Herman Cain’s Libya stumble: How much damage did he do? [View All]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/herman-cains-libya-stumble-how-much-damage-did-he-do/2011/11/15/gIQAoNK5ON_blog.html

Posted by Chris Cillizza at 01:45 PM ET, 11/15/2011

It was the silence heard around the political world.

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Businessman Herman Cain spent the better part of two minutes hemming and hawing — and sitting silently — as he tried to find an answer for whether or not he supported President Obama’s Libya policy in an on-camera interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board on Monday.

Cain and his campaign have downplayed the controversy, insisting that he was operating on four hours of sleep and that he paused “so I could gather my thoughts”.

But even as they sought to minimize the damage, more clips from the Journal-Sentinel interview came out Tuesday — including one in which Cain said he offered Henry Kissinger the job of Secretary of State in his Administration but was rebuffed.

“Cain’s fundamental problem is being an outsider has its advantages but unless he can display sufficient grasp of the issues, his support will hit a ceiling,” said Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush. “The weaker his grasp, the lower the ceiling and he’s starting to bump his head against it.”