Cain has ‘Rick Perry moment’ as he criticises Obama policy

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Herman Cain is trying to explain his Rick Perry moment in a videotaped interview, just as the Georgia businessman tries to make his upstart campaign less controversial and more conventional.

Even as he continued to be dogged by sexual harassment claims, Cain momentarily lost his footing in an videotaped interview with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He struggled to answer a question about whether he supported President Barack Obama’s handling of the crisis in Libya.

Cain hesitated when asked whether he agreed with Obama’s decision to back Libyan rebels in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi. The longtime Libyan dictator was killed last month.

“I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason,” he said.

“Uh, nope that’s, that’s a different one,” said Cain, who fidgeted in his chair and crossed his legs, then paused.

“See, I got to go back, see, got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with Obama?”

Cain eventually explained that he would have done a better job than Obama assessing the nature of the Libyan opposition to Gaddafi. He said he would have supported many of the steps taken to stop killings by Gaddafi’s forces.

He then conceded that he might have ended up taking the same steps that Obama took.

Asked later about the exchange, Cain dismissed his stumble.

“I paused so I could gather my thoughts,” he said.

Cain spokesman JD Gordon said the Republican had four hours’ sleep because of a busy campaign schedule when he sat for the interview. He said Cain took his time answering because the candidate wanted to make sure he was focusing on the right problem.

Cain’s experience, nonetheless, evoked thoughts of Perry’s halting, forgetful statements in a recent debate when the Texas governor declared that he would immediately eliminate three agencies of government if elected, but could cite only two — the departments of Commerce and Education. Videotape of Perry’s performance went viral on the internet — he is also targeting the Energy Department — and he was the butt of jokes by late-night TV comedians.

With respect to Monday night’s interview incident, Gordon said that Cain had received briefings on recent Arab Spring developments in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia in preparation for a Republican debate focusing on foreign policy issues.

Ultimately, Cain recovered from his awkward moment and said he would have done a better job than Obama in assessing the opposition to Gaddafi to make sure the rebels were not loyal to al-Qaida.

“After things erupted, now we discover that some of the members of the opposition were actually al-Qaida members,” he told reporters in Green Bay. “That’s not the proper due diligence in my opinion.”

His interview incident occurred on the same day that a former boyfriend of Sharon Bialek, a woman who has publicly accused Cain of sexual harassment, told a news conference that he and Bialek had shared Cain’s company at a dinner in the 1990s. Cain has steadfastly argued that he’s never met Bialek and doesn’t recognise her.

The account of Victor Jay Zuckerman, a former boyfriend of the accuser, challenged the credibility of Cain, a former pizza executive who has been unexpectedly running at the top of the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Cain has denied any wrongdoing.

His lawyer, Lin Wood, said Cain stood by his earlier statement that he does not remember Sharon Bialek, Zuckerman’s former girlfriend and one of four women who claim Cain had sexually harassed them when he headed a restaurant trade group in the 1990s.