James Carville Goes Off on Herman Cain Ad, Campaign Manager
People have called it both postmodern genius and amateur hour but Democratic strategist James Carville doesn’t think Herman Cain’s campaign manager was in the right state of mind when he taped that now viral ad that features him smoking a cigarette.
“If that guy wasn’t drunk I haven’t taken a drink in my life…I mean he was drunk or stoned. It was some kind of chemical in him I guarantee you that,” Carville said.
“Herman Cain is not going to be the Republican nomination for president. I mean, what he is is a national distraction and maybe not a bad one in the middle of this horrific recession,” he added.
Carville dismissed Cain’s candidacy but the latest polls show that Cain is right behind Romney in the early primary states and according to yesterday’s NY Times/ CBS national poll Cain has an edge on Romney, 25% to 21%.
“Every time you see these polls Romney can’t get above 25%. They don’t want to be for Romney. It is perfectly clear. Everybody goes up, everybody goes down, Romney stays the same,” Carville said.
The flip-flop charges are back against Romney, something he also went thru during the 2008 campaign. But still Carville told me he “can’t imagine” anything standing between Romney and the nomination.
Stealing a line from Sherlock Holmes via a New York Times’ Ross Douthat column, Carville said “When you eliminate the impossible all you’re left with is the improbable. Hello Mitt!”
“I mean Rick Perry has completely blown himself up, there is zero chance that Herman Cain is going to be the nominee. Unless – the only thing that I can see is the Republicans just don’t like [Romney] enough that he can’t accumulate half the delegates as he goes through this,” he said.
And what about a Rick Perry comeback?
“The best thing that Rick Perry can do for himself, and his family, and his friends is just get out of the race and go back to Texas. This man is evidently not up to this. He had plenty of chances to do it, he can’t debate, he can’t give a speech, he can’t poll a position paper, he can’t go on television,” Carville said.
Watch the interview here: