Introduction

HERMAN CAIN

Political Candidate or Political Performer?

     This upcoming year is the year our president will face his greatest challenge: running for re-election. The Republican Party is already lining up for the opportunity to be chosen to run against him, and become the President of the United States. This candidate will need to fulfill the requirements of his Party, be a good representative of his values, be able to articulate those values, be knowledgeable in the ways of the current world, and most importantly, be a leader that people can stand behind and support whilst in office. Past candidates like Former Governor Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are starting stong in early polls, and old blood like Newt Gingrich are all in line for the Republican nomination.

     And then there is Herman Cain. The everyday man who became the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, and later a Georgia radio talk show host. Herman Cain, the one who came out of the woodwork and surprised the media in the Republican debate. Herman Cain, who after a surprise win in the Florida Straw Poll, is now a frontrunner for the Party’s nomination.

     But now the news-media, and myself as a young and skeptical art student, is starting to take a closer look at the campaign itself. Granted, the closer look is being taken after allegations of sexual harassment, but still. This closer look is revealing the construct of the campaign. At first glance it looks like a regular campaign: video ads with perfect smiles picturing young working Americans, appearances on news media talk shows talking about conservative issues like abortion and family values, and speeches to the public outlining what the candidate can do for us. All of these come with their own flubs and gags and bits to laugh at. And I realized looking at all of this that I was laughing too much. This type of over-the-top campaign humor was too good to be true. Humor that criticizes political campaigns and how Americans support politicians on the largest stage in the world? This can’t be real. Can it?

Speak the Speech, I pray you.

 I’ll begin with Herman Cain’s closing speech from the Republican debate. This is a point where candidates can prepare a direct address to the public, and it is known beforehand:

“A poet once said ‘Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there is so much on the line’ and we have a lot on the line”- Herman Cain

The poet he is quoting is Donna Summers. But the song is something she recorded recently, for Pokemon the Movie: 2000. Millions of people watched that debate, and watched a political candidate quote a children’s television movie which made $45 million dollars to date. 

Millions also watched as he stated his greatest strength he would bring to the White House: his sense of humor “because America is too uptight.” These are deliberate lines inserted into a serious situation under the mask of serious intentions. While quoting Martin Luther King Jr. or another great leader may have been more appropriate, and amongst the politician scrambling to appear professional, here we have a candidate that quotes kids movies and talks in jokes.

Thank You for Smoking

From a political follower, the advertisements (particularly the video) are absolutely terrifying. There are two that have come out recently, a short teaser ad and a full length trailer, and those are the best terms to describe them. The first, labeled by YouTube as “the smoking ad” is a plea from Cain’s Campaign Head Mark Bloc for supporters to get more involved in running the campaign, filmed outside what looks like a white building and a black gate. The plea is followed by about 10 seconds of slow motions smoking to a pop song, and ending with a signature turn-and-smile from the candidate.  

 The advertisement is completely overshadowed by the close-ups of smoking, a hot-button issue for American families and a target of media scrutiny, with television shows like “Mad Men” and movies like “Thank You for Smoking” addressing them by doing it. The way the camera moves on the performer/ speaker and the quality of the film suggest a young music video quality, contrasted by a middle aged man with a near-handlebar mustache. And the smile at the end of the film takes exactly 8 seconds, from the head turn, to the up turn of the lips. The quickly-filmed implication of the video, and the laughable conclusion created a giant media buzz and tons of internet searches. To me, this is a 1 minute example of where campaign ads and the American public focus their energy. The speech in the beginning is generic and forgettable, and the highlighted focus of the ad (underscored by a musical crescendo) is the action of smoking, and ending with a standard shot of the candidate, drawn out to a ridiculous time span to add seconds on the clock. This is a critique within a standard ad to words not matching the actions of people within the campaign, people who demand closer attention, despite an incumbent president running for office again.

He Carried Yellow Flowers- Prologue

Perhaps the most wonderful critique of American campaign advertisements lies in the latest Herman Cain video, and this one has a title. 

