Cain on abortion: the epilogue

After considerable confusion, Herman Cain said he was "100% pro-life. End of story."

But the saga continues as Cain's views on abortion continue to evolve:

When pressed by CNN on his position, however, a campaign adviser said Cain follows the same policy used by the George W. Bush administration, which said abortions should be allowed in the instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at stake.

"He has learned more about the issue," including the number of women affected in those instances, the adviser told CNN, explaining Cain's view.

Ace:

The problem is that it's [---damned] scary that he's only recently "learned more about the issue" and apparently didn't bother to think about the so-called "hard case exceptions" until now.

I guess he pretty much just knows 9-9-9, because he doesn't seem to have given a moment's thought to anything else.

There is a big problem in claiming you Know What's In A Candidate's Heart when it's pretty clear the candidate himself doesn't know.

Matthew Archbold:

Learned more about the issue?! What? When? Or do they mean he's got a better chance of getting elected if he touts exceptions?

Anyone else worried about a candidate who's running to be the head of the free world and is still learning the issues? He'd never thought before about abortion in light of cases of rape or incest before? Seriously? Give me a break. I'm thinking Herman Cain saw some polling.

I'm done with this guy. I'm not even going to consider him a serious candidate. It's not just about the exceptions he's touting now, it's that he clearly hasn't thought any of it through.

The guy's a joke.

Politicaljunkie Mom:

No wonder Herman Cain says he’d be Romney’s Veep. He seems to have taken a few flip-flop lessons of his own.

Then there's his lack of knowledge on world affairs. He thinks he can cram for that exam, but I don't think so:

Addressing those who have said he lacks foreign policy knowledge, Cain told Fox News host Sean Hannity, “To those critics, I would say to them, ‘Do you think I’m dumb enough not to study up on these issues?’ I’ve been studying up on these issues for months.”

“I can now explain right of return to any reporter better than they understand right of return because if you get caught off guard, you go to school and you learn,” Cain added.

He said that he been talking to former ambassadors and national security advisers, and speaking to various experts in order “to get up to speed on some of the situations we have around the world.”

Maybe he just needs more sleep? Tina Korbe:

A couple of gaffes on the campaign trail have led Herman Cain’s campaign managers to one conclusion: He needs more sleep. Cain’s confusing comments to Piers Morgan about his stance on abortion and his quickly-retracted remark to Wolf Blitzer in support of a hypothetical exchange of Gitmo prisoners for a single American would never have happened, they say, if the candidate were better rested. [. . .]

Yet, at a recent focus group in Ohio, not a single participant raised a hand in answer to the question, “Do you think this person [Cain] could be president of the United States? Is anybody willing to raise your hand and say, ‘I would be comfortable if he became the next president of the United States?’”

It seems that, for all that potential voters like Cain and are intrigued by him, they’re still not quite sold on him as presidential material. But, from start to finish, Cain has taken his own campaign seriously — and this latest effort to adopt a more deliberate pace is yet another indication of that. Perhaps that will eventually translate into voter confidence in him as not merely an interesting, rather unprecedented frontrunner — but also as a potential president.

P.S. One thing Cain might not have to pace so conscientiously now as in the past is money. The campaign reported a respectable haul of $3 million in the month of October.

So, while he continues to surge, Americans still have serious reservations about his qualifications.

His campaign is spread thin:

He’s carving out an unorthodox — and some say impossible — path to the White House, largely eschewing early voting states to focus heavily on the South — where tea party groups, social conservatives and evangelical voters that make up the backbone of his support hold sway. It’s been weeks since Cain has set foot in Iowa or New Hampshire. Instead, he’s barnstormed through Tennessee and Alabama, states that don’t hold primaries until March.

Perhaps his support, like his organization, may not have much holding it up:

There is simply no precedent for a candidate like Mr. Cain, one with such strong polling but such weak fundamentals. We do have some basic sense that both categories are important. This evidence is probably persuasive enough to say that Mr. Cain’s chances are much less than implied by his polling alone. They may, in fact, be fairly slim.

But slim (say, positing Mr. Cain’s odds at 50-to-1 against) is much different than none (infinity-to-1 against). We don’t know enough about the way these factors interact, and we can’t be sure enough that the way they’ve interacted in the past will continue on into the future, to say that Mr. Cain has no chance or effectively no chance.

But some on the left are taking him seriously enough to go after him in their usual way. Stay tuned.

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Follow-up: Cain clarifies yet again!

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Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for the link.
Thanks, also, to Doug Ross for same.
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