Unable To Produce More Cain Evidence, Politico's Allen Brags Of Big Number of 'Twitter Mentions'
"This is the biggest single Twitter controversy of the campaign. 48,000 mentions!"
That was Mike Allen doing his best "look--a squirrel!" dodge on today's Morning Joe. Pressed by Joe Scarborough as to whether Politico had any more details beyond its story's vague allegation that Herman Cain had made gestures "that were not overtly sexual but that made women uncomfortable," Allen's telling first instinct was to point to the story's popularity on a social networking site. Video after the jump.
Allen subsequently recycled Jonathan Martin's already-stated claim that Cain had invited a woman up to his hotel room. But he was unable to cite a single additional fact. Throughout his appearance, Allen had the air of an over-caffeinated campaign aide to an opposing candidate believing he was onto a story that could crush Cain.
Watch Allen's weak diversionary effort.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mike Allen, you had Cain defenders yesterday seizing upon a line that Politico wrote about gestures made by Cain toward these women that were, quote, non-sexual in nature. Just to confirm you have evidence as well of sexually inappropriate behavior?
MIKE ALLEN: What the women said was that he said things that made people feel uncomfortable in that way. This story clearly resonated with people. There's an estimate out there that this is the biggest single Twitter controversy of the campaign. 48,000 mentions of Herman Cain on Twitter yesterday. That's more than the mention of any Republican candidate ever.
- Mark Finkelstein's blog
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Comments
That's his evidence...?
Submitted by NeoKong on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 8:42am.
It was big on Twitter.
A new standard in journalistic excellence.
What next ?
Will he brag about how his mother taped the story on the refrigerator door....?
I wonder what percentage of
Submitted by Gat New York on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:08am.
I wonder what percentage of those messages were pro-Cain and condemning Politico?
Well, that's what really
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 8:47am.
Well, that's what really counts to the anti-Cain crowd: not whether the story is true, but the amount of "play" it's getting.
Politico
Submitted by bkeyser on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 8:56am.
"Legitimizing the National Enquirer, one story at a time."
By the way Politico, how long after the National Enquirer published their first story on the John Edwards baby on board story did you get around to acknowledging it?
And, how long after Anthony Weiner started showing nude pictures of himself to a college student via the vaunted Twitter, did you call for his resignation?
And now this.
But what he didn't mention...
Submitted by Turn Right on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 8:59am.
But what he didn't mention was that most of them are twittering back and forth discussing what a lame political hack he is.
Politico jumped the shark on
Submitted by inquiringmind on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:29am.
Politico jumped the shark on this one.
Politico
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 11:12am.
lives in a shark tank. They jumped in LONG ago.
There was no evidence presented in the first place
Submitted by c5then on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:30am.
"Some say" is not evidence. Using unnamed sourced is basically so the "journalist" doesn't have to say "I think".
From now on all Twitter mentions of this attack should end with the hashtag #CainLynching
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Sounds like a racist attack to me.
Submitted by richflanj on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:31am.
Let me see if I have this right:
A white man writes a story accusing a black man of sexual misconduct. he has no credible evidence, just vague sources from over 15 years ago that he refuses to identify.
All this "reporter" is missing is his sheet and a pointy white hat.
Look - a slobbering dweeb on
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:32am.
Look - a slobbering dweeb on MJ! This guy set my radar off the first time I saw him speak/spit words.
Ronald Reagan
Should have seen him slobber with a Palin hit piece
Submitted by Texndoc on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 2:11pm.
He used to get so bug eyed and tongue twisted with a Palin hit piece. He was so excited he'd bounce up and down.
Texndoc
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 3:26pm.
I know, huh? It's like he's a happy puppy, and the happier he is, the nastier the hit job!
Ronald Reagan
Typical Politico hit piece.
Submitted by KyWriter on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:40am.