     ‘He Carried Yellow Flowers’ is a scary masterpiece of performance art. It is either the most terrifying thing that could happen to America, or a great mirror at what we consider “American.” The video begins as a riff of old-style Westerns, sticking with a country American theme. Shots of a man riding horseback is super imposed with title captions beginning with “There was a time in America” and ending with “where a man on a horse was a man on a horse.” This statement, a reflective conjunction of the two previous captions, is performative by nature, because it is remarking upon itself. As is leading up to the action so slowly. The rider is actor Nick Searcy (famous for Cast Away, where the supporting role was a volleyball named Wilson). Searcy is well known enough to have clout in the business, but not immediately recognizable to a majority of the public (unless someone went ‘Look, it’s the guy from Cast Away! That volleyball movie!’). This is a tactic to maintain a level of seriousness before revealing the big surprise. After a comment against “card carrying liberals”, Searcy throws a staged punch, and the scene stops, and it is a movie set, not reality in which this video is based. Basically, the entire video is revealed as fake, a fiction, a scene of a movie, something that is carefully planned out, written, and performed.

     The next part is back to a standard campaign support advertisement, where a celebrity (most likely an actor) does a direct address to the camera in support of the candidate in question. Nick Searcy has to get to the chair first, and the walk to the chair says more about the implications of the ad than he does. After being handed a margarita (smoking and now drinking?) and threatening someone’s job security by forgetting the straw (employment issue, anyone?), and shutting down a compliment from a makeup artist with “Like you know anything” (women’s workplace issues), a female crew member is heard off camera telling Searcy “they’re gonna love you in Guam.” Guam is an official United States occupied territory in the Micronesian Islands, whose official motto is “Where America’s Day Begins” and whose second largest source of income is the American military. As a US territory, Guam does not get a vote in the electoral college, and cannot decide the US presidency. To imply that an actor that is the center of the ad is going to do better in a territory than in the States implies the overall reach of success the campaign has. Also very interesting that the interactions are all with women, and he takes the overly dominant role, being outright rude.

     His address is as “an international film star” (again, name one film with Nick Searcy off the top of your head). His speech talks about being “real” and being “real tough” is not “reading lines that somebody else wrote for me” which is exactly what he is doing. And while he makes some digs at Obama as a community organizer, which is so 2008, the more interesting action is what happens behind him. His stunt double has taken over the fight scene, and in the fight scene, his character is getting beaten up. And it is all happening within frame behind his head. The use of a double being beaten up severely weakens the argument in the foreground, especially when a jump cut takes you to a completely different part of the fight where he is magically on his feet again, throwing a punch, before being thrown against a post.

He Fought With Yellow Flowers

This staged fight, interceded by a director in a backwards visor, is even more staged by the obvious jump cutting, as if pieces of his statement were taken out to fit the message of the campaign. Going from a close up to a mid-wide shot, the quality of sound changing with the distance, and the placement of the action behind him is a sign of auto-corrected editing. A black actor punching the “lead” at the words “tough guy” leads to a mid-wide jump cut of action being stopped by the director, and a profound-ish statement in the foreground. The action is literally paused for the line, and then continues at “community organizer.” This makes it clear what the public should pay attention to, and what is farfetched, although given the wide shot where more of the action is visible, our visual attention is immediately drawn to the background. Issues important to Americans and the American media are outlined clearly and skirted over quickly and realistically, while important information is being contrasted with a staged film fight.

"Get Real"

The most important phrase in the video is “Get Real.” 

Searcy uses the word “real” 10 times in his address (which is 42 seconds). That is an average of once every 4 seconds. He uses the phrase in a statement that it “is time for America to get real” and look at Herman Cain as a leader. The shooting continues and Searcy enters the frame again. “No more than once, guys…let’s get this right” he shouts to the crew, and resumes action in character. “Okay punk” he threatens, then pauses, and turns out and yells for the line, which is “Okay punk, get real.”

     “No more than once” can not only mean on the first take, which is what they say in movies, but can also apply to the current political situation. It can also refer to the Obama presidency, with no more than one term, especially after slandering empty phrases like hope and change, which were Obama’s political slogans that won him the first elections. This argument can make sense as another political dig…if he didn’t call for the line he just spoke about. “Get Real” is a wakeup call, a call to get back to reality, a statement to really pay attention to the candidates around you, and what people are saying. 

