Posted on 10/29/2011 10:00:12 AM PDT by freespirited
While Herman Cain's viral Web ad — in which chief of staff Mark Block pointedly takes a drag from a cigarette after extolling the presidential candidate's virtues — might have raised eyebrows among political strategists and heckles in Internet comment sections, the ad seems to have also raised the rate at which the insurgent campaign is bringing in fundraising dollars.
Cain has brought in nearly $2 million within the last week alone, nearly doubling his weekly returns earlier this month, his campaign told The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Cain only brought in $2.8 million over the entire third quarter.
"Our donations online have shot up a lot since that ad,” Block told the Journal. “The money we are getting is wildly beyond our expectations."
Cain's campaign has argued that the ad was a manifestation of a nontraditional, down-to-earth style that has caught the Republican zeitgeist. The polls seem to echo that analysis, with Cain leading Mitt Romney 24 percent to 20 in a Fox News survey released earlier this week.
The candidate said earlier this week that the ad "did a great job" and represented his grassroots message.
"We have a saying in my campaign — let Herman be Herman. This is the attitude that I have when I do debates. This is the attitude I have when I do interviews: Let Herman be Herman. Mark Block is my chief of staff. And we also say, 'Let Mark be Mark,' " Cain said on Fox News. "Mark happens to be a smoker. He knows it's a bad habit, but he smokes. And so we weren't trying to send any subliminal message whatsoever. Many of us found it hilarious, because we know Mark Block."
Block said the ad enforced the idea of Cain as a "different kind of presidential candidate."
“Yes, the smoking part of that ad was controversial — and I don’t in any way condone smoking — but the message that Herman Cain is a different kind of presidential candidate is certainly resonating across the country,” Block said.
Not only that, but I felt kike a “crackhead” using 3 fingers to hold that damn thing up!
Oh my goodness, NoGrayZone. Can you imagine driving, trying to quit smoking by using this thick, cigar looking thing and being pulled over because the cop thought you were using illegal drugs?!! LOL! “No, officer, it is an E-CIG.. it isn’t a joint but an E-CIG. No.. that isn’t what the young people are calling it these days! It looks like a cigarette but isn’t. No... there isn’t hallucinating drugs in it. It is just vapor”. Just your luck, huh?!!
That is what I’m afraid of!
Block is also a ‘friend of Bill’s, one day at a time...
Good point...I guess I need to read the entire thread, lol.
I had seen other threads on this ad that seemed to have whole hearted support. Mea Culpa.
You will find that if you smoke homemade cigs, store bought cigs taste like crap....really oily and nasty, and burn up like tissue paper...once you go to homemade, you don’t go back....you smoke them, and eventually smoke less and less....
BTW...I’m NOT an addict, I smoke for POLITICAL reasons
Is that you Rove ?
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