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.
Painful though it be to hear...and say, the truth is that there's no such thing as an ex-smoker.
The craving is always lurking out there waiting for the next crisis.
Regardless, until it's made illegal and the government stops milking the industry, the right to smoke hangs with every other right.
Exactly.
It was brilliant on several levels.
Look at all the free buzz it is generating.
And I do! There is much more to Herman Cain (and his enigmatic ad) than the establishment punditry can see. Cain is using their willful blindness to his strategic advantage. His campaign is intriguing, and exciting to watch.
Does that also include porn?
Sweet!
I have a friend who has a very difficult time quitting smoking. I’ve asked her if she quit and she will say, “yes.. for two hours.” (usually by hour 4 she has had at least 1/2 one).
I use to work with a woman who had quit for 38 years. I asked her if she still got an urge to smoke after all that time. Her response? “Every day”. Granted, it may not be the same urge as when she first quit but that was sort of sad to me. 38 years and you still want a cigarette every day?!
That’s the aspect of it that statists on the Left just don’t get. They see an un-hip old smoker. We see a middle finger to nanny-statism.
And no, I don’t smoke, never have. Well, not counting a few cigarettes in middle school trying to look cool. Don’t think I ever bought a pack.
Listen to the Marxists howl when they get a good stiff dose of their own ‘In your face’ medicine.
Go Cain!
But he’s making a mistake if he want’s to pick sides on the pro/anti smoking issue. Thousands of conservatives have walked into voting booths and voted to restrict smoking areas or increase cigarette taxes.
Of course he can pivot and assert the ad is about freedom rather than smoking but that’s a difficult line to find.
I hope he’s our next President and I hope he doesn’t pick a battle with the social conservative wing against the libertarian wing.
I quit 27 years ago...my then boyfriend said he would never marry someone who smoked and I knew he meant it. He proposed when I had made it to the one year mark and we just celebrated our 25th Anniversary. : )
However, I can freely say that I always enjoyed smoking and to this day, I still miss it occasionally (Not every day like your friend) It is clearly a psychological addiction that never totally disappears!
By the way, I LOVED the ad!
How many times did it take you to finally quit? And how long have you quit for?
I’ve quit several times, but I LOVE those damned things! It is more of an emotional and mental attachment than a physical one.
Colbert made fun of it too, another segment exposed to Cain.
That’s not universal.
I smoked a pack a day for many years. When I quit, first time I started again when I lived somewhere everyone smokes.
When I quit again I quit, and after a couple years the cravings went away almost entirely.
Every once in a while I’ll catch a whiff and have a momentary relapse, but it’s gone for the most part.
Cigarettes can be beat.
To any smokers out there trying: I say just: Beat them. Do it. Do not hesitate. And do not give up.
Ever.
I have never smoked, but I LOVE that ad! It is a stick in the eye of the PC-nanny staters, but it’s also a throw down to the MSM. It says loud and clear, ‘We’re unorthodox, we’re unPC, and we are totally unafraid of anything you can—or think you can—do to us. Be afraid, very very afraid, b/c the Cain Train is about to flatten what’s left of the Dinosaur Media and reduce them to a pile of smoking rubble.’
I love your snail stories! =)
Quit now for over a decade.
I quit altogether probably 5 times. Twice seriously.
I had gotten off them once, but fell off the wagon when I moved to a country everyone smokes, and guys are almost expected to smoke. I fell quite lamely for peer pressue, and didn’t really stand a chance after the very first puff.
I stopped again after returning stateside, and so far this time has worked.
Don’t miss it now. Even the one in my hand driving, on the stick shift.
My secret was - to stay out of bars for the first several months, completely.
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