“Get real” is a statement from the youth, it is what punks say in songs, gossiping girls to an unbelievable statement, high-schoolers and college students when they brush something off as inconceivable. “Get real” is what we say when we don’t believe something, with the added implication that it might in fact be plausible, a phrase that means to accept the truth and don’t deceive yourself. Is Herman Cain’s campaign video about an actor playing a period western cowboy bringing yellow flowers to a girl whose only close up is a chicken to her breasts a real shot at the Republican candidacy for president? Get real.

Imagine There's No Pizza

Herman Cain, before becoming a hot political figure, made his living as an executive and then CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Yes, Herman Cain is a pizza man.

Why am I talking food here?

Because another way to reveal when an artist is performing is to reveal that the artist has performed before. The political and legal idea of precedent. 

Precedence, in this case, comes in the form of a gospel song in honor of the food that gave him success. Cain has an album of gospel songs on an album released in 2001, called Sunday Morning. The performance comes in 1991, when he made a parody of "Imagine" by John Lennon. The performance has given him considerable likeability, but examining this performance examines the performer in action. 

The beginning of the video is an onstage change into a gospel choir outfit, colored white, to stand out from the back, the tell tale chords of John Lennon continuing in the background. Even when he is completely dressed, he waits a moment before slowly bringing the microphone up to begin. This is a sign of performance preparation, of rehearsal to look at oneself, a way of saying 'Look, I'm starting now' that is present in his campaign advertisements. This song in itself, carefully crafted and performed in a swallow-able style,  is an advertisement for pizza, his life's center as he puts it. The advertisement itself is a performance and a parody presented with the most serious of intentions. And even the most serious of intentions has a layer of humor surrounding it.

Resources

Cain, Herman. "Herman Cain Imagine There's No Pizza - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. SelflessSponsor, 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DrSEyjBj1w>.

 

"Domestic Policy - Ronald Reagan - Election." Presidents: A Reference History. Advameg Inc, 2011. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. <http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Kennedy-Bush/Ronald-Reagan-Domestic-policy.html>.

 

Herman Cain for President. Friends of Herman Cain. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.hermancain.com/>.

 

"Herman Cain." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. James Wales. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain>.

 

Kleckner, Dean. "Dean Kleckner Endorses Herman Cain for President - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Friends of Herman Cain, 05 Nov. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLOcr5PStc8>.

 

Maddow, Rachel. "Rachel Maddow Show." Msnbc.com - Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com. MSNBC, 08 Nov. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908//vp/45171907>.

 

Block, Mark. "Now Is the Time for Action! - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Friends of Herman Cain, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM>.

 

Searcy, Nick. "Thehermancain's Channel - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Friends of Herman Cain, 25 Aug. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/user/thehermancain>.

 

Official Portal for the Island of Guam. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.guam.gov/>.

In Conclusion

As Rachel Maddow concluded in her analysis of Herman Cain's perfect gaffes, "this is not politics. This is art about politics." Using the media, television, filmmaking, writing, and performance to critique America on the world stage, this campaign is either the most frightening of prospects for the future of this country, or the greatest criticism of what our country finds to be important. In this campaign, major questions arise, questions that make us look at ourselves, and what we contribute. Do phrases have any meaning, like 'hope' and 'change', or are they created and beaten, like 'right of return'? What is the nostalgia of the Old West in advertisements, and how does it showcase the American Dream? What are the images we always see, and in nuance show us how two-dimensional we can be. 

The images of the Old West, mid-wides in front of cameras, direct addresses, working farmers, Ronald Reagan, and inspirational quotations are obvious quintessential images that evoke strong feelings of strength of the past. The Herman Cain campaign is taking those images of US lore and ridiculing it by being it, hitting a nail with a nail as it were. The hidden messages are within the everyday interactions, juxtaposed by the obvious staging of campaign candidates. The point of all this is to make us pay attention, to get real.