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"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32
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Author:  Jim Wrenn
Bio: Jim Wrenn
Date:  May 25, 2011
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Topic category:  Government/Politics

Herman Cain Exhibits Self-Critical Candor in Explaining Right-of-Return Stumble on Fox News Sunday regarding Palestinian-Israeli Relations
Cain isn't the first candidate lacking knowledge he ought to possess on an important issue, but he's one of the few willing to admit such lack of knowledge.

Cain's common-sense answer to the right-of-return question after Chris Wallace explained the term wasn't very different from the actual Israeli policy, which is not that no Palestinian could ever return to Israel regardless of the circumstances but rather that Israel categorically rejects any claim of a general right of return by Palestinians generally.

            Herman Cain exhibits something rare in politics-- self-critical candor in explaining his right-of-return stumble on Fox News Sunday on Palestinian-Israeli relations in the Middle East.   He also exhibited something not rare in politics-- a candidate lacking knowledge of an important aspect of an important subject.  

            In being interviewed by Sean Hannity on May 23, 2011 (see first link above and video below), Cain admitted that he had not understood the meaning of "right of return" in that context and also described his making such admission as evidence that he does not try to falsely imply knowledge that he lacks.  (I criticized his lack of knowledge and expressed frustration that his campaign's immediate response lacked the candor characteristic of Cain.)

(The part of the above video that includes Cain's admission starts at 3:00)

            Some pundits have incorrectly suggested that the answer Cain gave to Wallace (after Wallace explained Wallace's interpretation of the meaning of the term "right of return" in such context) somehow contradicted Cain's May 23, 2011 statement to Hannity  that his admission of ignorance demonstrates that he doesn't try to fake knowledge he knows he lacks.  An example of such incorrect analysis is that of Tucker Carlson saying (as a guest on RedEye) that Cain's answer to Wallace's question (after Wallace defined the term) was an example of Cain trying to fake knowledge he knows he lacks and that such answer by Cain thus contradicts his claim to Hannity that he (Cain) doesn't try to fake knowledge.  The reason such contention by Carlson (and others) is incorrect is demonstrably obvious from any common-sense interpretation of the colloquy between Cain and Wallace on the subject:  

            On Fox News Sunday, Cain made it obvious that he was not familiar with the term when he twice repeated the term as a question to Chris Wallace:  "Right of Return?   Right of Return?"   That was candid, not deceptive.  Then, after he listened to Wallace's explanation of what Wallace thinks is the meaning of the term as used in the context of Palestinian-Israeli relations, he gave an honest, common-sensible answer to the question as thus framed by Wallace:   His answer was that the Israelis, not the Palestinians, have the right to determine who can enter their country.  He simply did not know that the Israelis have categorically ruled-out any en-masse "right" of return.  (They have not taken the position that Israel would never permit any Palestinian to return to Israel-- instead, they've categorically opposed recognition of any general "right of return" for Palestinians generally-- thus, Cain's common-sense answer is not very different from the actual position of the Israelis.)

            Thus, common sense supports, rather than contradicts, Cain's assertion to Hannity that his (Cain's) admission of lack of knowledge in this instance is consistent with his additional assertion (to Hannity) that he does not try to fake knowledge he knows he lacks.  Thus, in a manner refreshingly different from the behavior of most political candidates, Cain is Able to be self-critically candid.

            Have there been equally stunning gaps in Obama's knowledge?  How about referring to Corpsmen as "corpsemen" (see video below) for starters-- almost unforgivable for one serving as Commander in Chief.  There are numerous others, but that's just the first one that comes to my mind.  The traditionally dominant media (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, NYT, WaPo, LaT, AJ&C, MSNBC, CNN, etc) consistently ignore gaffes by Obama, and they will continue to do so throughout the campaign from now until 2012, but they will seek to magnify every such gaffe by every opponent of Obama.  

            It's just the way the world is. 

--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com.

Permanent links to this installment: 

http://PoliSat.Com/Candid-Cain.htm 

OR

http://polisat.com/DailyPoliticalSatire-Commentary/Archives2011/du20y11m05d25-01.htm 

Jim Wrenn
Political Satire/Commentary at PoliSat.Com (Editor)

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Biography - Jim Wrenn

Jim is a proud descendant of 18th Century criminal exiles from England who swam to the Outer Banks when the British ship taking them to a Georgia penal colony sank in a storm near Cape Hatteras. Having the prescience to prevent their descendants from becoming "TarHeels," they immediately migrated to Virginia, where, within just a few generations they worked their way up into poverty. Jim's grandfather was the first in the family tree to see the distant horizons, but his career was cut short by severe injuries he sustained when a cousin cut down the tree.

After a brief stint in the Amry (ours) following graduation from law school, he began his legal career in the state bureaucracy but was never able to break into the federal bureaucracy. Several years later, he entered the private practice of law and co-founded a small law publishing company. Later, finding the publishing of small laws unstimulating and finding his private practice too private to be lucrative, he began writing political satire/commentary. His greatest vice is taking himself too seriously.

He wrote the definitive books on the Clinton Era Error: the Clinton Liebrary Book (pre-October, 2000), which he later updated as the Clinton Liebrary Book 2001 Edition to include Election 2000, the post-election shennanigans, and related events through August, 2001. The 2001 edition is the only known literary source that conclusively shows why Bill Clinton pardoned Susan McDougal but not Webster Hubbel. It also presciently contains the Billary/Hillary Dueling Memoirs. At every opportunity he shamelessly promotes his books for orders on-line or by fax at www.ClintonLiebraryBook.Com. He's also the Librarian at the Clinton Liebrary (www.ClintonLiebrary.Com), which owns exclusive rights to Bill Clinton's most famous speech as well as Bill Clinton's comments after revelation of the identity of Deep Throat in 2005.

As an amateur scientist as well as a scientific amateur, he de-bunks the man-is-causing-Global "Warming" theory, and predicts that by the middle of the 21st Century (when he will be safely dead) physicists will discover the obvious flaws in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which will lead to vastly-faster-than-light travel through polarization of gravity. As a constitutional-law scholar, he's trying to teach those who hold a static, zero-sum-game view of economic and social theories to understand that "property" is not a "thing" but rather is a human right.

Although he regularly teaches Continuing Legal Education courses to lawyers, he's too-often available through he Rubber Chicken Speakers Bureau to speak on politics, satire, etc., at luncheons, dinners, root canals, funerals, etc. His speaking fees are so outrageously high they border on criminal price-gouging, but as a free-market advocate, he defends his fees on the higher moral ground of charging whatever the traffic will bear. For more information (surely more than one would want or need), go to www.PoliSat.Com.


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