Comments on: Yet another weird Herman Cain campaign ad: "He Carried Yellow Flowers"

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:17:00 +0000

The large quantity of butt shots at the beginning, combined with the “A man was a man, and a man on a horse was just a man on a horse, unless he carried yellow flowers” made me sure that this was going to be a homophobic Brokeback Mountain joke about how teh gheyz are ruining America. I mean, knowing that it was a GOP candidate’s ad + “men used to be men!” + “man on [animal]” + cowboy butt = where else could this be going?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Your wording implies they might have had another black friends before.

Clarence Thomas.

By: librtee_dot_com

librtee_dot_com — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:53:00 +0000

“The Republicans’ new Black friend”

change to:

“The Republicans’ token Black friend”

Your wording implies they might have had another black friends before.

By: librtee_dot_com

librtee_dot_com — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:51:00 +0000

And his tax plan reads ’666′ if you turn it upside down.

By: Richard Archambault

Richard Archambault — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:37:00 +0000

Um.. http://www.nicksearcy.com/gallery/?album=all&gallery=11

By: calum mckinney

calum mckinney — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:08:00 +0000

Yes! I thought this too/hoped for it. I’m always afraid my bent for such theories comes out of the hyper-competency mythos of Harvard/Yale/Oxford men running the world. Some sort of feral security blanket with a double edge.

By: erin jones

erin jones — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:15:00 +0000

There are enough crazy, conflicting and baffling tropes, symbols and plain weirdness in that video to inspire a thesis or perhaps a psychological assessment. I’ve largely avoided Cain unless I’m reading analyses and reporting that are serious in intent. So this first foray into the mind and humor of Herman Cain left me with a chin sore from bouncing off the floor as I managed to get out a “Whu-?”

Aside from that rather lackluster, but eminently strange, performance of “Imagine All the Pizza,” performed for and with a large group of Omaha Caucasians, I have missed out on the manifestations of his flourishing derangement. (What do you want to bet that he never paid royalties to perform that song? Sued? Blame yourself Herman.)

There’s a twisted intellectual in me that is tempted to wade in and research all of his expressions of wit and whackadoo. This guy is a gordian knot of lunacy and his background suggests a man who must be quite different from the persona he’s displaying now.

I’m confident he’s just running for the dough. Grifter on the take, pullin’ a Palin, rakin’ in the moolah, ensuring higher speaking fees and a spot on Faux News. But then I remember that he’s the Koch Bros. pigeon and wonder what the hell they’re doing. Their strategy of backing guaranteed losers who are unmistakably bonkers seems suspect to me.

What are they really planning? Or is this their Achilles Heel? Are they so out of touch with reality that these people seem sane (enough)? Or do they hold such a cynical view of Americans that they think the voting populace won’t notice or object?

By: ernunnos

ernunnos — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:40:00 +0000

* Executed American citizen & family without benefit of trial.

By: mccrum

mccrum — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Christ, what an asshole.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:05:00 +0000

I’d love for their to be ads like this in Australia […] Can we borrow some of yours?

Heck, why don’t you just go ahead and borrow Cain. Keep him for as long as you want.

Longer, even.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:04:00 +0000

Brilliant observation re: Putin’s weird self-promoting videos and these Herman Cain ads. The bottom line is not to take him seriously as a presidential candidate. He’s on the road selling his autobiography and raking in money from donors the same way Sarah Palin has for the past 3 1/2 years. They take the money from the uninformed and use it to support their life style. They need the media attention, too. That’s a big part of their modus operendi. Cain is sadly lacking in campaign offices in various states which speaks volumes to his lack of a serious run for the presidency. We have a word for the Palins and Cains and their ilk: grifters. Rip-off artists big time.

By: Patrick Elliott-Brennan

Patrick Elliott-Brennan — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:54:00 +0000

Well, not being from the US I’ve got a couple of questions:

1. Why is there a lock on the OUTSIDE of the door of the house the woman is in? What is that telling us?

2. Are all US ads so weird or just the ones by the Republicans and fellow travellers? It sort of makes me think of Putin and his strange style of self-promotion.

