Cain Doesn't Know China Has Nukes

[Schneibster]

Cain appeared in an interview with PBS' Judy Woodruff yesterday, during the course of which he stated that China has "indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability."

You can't make this stuff up.

Watch the video. The relevant material is after 10:47.

[Clinton Huxley]

Apparently, they are also working on this thing called "gunpowder"....

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

[sandinista]

surprised?

[MattShizzle]

He's an idiot just like every true believer in conservatardism - as opposed to those who see the right wingers as "useful idiots."

[klr]

Cain appeared in an interview with PBS' Judy Woodruff yesterday, during the course of which he stated that China has "indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability."

You can't make this stuff up.

Watch the video. The relevant material is after 10:47.

And this man could be the Leader Of The Free World?TM

[PsychoSerenity]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

[klr]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

Someone ought to teach this guy compound interest mathematics, and how long it would take China to catch up even with 5-6% growth rates for the US of A.

[Seth]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

I imagine one could insert the words "further" "greater" or "more sophisticated" between "develop" and "nuclear" and get a pretty accurate idea of what he actually intended. It's pretty typically lame to jump on a simple omission or inclarity and call it something else, but it's not indicative of much in the way of reason or rationality. Do you REALLY think Cain doesn't know China already has nukes?

What they haven't had are ship-killer nukes and a significant aircraft-carrier force, and the fact is that China has been rapidly developing and expanding its military forces and it's nuclear capabilities, so it's a legitimate response to the threat of China's military expansionism.

[klr]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

I imagine one could insert the words "further" "greater" or "more sophisticated" between "develop" and "nuclear" and get a pretty accurate idea of what he actually intended. It's pretty typically lame to jump on a simple omission or inclarity and call it something else, but it's not indicative of much in the way of reason or rationality. Do you REALLY think Cain doesn't know China already has nukes?

What they haven't had are ship-killer nukes and a significant aircraft-carrier force, and the fact is that China has been rapidly developing and expanding its military forces and it's nuclear capabilities, so it's a legitimate response to the threat of China's military expansionism.

Unfortunately, yes. He wouldn't be the first would-be president (or actual president) to display such levels of ignorance. I am not predisposed to give people seeking such positions of power the benefit of the doubt.

[Bella Fortuna]

Now we sit back and wait for his next comment about "inscrutable Celestials"...

[Seth]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

I imagine one could insert the words "further" "greater" or "more sophisticated" between "develop" and "nuclear" and get a pretty accurate idea of what he actually intended. It's pretty typically lame to jump on a simple omission or inclarity and call it something else, but it's not indicative of much in the way of reason or rationality. Do you REALLY think Cain doesn't know China already has nukes?

What they haven't had are ship-killer nukes and a significant aircraft-carrier force, and the fact is that China has been rapidly developing and expanding its military forces and it's nuclear capabilities, so it's a legitimate response to the threat of China's military expansionism.

Unfortunately, yes. He wouldn't be the first would-be president (or actual president) to display such levels of ignorance. I am not predisposed to give people seeking such positions of power the benefit of the doubt.

Really? Care to name even one US President who doesn't know China has nukes, going back as far as, well, China developing nukes in the 1950s?

And does your intolerance for a slip of the tongue extend to all politicians, or just the ones you don't like?

[klr]

HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back to economics. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

I imagine one could insert the words "further" "greater" or "more sophisticated" between "develop" and "nuclear" and get a pretty accurate idea of what he actually intended. It's pretty typically lame to jump on a simple omission or inclarity and call it something else, but it's not indicative of much in the way of reason or rationality. Do you REALLY think Cain doesn't know China already has nukes?

What they haven't had are ship-killer nukes and a significant aircraft-carrier force, and the fact is that China has been rapidly developing and expanding its military forces and it's nuclear capabilities, so it's a legitimate response to the threat of China's military expansionism.

Unfortunately, yes. He wouldn't be the first would-be president (or actual president) to display such levels of ignorance. I am not predisposed to give people seeking such positions of power the benefit of the doubt.

Really? Care to name even one US President who doesn't know China has nukes, going back as far as, well, China developing nukes in the 1950s?

And does your intolerance for a slip of the tongue extend to all politicians, or just the ones you don't like?

"such levels" of ignorance does not necessarily imply ignorance of the same fact - statin' the bleedin' obvious.

As for where my intolerance is most pronounced: That has already been answered. Hint: It's the last sentence of my previous post. Actually, I'm pretty demanding of all politicians.

[Ian]

And does your intolerance for a slip of the tongue extend to all politicians, or just the ones you don't like?

Anybody can have a slip of the tongue, of course. When politicians commit a verbal gaffe, depending on how bad it is I like to step back and ask "Could I have possibly said something like that under similar circumstances?", in this case if I were rambling through an interview. My answer for this case would be No Way. Yes, I really think it's a good possibility that Cain is a foreign policy/military ignoramus who didn't know that China actually has weaponized nukes. It takes some serious spin doctoring to stretch "indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability" to merely infer a policy of modernization. But it's fun to see that you're trying.

Or, maybe a couple wires in Cain's brain got crossed and he accidentally inserted a soundbite from his canned response about Iran?

[Robert_S]

Iran is trying to develop the capacity to produce Chinese?

Is there a youtube or audio clip? I think it would be interesting to see, or at least hear this gaffe.