In My Orbit...
So #OWS has moved from absurd and fraudulent, to dangerous. Pundit & Pundette and Michelle Malkin give a good rundown on the violence in both Seattle and Oakland. Will New York and Los Angeles be the next shoe to drop? Just what we need, another Los Angeles uprising to completely decimate our already falling revenues.
As a card-carrying political junkie, I've been watching with bemusement the whole alleged Herman Cain scandal. Is it a scandal when the actual charges and the women remain "anonymous"? It's been five days in, and not much more has been revealed. The whole refusal to speak (except through her lawyer) on the part of the accuser is still a non-starter. Seriously, the mainstream media avoided the real scandal (with real evidence) that was John Edwards and Rielle Hunter until the National Enquirer broke the story. You know your industry is in trouble when a rag like the Enquirer becomes the bastion of breaking news and hard-hitting journalism.
As far as I'm concerned, this Politico hit piece is one more nail in the coffin of traditional media and its failing relevance. Not only are they not driving the narrative, they are sitting in the dust on the side of the road.
Unfortunately, the Republican-leaning media is no better, already washing their hands and writing post-mortems on Herman Cain's candidacy. Jennifer Rubin is first out the box with Cain's political demise: the end of a charming outsider. Aside from the headline, she says nothing complimentary about the man, basically telling him, "here's your hat, what's your hurry?"
"Now, Cain could stay in the race, I suppose, and turn each debate and appearance into a three-ring circus. He could risk losing all the goodwill and future book sales he’s earned up to now. He could continue to inflict humiliation on his family and his supporters, making a great number of his defenders look like dopes. But a smart business guy in control of himself and in command of the situation would realize the jig is up and any future public career depends on the disappearance/atonement/revival pattern that has characterized so many careers (including his current opponent Newt Gingrich.) A decent and disciplined man would not put his political party through this ordeal."
The not-so-strange thing is, the actual voting public could not care less. A recent Post-ABC Poll show most Republicans dismissing the allegations.
Only time with tell, but from the mad fundraising numbers and the polls, it doesn't look like we can count Herman Cain out just yet.
In today's Wall Street Journal, Bishop Harry Jackson poses an interesting comparison/contrast if Cain became the Republican nominee:
"An Obama vs. Cain contest couldn't be cast as a referendum on a black man's qualification to hold the highest office in the land. Instead it would be a choice between two black men who see everything—from the role of government in a free society, to the very definitions of life and family—almost completely differently."
"The Churches of Cain and Obama"
Wow. I'd welcome an actual contest that reflected different perspectives on the Black American experience as opposed to the ramblings of the media-certified talking heads of Smiley, Dyson, and Sharpton.