Herman Cain gets Secret Service detail to protect him from the media

[JollyRoger]

When I first read last night that Cain got Secret Service protection, I thought about starting a thread with the obvious joke stated in the thread title. Turns out, it is no joke:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain began receiving protection from the U.S. Secret Service Thursday, his campaign said, making the Georgia businessman the first GOP presidential contender to received stepped-up security on the campaign trail.

Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said Thursday night that the campaign asked for the protection after The Washington Post posted an article online that morning detailing a series of physical skirmishes involving journalists at Cain rallies.

Gordon would not say how many Secret Service agents would be positioned with Cain, but the spokesman said the coverage began Thursday night in New York, where Cain taped an interview on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”

On the campaign trail, Cain “draws anywhere from a dozen to 50 media at his events," Gordon said. "When he gets out at a rally or a campaign stop, it has been increasingly common for media to be physically putting themselves and others in danger by trying to follow him with a lot of heavy equipment and cameras in close quarters like we saw yesterday."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/cain-to-receive-secret-service-protection/2011/11/17/gIQAsCiwVN_blog.html

I wonder if an agent is expected to intercept Cain's foot before it gets to Cain's mouth.

 

[GenMarshall]

Now this is getting ridiculous .

 

[Hygro]

Rachel Maddow's theory is proving increasingly likely.

 

[warpus]

Who's paying for all this?

 

[Silurian]

Are they worried that he will be given vegetables?

 

[IglooDame]

Rachel Maddow's theory is proving increasingly likely.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what's her theory?

 

[JollyRoger]

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what's her theory?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=445756

Update:

Perhaps the Cain campaign is trying to out-flip-flop the Romney campaign.

Herman Cain's campaign is pushing back against the suggestion it requested Secret Service protection as a way to keep media at bay and limit the access reporters will have to the candidate.

"It has nothing to do with the media, it has nothing to do with reporters," campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon said of the request for Secret Service protection.

Gordon said the campaign had requested protection "a couple weeks ago" after having received a series of threats. But Gordon said he would not comment on the nature of the threats or any specific instances.

Gordon's comment to NBC News came after a report by the Washington Post, in which Gordon seemed to indicate that the members of the media trailing his campaign were contributors to the decision to request a Secret Service detail.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/18/8882281-cain-camp-secret-service-detail-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-media?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[Cutlass]

Who's paying for all this?

The taxpayer. As usual.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I could understand if his life was in danger, but it sounds like he just doesn't want to be inconvenienced by reporters.

Welcome to politics; people notice you when you're prominent in it. Go figure!

 

[warpus]

The taxpayer. As usual.

So any political party can get their presidential candidate "free" secret service protection?

 

[Cutlass]

So any political party can get their presidential candidate "free" secret service protection?

They can request it. The Secret Service will decide if the threat warrants it. It really is very early in the process for them to be protecting a candidate. I smell politics in the whole thing.

 

[amadeus]

I thought he was getting it as a former Federal Reserve official. They have Service guys for candidates too?

 

[warpus]

You know.. I bet that eventually all of the 1% are going to have secret service protection, paid for by the 99%'s tax dollars.

 

[JollyRoger]

It is interesting that we are providing secret service protection for a book tour. Hopefully Cain is having to assign future royalty payments towards reimbursement.

 

[Cutlass]

I thought he was getting it as a former Federal Reserve official. They have Service guys for candidates too?

Only ones they have some reason to think there's a threat against. Hillary had(s) because she was First Lady. Obama had protection start during the 2008 primaries. The eventually party nominee will get protection until one of them loses.

 

[JollyRoger]

Looks like they aren't protecting him fully:

Herman Cain suggested Friday that the Taliban were playing a role in Libya's new government, adding another foreign policy misstep to his stumbling presidential campaign.

The week opened with Cain struggling to answer whether he supported President Barack Obama's foreign policy in Libya. He ended his week trying to blame reporters for the moment, which was captured on video and quickly spread around the Internet.

Cain's critics seized on Monday's incoherent answer as the latest evidence that the former pizza executive is unprepared to be the GOP's nominee. Then Cain gave his critics another foreign policy error on video Friday.

"Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you've got Taliban and al-Qaida that's going to be part of the government?" Cain asked reporters in Orlando. "Do I agree with not knowing the government was going to — which part was he asking me about? I was trying to get him to be specific and he wouldn't be specific."

http://news.yahoo.com/cain-suggests-taliban-running-libya-002006496.html

 

[katipunero]

^ i read somewhere that the reason for the Secret Service protection is primarily because Cain keeps shooting himself in the foot. the perennial gaffes and blunders are what is killing him at the moment.

 

[Lord of Elves]

I think realistically we should be more concerned about protecting Mr. Cain from the Internet.

Link to video.