Politi-Score: Citizen Cain

Before we know the final outcome of the issues Herman Cain has been experiencing lately, and he is still a leading candidate, this may now be a good time to take a look at his Politi-Score.

Maybe there isn't very much to what
Herman Cain says he can deliver.

When candidate Bill Clinton experienced something somewhat similar back in 1992, he overcame it and went on to become president for two terms; unless things get far worse, Herman Cain can do the same. Although listening to some of the (Republican) pundits, it doesn’t look like he’ll be their nominee. While I hear people like Ann Coulter say that Democrats fear a Conservative Black more than anything, I haven’t seen any indication. If he was nominated, I think it would be great to see him run against Obama—it would really mark the progress of our country.

But to get back to Cain’s Politi-Score: It’s at the bottom of the barrel. It’s the lowest of all the current Republican candidates…even lower than perennial flame thrower Michele Bachmann. At the time I computed the Truth Index for the first 9 months of 2011, he was next to the bottom for all those with 10 PF rulings or more, only worsted by sometimes candidate Donald Trump, who got his pants set on fire with birther remarks until Obama released his long-form certificate earlier this year.

While some argue that FactCheck.Org has higher standards and perhaps less biased reporting than PolitiFact (PF), it recently published quite a derogatory article in which it basically fact-checked the course of Cain’s statements in regard to the sexual harassment accusations he has been facing. Those have not been included in my Politi-Score computations, of course. The article was entitled “Cain’s Pattern of Evasion and Misdirection -- The GOP candidate contradicts himself on abortion, 9-9-9 and now on allegations of sexual harassment.” Here are some choice excerpts:

Politico reported that two women accused him of inappropriate behavior while he served as head of the National Restaurant Association and that both women received financial payments from the trade group. Cain has denied the allegations. At first, Cain also denied that either woman received a settlement. But later the same day, he acknowledged that in at least one case “there was some sort of settlement or termination” worth “maybe three months’ salary.” The next day Cain said it was “in the vicinity of three to six months.” The New York Times reports it was a year’s salary….

In addition to this pattern of evasion and misdirection, Cain also has a proven ability to spread outrageously false information — such as accusing Planned Parenthood of “genocide” and concentrating abortion clinics in black neighborhoods…

Herman Cain… revels in being an unconventional candidate. His campaign is perhaps best exemplified by a viral Web ad of his cigarette-smoking chief of staff declaring that “America has never seen another candidate like Herman Cain,” and then taking a long drag on a cigarette and blowing smoke….

But as he rises in the polls, Cain has come under attack from rivals and has found himself being held to the same standards as conventional top-tier candidates. He’s finding out that even unconventional candidates cannot blow smoke and get away with it.

Spread outrageously false information….Blow smoke and get away with it? I think if I heard that coming from PF’s Lou Jacobson, my conservative counterpart would be having a cow with what he would call “editorializing versus fact-checking.”

Cain had 34 statements reviewed: 22 by PolitiFact, 6 by the Washington Post Fact Checker and 6 by FactCheck.Org. Here’s how he looked overall and with each checker using the PF Truth Index app format:

Lots of red in Cain's Politi-Score and it's not because he's Republican.

There were six re-covered fact-checks, and the fact-checkers were across the board in agreement on these “rulings.” 

Dressed to the Nines. Cain’s 9-9-9 Tax Plan was the most covered/re-covered , although the statements weren’t always the exact same ones, since “9-9-9” for all intents and purposes is serving as his campaign slogan. The objectives of those fact-checks were pretty much the same, however; an analysis of how the plan would affect the rich, middle, and the lower income taxpayer, plus assessments of how much revenue it would generate.

Factcheck.Org, again, used the most disparaging terminology, using a quote in its title from a "former chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation” that it was “a terrific example of fiscal hocus pocus.” They quote a research paper on the plan by Edward Kleinbard, a professor of law at the University of Southern California:

The 9-9-9 Plan functions as an effective 27 percent payroll tax on wage income. By imposing an effective 27 percent flat tax on wage income, the 9-9-9 Plan would materially raise the tax burden on many low- and middle-income taxpayers, who today face little or no tax under the income tax, and a 15.3 percent effective payroll tax burden.

The Washington Post Fact Checker and PolitiFact both examined a statement Cain made in the Las Vegas debate on October 18, that the plan "does not raise taxes on those that are making the least." WaPo called it “flat wrong” and PolitiFact used an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, and concluded:

…it would raise income taxes on people who now have low tax burdens due to exemptions and deductions. The Tax Policy Center analysis adds more detail and found that high percentages of lower-income tax filers would see tax increases.

Galveston Oh Galveston. PolitiFact basically duplicated this ruling on Cain, doing one in June and one in September (it was also covered by FactCheck.Org). Cain, like fellow candidate Michele Bachmann, tends to repeat and even refine certain assertions even when they’re debunked (PolitiFact calls them “golden oldies”).

Galveston County employees opted out of Social Security and went with their own retirement system; in some cases it does pay retirees more initially than Social Security, but in some cases it does not—it also does not provide for a cost of living adjustment. So it’s not conclusive that what Cain claims is true—which is grounds for a Half True at PF for both the original and refined to “50% more” statements by Cain, and a “somewhat off base” judgment from FactCheck.Org:

Herman Cain was somewhat off base when he touted a privatized alternative to Social Security…

That’s no longer true for everyone. Cain, a businessman, was referring to the retirement plan for Galveston County government workers begun in 1981, when it was still possible for local governments to opt out of Social Security coverage for their employees. It currently covers about 5,500 persons, and the man who administers it for the county told us Cain’s 50 percent figure is far too high for many of them. “If you are low-income [$25,000 a year or less], it’s probably about 20 percent higher than Social Security, on average,” said Rick Gornto, president of First Financial Benefits Inc., which runs the plan for Galveston County. Gornto told us in a telephone interview that Galveston workers making $50,000 and up probably do get at least 50 percent higher initial benefits than they would under Social Security.

Both PolitiFact and FactCheck.Org found Cain’s death-panel inferenced statement that “he’d be dead under Obamacare” because bureaucrats would not have allowed him chemo treatments for cancer to be False (i.e., no such bureaucrats with such authority under Obamacare), as well as a statement that the EPA would be regulating dust in 2012.

Finally and seriously, Cain made a significant allegation with respect to Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, which was covered in some detail by all three fact-checkers. He stated that Sanger wanted to “prevent black babies from being born.” Both PolitiFact and the Washington Post Fact Checker gave him the worst possible rulings on this allegation, and FactCheck.Org called it a "false attack."   My conservative counterpart defended Cain’s statement in an April blog post, and for that reason a critique of his review of a PF ruling on this claim of Cain’s is going to be posted separately as an "archival" Little White Lie. Don’t touch that dial. 



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