Herman Cainpaigning

A recent Washington Post article reported that Herman Cain has been trying to be more tactful when it comes to his appearances as a candidate. Although being the “blunt” candidate has been part of his appeal, it has also meant that his words have come out wrong at times which the article reported has “forc[ed] him to clarify comments on abortion, immigration and terrorism suspects.” The article has accounted for this change because of Cain’s change “adapting from a longshot candidate hustling for any media attention to a front-runner who must be more selective with his time and disciplined in his message.” In other words, as Cain has become more popular as a candidate he has had to tread more carefully when making statements.

This change that has occurred with Cain is exactly as Mueller predicted. Drawing from the Downsian model, Mueller stated in his book that, “With purely informative political advertising, a candidate increases the likelihood of some voters voting for her when she informs them of her position, but decreases the likelihood that some other voters vote for her.” As the article noted, Cain’s missteps have caused him to clarify his positions on various topics—something that Mueller says could take votes away from his campaign. This is due to the fact that he would end up making additional distinctions between himself and other GOP hopefuls, thus pulling himself further away from the median voter and the chance of winning the nomination.

Although Cain now is now trying to appeal to the median voter, this was probably not the case at the beginning of his campaign. As we talked about in lecture, money buys votes and the only way a candidate can earn money is by giving voters enough incentive to do so—that is, by distinguishing himself from the other candidates. When Cain was, as the article says, a “longshot candidate,” it was probably more beneficial for him to say exactly what was on his mind in order to get the attention of voters and give them incentive to contribute to his campaign because he would be different than the other candidates the GOP would offer. But now that Cain is a frontrunner for the Republican nomination, it makes sense for him to increasingly minimize the distinctions between himself and other candidates in order to win votes.