Cain: Smoking Ad Was Letting 'People Be People'

CBS host Schieffer hammers GOP frontrunner for glamorizing smoking
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 30, 2011 11:35 AM CDT
Herman Cain: Mark Block Smoking Ad Was Letting 'People Be People'
FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2011 file photo, Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala. They’ve rolled the dice. The top Republican presidential rivals are locked in a game of one-upmanship, each trying to outdo the other in offering the boldest economic plan for the party’s...   (Dave Martin)

Herman Cain got a dressing-down from Bob Schieffer this morning over the viral video of aide Mark Block smoking, with the GOP frontrunner defending it as self-expression. “One of the things within this campaign is, let Herman be Herman,” Cain explained. “Mark Block is a smoker, and we say, let Mark be Mark." That wasn't good enough for Schieffer, a cancer survivor, who hammered Cain for glamorizing smoking. “No, it does not,” Cain retorted. “Mark Block smokes. That’s all that ad says.”

After Schieffer lambasted him for not raising the level of discourse as frontrunner, Cain, himself a cancer survivor, said, "We will do that, Bob. It was not intended to offend anyone." Prompted further by the host, Cain addressed the camera, notes Politico: “Young people of America, all people, do not smoke. It is hazardous and it’s dangerous to your health." Egged on yet again, Cain added: “It is not a cool thing to do." Click for Jon Huntsman's daughters' take on the video. (More Herman Cain stories.)

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