WASHINGTON - Rick Perry and Herman Cain have chosen far different methods in their race to recover first and best from the crises that have rocked their presidential campaigns. Humor is Perry’s choice. For Cain, defiance.
The assignment for both men: Fit the response to the predicament, with little margin for error.
Perry rushed to the talk circuit in a bid to persuade Republican voters not to take his forgetful Wednesday night debate “oops’’ so seriously.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about - I think things went well,’’ the Texas governor joked the next evening on David Letterman’s “Late Show.’’ “I wanted to help take the heat off my buddy Herman Cain.’’
He certainly did, at least for a day, with the stunning 54-second brain freeze in which Perry tried and failed to recall a third Cabinet agency he would abolish.
Cain, a week-and-a-half into denying at least four sexual harassment accusations, finally was able to talk about something else. Facing serious allegations, he has not been laughing about any of it - with the brief exception of his reaction Thursday to a question about Anita Hill, who had accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during Thomas’s confirmation hearing.
“Is she going to endorse me?’’ Cain replies on camera, bursting out laughing.
Yesterday, he was back to explaining himself.
“He said it in a humorous way, I gave back a humorous response,’’ Cain said on Fred Dicker’s radio show in Albany, N.Y. “It was no way intended to be an insult to Anita Hill or anybody else.’’
Cain, the former chief executive of Godfathers Pizza, has opted for defiance, firmly denying all allegations as pushes his campaign toward the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. “Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been through hell,’’ Cain told his supporters in Kalamazoo, Mich. “But here’s the good news: It didn’t kill me or slow me down one bit.’’
Private polling suggests the harassment controversy has taken a bite out of Cain’s once-solid lead in Iowa. And a new nationwide CBS News poll out yesterday indicates he has lost support among women.
The CBS News poll, conducted Nov. 6-10 during the span of both crises, suggests a three-way tie for the nomination between Cain, Mitt Romney, and a resurgent Newt Gingrich among GOP primary voters.
Crisis management is a distinct presidential fitness test. It can offer a hint of how the hopefuls might, as president, make snap judgments on sober matters in the White House.
“The crisis creates, really, a stage,’’ said Daniel Diermeier, a professor and expert on reputation management at Northwestern University. “All eyes are on the leader, and how they conduct themselves leaves a very long and profound impression on the audience.’’
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - After several months of mostly keeping his distance, President Obama yesterday injected himself into the talks among the congressional deficit-reduction panel.
Obama made separate phone calls to Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democratic, and Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, urging the cochairs of the bipartisan committee to reach a deal that will cut at least $1.2 trillion from the projected budget deficit over the next 10 years.
It was a departure from the White House’s strategy to keep the president away from the talks.
With less than two weeks before a Nov. 23 deadline to unveil a plan for Congress to vote on and with rhetoric from both sides heating up after weeks of relative silence, Obama took the opportunity to lend his voice to the discussion before leaving for a nine-day swing through the Asia-Pacific region. He will return just a few days before the committee must present its plan to Congress.
Obama told Murray and Hensarling that he would not accept any measure that would alter the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs that would be triggered by a failure to reach a deal, a White House spokesman said. Some lawmakers have hinted that they should have the option to change or eliminate the trigger to prevent what some consider draconian cuts in 2013.
The trigger of the automatic cuts “was agreed to by both parties to ensure that there was a meaningful enforcement mechanism to force a result from the committee,’’ said spokesman Jay Carney. “Congress must not shirk its responsibilities.’’
Meanwhile, congressional aides say that discussions will continue over the weekend among some of the 12-member panel. Democrats insist they need more revenues from corporations and the nation’s richest taxpayers if they are to agree to significant cuts to entitlement programs; Republicans want a deal that is substantially weighted toward spending cuts, with higher revenues only the result of a tax code overhaul that would include lower marginal tax rates.
Alex Katz
MAULDIN, S.C. - Mitt Romney did not win in South Carolina in 2008, but he is back in the state and looking to capitalize on his strong position atop this year’s field of Republican presidential candidates. He hopes to sway voters who were cool to him four years ago.
The former Massachusetts governor’s mission recently became easier, as rivals Herman Cain and Rick Perry struggle to mend damaged campaigns ahead of tonight’s debate on foreign policy.
Romney’s strategy is to maintain the steady, it’s-all-about-the-economy campaign that’s landed him in the top tier and, behind the scenes, prepare for any of his rivals to rise.
Associated Press