Bashir on Cain's Calm Style: Republicans 'Do Not Want to Hear From a Black Man Who’s Aggressive, Assertive, Angry'

Herman Cain is now leading the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, and the folks at MSNBC are clearly scared to death.

Following in Lawrence O'Donnell's footsteps who spent 23 minutes antagonistically grilling Cain Thursday, Martin Bashir said of the black Republican's "calm, measured" style Friday, "The people that he needs to win over in order to win a primary, those people do not want to hear from a black man who’s aggressive, assertive, angry" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GOLDIE TAYLOR, THEGRIO.COM: I think, you know, around the turn of the century, people talked about, you know, some of our civil rights leaders as being sort of accommodationist, and I think that’s been the major thing for, for Herman Cain. If you look back at the incident that Rick Perry had with the offensive name of the family hunting grounds, when at first Herman Cain said, you know, it was insensitive. The next day he said he didn't have a problem with that word. I’ve got a problem with somebody who doesn't mind moving to the back of the bus. I’ve got a problem with somebody who doesn’t have a problem with that word. And so I think that's the real issue for Herman Cain.

Pretty obvious what's going on here: Cain has become a serious candidate who's now leading his nearest competitor Mitt Romney by 20 points, and the press are in total panic mode.

The only thing a liberal media member hates more than a conservative is a black conservative, and Cain is not only that, he's also a serious threat to America's first black president.

As conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday about Cain's hostile interview with O'Donnell the previous evening:

RUSH LIMBAUGH: The left, for all their talk about colorblindness, wants to get rid of America's original sin of delivery and get rid of their white guilt, it ain't gonna happen if the black is a Republican. It ain't gonna happen if the black is a conservative...[Cain's] not "authentic." He didn't march, he didn't protest, he didn't get mixed up in all of that so he's not really black.

Indeed. This is going to be the liberal media's line of attack on Cain - "he's not really black":

TAYLOR: You know, Dr. King said that it isn’t who you are in times of comfort and convenience. It’s who you are in times of challenge, you know, and controversy. Well controversy was right at Herman Cain’s doorstep and he did nothing, and I think that's the issue here. If you are running for president, everything you say, do, and write is open for scrutiny. And everything you didn't say, do, and write is also open for scrutiny. And I think Herman Cain has got to get used to that.

MARTIN BASHIR, HOST: But Goldie, you know that the people that he’s appealing to, the people that he needs to win over in order to win a primary, those people do not want to hear from a black man who’s aggressive, assertive, angry. They want to hear from a man who’s assimilated, calm, measured. That’s why he's doing it.

So in Bashir's view, Cain is only calm and measured because Republicans are all racists who don't want to hear from an aggressive, assertive, angry black man.

Yet Democrats in 2008 voted for a calm, measured black man, didn't they?

Not surprisingly, this didn't come up.

I wonder why.