration with the way the matter had been
handled, indicating that she had not been
forewarned by her husband.

“The first week and a half I was in shock,”
she said. “Sunday night he mentioned something
in passing: there may be a news story coming out,
I’m not sure. It deals with sexual harassment.

“And I’m thinking well it’s just hearsay or
whatever, and then on the news that night I
started seeing the actual story and it started to
snowball and I really didn’t know what hit me.
That was my first knowing about it.”

Mrs Cain made it clear that she had confronted the
presidential candidate about the initial
allegations. “Do you remember any of these
people? Do you remember anything happening that
was considered sexual harassment? And he kept
saying ‘no’,” she said. Mr Cain later
admitted that he had remembered some of the
allegations made while he was head of the National
Restaurant Association.

She conceded that their marriage had its share of
troubles but said she believed that he had not
committed the alleged offences because he was
“old school” and he respected women.

Although she was satisfied that her husband was
telling the truth, Mrs Cain said she realised many
people would assume that he was guilty. “I
don’t know if those people will ever get to be
100 per cent sure,” she said, admitting that
even their friends were left wondering if the
allegations were true.

Joined by her husband on screen, Mrs Cain
recounted their early relationship. “He was
okay,” she said, but during an incessant,
year-long -pursuit she said she was left
wondering: “Who is he? Why is he talking so
much?. . . why doesn’t he go away.”

Source - The Times(UK)

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