Cain, Perry Look to Reduce Political Gaffes

This story discusses how Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain will cut back the amount of public appearances during the campaign in an attempt to reduce the growing number of gaffes he has had in recent weeks.  The former Godfathers Pizza CEO has had recent public flip flops on issues such as abortion, illegal immigration and terrorist interrogation tactics.  Cain’s Republican presidential counterpart Rick Perry has also stated that he will not be appearing in upcoming debates, hoping it will positively impact his slumping poll numbers.  Texas Governor Perry has not fared well in his recent debate performances, he even admitted that “Debates are not my strong suit.”  It is interesting that these two candidates have a similar strategy of reducing public situations to avoid more gaffes, because they are sitting in entirely different spots in the polls.  Cain continues to be a strong front runner, while Perry has dropped of late.  The two candidates may be looking back to past candidates for advice on what not to do in a campaign.  We discussed in class, and read in our book about famous gaffes from Al Gore and Howard Dean.  Gore is famous for stating that he was the inventor of the internet, and Dean is famous for “the scream” after the Iowa caucus.  It will be interesting to see if these strategies help or hurt the candidates who are in two entirely different situations.