These clowns are not only desperate to slam down Herman Cain (which they cannot legitimately do), they are even more desperate to ingratiate themselves with their dwindling number of viewers. It's all inevitable: fence straddlers are falling away from the libtard camp and bells are ringing like a four-alarm fire.
Make Believe Media
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:40am.
So, Herman Cain "made two women uncomfortable"?
That's all they've got?
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
That's it. These kind of
Submitted by Gat New York on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:11am.
That's it.
These kind of falacious claims are made every day in our PC corporate world.
Employees do it to try and protect themselves from getting fired - because they got a bad peformance review - or to try and extort money from a company knowing standard procedure is pay rather than argue.
Gat,
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:19am.
Also, if these women had lawyers they went after the deep pockets - the Restaurant Association. If the Association settled separately and they obviously wanted to keep it quiet then why would Cain be involved in their settlement. Cain may know that the situation was 'taken care of' or the case was over but the details may never have been expressed to him unless he was an active participant in the claims against the association. Completely hypothetical.
It's big on Twitter!!
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:43am.
Well that seals the deal for me; Cain must withdraw!!
48,000 tweets? That's a lot of birds.
Submitted by iamsaved on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 9:57am.
A lie can be repeated 48 million times but it's still a lie.
Scareborrow
Submitted by Gat New York on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:14am.
This morning Joe Scareborrow (the Morning Schmo as Levin calls him) went on an inexplicable tirade calling Cain a "liar."
I'm not going to go into explaining why Cain did not lie, but I wanted to point out once and for all that this little FORMER GOP congressman is a poor excuse for a human being and should never be allowed to show his mug at another GOP meeting of any kind.
morning joe
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:27am.
Were any of these women accusing Cain found dead in his office? If not, then you could see why Joe would have a hard time believing such flimsy excuses.
Let me guess what actually happened ...
Submitted by EllisWyatt on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:24am.
Herman Cain had made gestures "that were not overtly sexual but that made women uncomfortable,"
He waved to them and said "Hello". Sexist.
"Elections have consequences" ... unless the Republicans win
"Dissent is Patriotic" ... when it's against conservative policies.
Message to Herman Cain
Submitted by NVRAT on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:32am.
Sue the bastards for Defamation of Character, both Politico and the so called reporter that started the story, Allen, Scarborough, and any other member of politico or MSNBC staff. After all that's what the Democrats or other Liberals would do.
I watched a very humorous yesterday
Submitted by Conservator on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 11:21am.
Jonathan Martin doesn't have any real evidence that Herman Cain truly harassed anyone. Some one fed him the story and he ran with it. When he was pressured for more information on the women who filed the lawsuit, the best he could come up with was the women each received a FIVE FIGURE settlement. That could be as low as $10,000 to a high of $99,000 - I'm sure it was somewhere near $40 to $50 thousand which is what one would expect as a Mr. Cain indicated.
PolitocObama
Submitted by greydawg on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 11:57am.
As long as Obama keeps pumping the homosexual and abortion agenda, he will be a hero to those fellas at Politico and they will strive to vanquish all his foes. Just goes to show - fiction writing pays well.
twit chatter ≠ validity
Submitted by kata on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 5:42pm.
I'd wager a lot of the activity is bot-driven. Something like Twitter Analytics could condense the chatter and make sense of the patterns.
But that would resemble journalism!
Pathetic Little Demon Minds!
Submitted by billwhit1357 on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 4:51am.
All of America knows this is BS but the Leftist Mentally Challenged Obamatrons will do and say anything for their pathetic messiah. Twitter Tweats, Plleeaasse, get real! And why are the women not interviewed or their names released? BS is BS, no matter where it comes from and the Left are experts on BS! This will not hurt Mr Cain at all. Mr Cain has more Intelligence, Common Sense, and American Values in his SNOT than Obama or any of his pathetic zombies have or will ever hope to have, lol, and America can see it!
I and millions of Real Americans will be Raising Cain for Herman Cain in 2012!