Presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain may have attended the same Republican debate on Saturday but you wouldn't exactly describe their interactions with one another as anything resembling debate. In fact it was more like two buddies playing for the same team and standing up for one another whether an attack was made or not.
And despite attendees spending $150 just to be there, the crowd seemed satisfied with Gingrich and Cain's non-competitive demeanors while agreeing on the failures of the current administration and its leader. Interestingly, the very recent issue of Cain's sexual harrassment charges did not make it into the debate, and accordingly, Cain showed his gratitude by saying in response to an opportunity for disagreement, "I’m supposed to have a minute to disagree with something he said, but I don’t.” The debate was instead used to discuss topics like Medicare, Medicaide, and Social Security, all of which demonstrated a general concensus among the two candidates, especially when talking about Obama's lack of progress on them.
In fact this debate was so pleasant between Cain and Gingrich that they both gave each other extensive compliments as part of set ups to post-topic questioning. One of these examples went as follows:
“You spent a lot of years successfully in Congress. You have a very distinguished career,” Cain asked Gingrich. “Then you left Congress, and that gave you an opportunity to start some other ventures and to think and so you’ve been studying and thinking about things rather than being inside that Washington bubble. What are the three biggest things you have come to realize by being outside the bubble during this period of time?
Not exactly the most difficult of questions...especially when asked like that. So why were these two supposed opponents acting so friendly on Saturday? Well they go back some 15 years and come from the same state so perhaps they feel a certain obligation to not tear down one another - at least not yet. It is also possible that they are kissing each others' "you-know-what" in the event that one actually make the nomination and saves the other a seat as VP; they even joked about this idea, of course the one disagreement of the night being who would be president. I think it will be interesting though to see if they keep up the pleasantries throughout the rest of the race or if it becomes especially close between them.
Until that time it seems Gingrich will be there offering support and advice to his pal Cain and presumably Cain will be there for Gingrich should he run in to any media scandals. I guess in politics its especially good to have a friend you can rely on - hopefully at least.
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