I’d love for there to be ads like this in Australia. It would make them worth watching. 99+% of voting age Australians vote but the ads are not as interesting or as weirdly compelling.

Can we borrow some of yours?

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:32:00 +0000

A nobody selling a book.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:19:00 +0000

And the lace curtains were on the outside of the window.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Is that supposed to be the original Chicken Ranch? Also, too many butt shots IMHO.

By: oddboyout

oddboyout — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:08:00 +0000

I’m not a flower expert, but Wikipedia’s article “Language of flowers” says that yellow carnations represent rejection or disdain.

By: asterios9

asterios9 — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:30:00 +0000

I like the way he criticizes Obama for being “a community organizer” who is famous for his fancy speeches. That is, at best, the ’04 Obama. The guy’s kinda updated his resume since then.

By: Snig

Snig — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:26:00 +0000

Silly party candidate, taken seriously.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:26:00 +0000

What really sells it for me is the latch on the OUTSIDE of the little house.

Herman Cain – He believes women should be locked up when you’re not visiting.

By: Frank Diekman

Frank Diekman — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:24:00 +0000

So, wait. It’s a campaign ad – using the Wild West as ametaphor – but then quits halfway through to break the fourth wall- to have an actor talk about how a candidate is more “real” than the President, because the President (like the seven presidents before him) uses a teleprompter to deliver speeches written by speech writers – and then he goes back to acting, forgets his line, and has to be fed it? And on top of that it’s a campaign ad for an African-American candidate that’s wistful for a time when African-Americans lacked basic human rights like voting? And the hook is the guy’s carrying a bouquet of yellow flowers that he uses to pimp-slap an African-American character? Is that what I’m seeing?

By: jimh

jimh — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:14:00 +0000

Needs more fucking Deadwood.
Also, less trollface.

By: ill lich

ill lich — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:08:00 +0000

“There was a time in America, when a man was a man”

or in some cases, 3/5 of a man, according to the law.

By: irksome

irksome — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

“Surrealism is alive and well.”

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

…is his appeal basically to white people who have some need to feel like they’re just as oppressed as black people have been over the last few centuries?

That’s a pretty big constituency. Scroll down a few posts and you’ll see a comment thread where a lot of readers from this very site try to explain away things like white kids doing blackface for Halloween because somebody else dressed up as the Swiss Miss once.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:58:00 +0000

Isn’t that what happened in 2008, except for the denouement. From the moment that he picked S-Pal as his running mate, I assumed that Senator McCain was a sleeper agent.

By: hypnosifl

hypnosifl — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:40:00 +0000

Equally crazy, but in a less silly way, is this one about his 9-9-9 plan, where he starts intoning “our tax code is the 21st century version of slavery–the IRS has become the overseer of the American people”, and later quotes Martin Luther King in a fiery speech about his tax plan where he yells out “we’ll all be able to say, free at last, free at last!” finally ending the ad with the line “we will replace oppression with prosperity”. Talk about your tasteless analogies…is his appeal basically to white people who have some need to feel like they’re just as oppressed as black people have been over the last few centuries?

By: mercator

mercator — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:38:00 +0000

These ads have me thinking (dreaming?) that Cain is in the process of pulling the biggest political prank in history. I can just see him after winning the GOP nomination and, at the final debate with Mr. Obama, saying ‘Barry, you are absolutely right, I hereby resign from the election and will vote for you”

By: Warren_Terra

Warren_Terra — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:25:00 +0000

Someone please explain who this chap is for us British folks, using 5 words or fewer?

How’ bout: “America: dumb as you feared”?

Or maybe: “The Republicans’ new Black friend”

By: irksome

irksome — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:17:00 +0000

I expected his cup to be full of fur…

Hypocrisy: complaining about someone using a teleprompter whilst using a teleprompter.
: commenting on being a “real” anything while your stunt-double does the shot.

Herman Cain is a Koch Bros. enterprise.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:06:00 +0000

I think it's a clever tribute to Living in Oblivion.