Herman Cain is schizophrenic?

[pi-r8]

He figured he could campaign on a single issue- the economy- so he never bothered to prep on any other subject. The sad thing is, it might actually work.

 

[Winner]

If you people don't re-elect Obama*, you should abolish elections and re-join Britain as a protectorate.

Spoiler * :

(* - not because he's a great president, but because he's 10 times more sane than any of the republican candidates)

 

[GoodSarmatian]

If you people don't re-elect Obama*, you should abolish elections and re-join Britain as a protectorate.

Spoiler * :

(* - not because he's a great president, but because he's 10 times more sane than any of the republican candidates)

Playing the arrogant European again ? I can do you one better: It's too late to re-elect Obama, Americans already proved themselves unfit for self-rule when they re-elected Bush.


Anyway, this guy doesn't seem to understand the question at all, or he's in a deep ideological conflict with himself: he wants republican votes and he's basically against abortion, but there's this Libertarian demon constantly whispering into his ear that "government should not make this decision". Apparently he doesn't want government to make any decision.
Usually people who are pro-life think life begins at conception and therefore consider aborion murder, and people who are pro-choice believe an embryo is not a person.It might become on in the future, but it isn't at that's why abortion isn't murder.
This guy believes life begins at conception and abortion should be illegal, but government should not make it this decision.
So what's he saying ? Government should not outlaw murder ? Murder should be ilegal but allowed ? Why doesn't he just admit that he doesnt know what the words legal and ilegal mean ?
Why am I eerily reminded of Captain Kirk logic-bombing a godlike AI ?

 

[Winner]

Playing the arrogant European again ? I can do you one better: It's too late to re-elect Obama, Americans already proved themselves unfit for self-rule when they re-elected Bush.

It never gets old

 

[Leoreth]

Iirc, he only said "abortion should not be legal", from which I infer that he thinks it's morally wrong, but he isn't going to outlaw it as the good libertarian he is.

 

[El_Machinae]

Could it be a shout-out to State's Rights, just bungled?

 

[Quackers]

What he said is quite simple, he doesn't want the government to ban abortion - yet in the private sphere he disagrees and condems it. Which is quite a brave position to hold tbh.

 

[Camikaze]

What he said is quite simple, he doesn't want the government to ban abortion

"People shouldn't just be free to abort..."
"So abortion should be legal? "
"No, abortion should not be legal."

Not sure how they'd go about making it illegal without banning it.

 

[Winner]

If they're all so religious, why don't they say:

"OK, religion tells me abortion is evil. Therefore, I leave it up on our Lord to strike down those sinners who perform it. Who am I to punish them? Only God can be their judge!"

Problem solved

 

[Quackers]

Aight, I miss-read the OP Camikaze. I've just watched video and it is impressive how well he failed to get his point across
So I think my earlier point was just speculation on what he might think

 

[Formaldehyde]

I don't think Cain is schizophrenic. He's just not terribly bright. But most of the Republican candidates suffer from this. It seems to actually help because it shows they can't possibly be elitist.

 

[emzie]

You could have just used "flip-flopper" rather than schizophrenic, which would be a genuinely terrifying condition for a presidential candidate.

Aside from the thread title, Cain seems to try to go the route of "personally against all types of abortion", while not making it government policy, even though he'd also be against people having the right to choose.

You could have stopped at "a genuinely terrifying condition."

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The biggest problem for me is not just what he said, but what it implies.
When he talks about life at conception and sanctity he all but says that abortion is in his eyes murder. Then he goes on to say 'government shouldn't make a decision'.
So government shouldn't ban murder ?
What I actually think is that he doesn't really have an opinion about abortion and went on autopilot. Unfortunately he was using conflicting stock phrases.

 

[useless]

What he said is quite simple, he doesn't want the government to ban abortion - yet in the private sphere he disagrees and condems it. Which is quite a brave position to hold tbh.

Condemning women who use abortion is "Brave"? Amazing.

 

[bhsup]

If they're all so religious, why don't they say:

"OK, religion tells me abortion is evil. Therefore, I leave it up on our Lord to strike down those sinners who perform it. Who am I to punish them? Only God can be their judge!"

Problem solved

Why do you link abortion with religion? Surely if one views a fetus as a living human being, then abortion would be murder in their eyes, yes? Nothing religious about that stance at all. But hey, if the only way you can denigrate someone with those views is to paint them as religious extremists, be my guest. Europeans are quite good at religious intolerance, so it's really no surprise.

(yeah, playing the arrogate american again...never gets old to bash on eurotrash)

What he said is quite simple, he doesn't want the government to ban abortion - yet in the private sphere he disagrees and condems it. Which is quite a brave position to hold tbh.

"People shouldn't just be free to abort..."
"So abortion should be legal? "
"No, abortion should not be legal."

Not sure how they'd go about making it illegal without banning it.

He is probably acknowledging the law of the land, and realizes there is nothing he can do about it, but still voicing his view that it should be banned.

 

[Leoreth]

We're just as intolerant as you. We only apply the same level of intolerance to all religions

But I agree that there was no reason to drag religion into this.

He is probably acknowledging the law of the land, and realizes there is nothing he can do about it, but still voicing his view that it should be banned.

That would be an odd way to phrase it, especially for someone running for president. At least he should make it clear that he wants to change it, regardless of the actual possibility. Because that's what he was asked.

What he said is quite simple, he doesn't want the government to ban abortion - yet in the private sphere he disagrees and condems it. Which is quite a brave position to hold tbh.

Thought that at first as well. While I didn't think this was a good position to hold, at least it would've been refreshing considering the Republican mainstream.

 

[useless]

Why do you link abortion with religion? Surely if one views a fetus as a living human being, then abortion would be murder in their eyes, yes? Nothing religious about that stance at all. But hey, if the only way you can denigrate someone with those views is to paint them as religious extremists, be my guest. Europeans are quite good at religious intolerance, so it's really no surprise.

(yeah, playing the arrogate american again...never gets old to bash on eurotrash)

Well considering that the issue's been hijacked by the American Religious right, it's not really much of a jump to link the issue with religion.

 

[Perfection]

I don't see why one can't be personally against abortion while maintaining it should be legal. I'm personally against other people being dickheads but we can't outlaw dickheadedness.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Well considering that the issue's been hijacked by the American Religious right, it's not really much of a jump to link the issue with religion.

Indeed. One can't very well discuss abortion without considering the religious aspects. While there are a handful of atheists and agnostics who are pro-life and wish to ban it, they are more the exception instead of the rule.

I don't see why one can't be personally against abortion while maintaining it should be legal. I'm personally against other people being dickheads but we can't outlaw dickheadedness.

You can. I really have no problem with people who are personally opposed to it, but who are all in favor of giving the individual the right to decide for herself.

Then there are those like Ron Paul who think the individual states should decide. While I strongly disagree, at least that approach is far better than banning it nationally. At least people in the more backward states could still get legal abortions in the more progressive ones, which was the situation immediately before Roe vs Wade.

 

[Camikaze]

He is probably acknowledging the law of the land, and realizes there is nothing he can do about it, but still voicing his view that it should be banned.

I don't see why one can't be personally against abortion while maintaining it should be legal.

Maybe he was trying to say something that would actually make logical sense (even if it'd be disagreeable), like one of these two things. But we'd have to assume that, because it's not what he actually said. What he actually said was that abortion should be both legal and illegal.