March 27th, 2011

"Racist Conservatives" Punish Black GOP Presidential Hopeful In Iowa: With Most Thunderous Applause Of The Day (Video)

Posted by: Barry Secrest
Published on March 27th, 2011 @ 12:27:52 pm , using 891 words

Posted in Events and Issues: Credible Resources

Huffington Post

By John Ward

DES MOINES - GOP presidential hopefuls Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, John Bolton and Herman Cain spoke on Saturday at an event organized by Rep. Steve King, a Republican from western Iowa.

The day-long meeting for Iowa conservative activists and caucus-goers also included panel discussions on family values and repealing President Obama's health care law.

Barbour was scheduled to speak first, at 9 a.m. local/10 a.m. eastern. Gingrich was expected to speak about an hour later, and Bachmann around 1:30 p.m. local. King also hosted a dinner last night headlined by Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.

King said in an interview Friday night that his role at the meeting is to "facilitate" and not to play king maker, for the moment at least. He did acknowledge that he and Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, have a "tight friendship" and that she "will be able to compete in this state, along with Haley Barbour and everybody else that's in this line up."

"My plan is not secret. I want to promote the caucus, the debate. I want to help shape the planks and the platform of the next president of the United States," he said.

King said that criticism of social conservatives from Libertarian conservatives and others who say the GOP's focus should stay on economic issues is misplaced.

"I'm not having any problem with my party. I think we're--I wouldn't quite say universal, but it is a very strong, broad position that the full spectrum conservative stance is the right place to be. And that is the fiscal and social conservatism that comes in the same package," he said.

"And we trust here in this state that if you get the answers right to the issues of life, and marriage and culture and society, you understand those values and you understand the Constitution itself, then the rest of those decisions will come along and those folks will get the answer right."

Herman Cain Brings Down The House

The loudest, most sustained ovation all day here came not for Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich, or even for Michele Bachmann. It came when Herman Cain, a black conservative Republican and life long businessman, threw a verbal grenade in the general direction of the Democratic party and American liberalism.

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and radio talk show host, said he had been called a racist for criticizing President Obama.

“I get called a whole lot of other things as well for being conservative, because I won’t stay on the Democratic plantation like I’m supposed to just because the color of my skin. It ain’t about color,” he said.

The response from the crowd of several hundred conservatives – just about all of them white men and women – was a split second delayed. They stood and clapped, but after a moment the applause intensified, as Cain’s words sunk in.

Cain’s broadside was the most in-your-face moment of his fiery speech, which left the room abuzz more so than even Michele Bachmann’s remarks. “I don’t try to be politically correct. I just try to be correct,” he said at one point.

His candidacy is not taken seriously by party regulars, but Tea Party organizers in the crowd said Cain has been working hard to gain their support here in Iowa since the summer of 2009.

And his speech had lots of red meat for a Tea Party audience.

“We’ve got some altering and abolishing to do,” Cain said, referencing the Declaration of Independence. “The Founders got it right. It is within the power of the United States of America to alter stuff that we don’t like. We don’t like this radical socialism that’s being shoved down our throats.”

Talking to reporters afterwards, Cain also said he thinks the imposition of Islamic Sharia law is a legitimate threat in America and that he would not appoint any Muslims to any positions in his Cabinet if he were elected.

“I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, this attempt, to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government,” Cain said. “It does not belong in our government. This is what happened to Europe. And little by little, to try to be politically correct, they made this little change. They made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.”

Cain cited the 2009 case of domestic abuse in New Jersey, where a local judge decided not to grant a woman’s restraining order request against her Muslim husband based on the fact that he said his religious beliefs allowed him to have sex with her whenever he wanted. The state’s appellate court overturned the decision in 2010, stating that the man’s religious beliefs could not justify abuse.

He also cited a federal judge’s decision last fall to block a ballot measure that was approved in Oklahoma that would have forbidden state courts from considering sharia law or international law in deciding cases.

“I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their sharia law onto the rest of us,” Cain said.

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