Herman Cain defends Hoekstra Super Bowl ad against racism charge

Herman Cain, campaigning on behalf of Pete Hoekstra (R) for the Senate race in Michigan, told reporters he “loved” Hoekstra’s controversial first campaign ad, and attacked critics for calling the ad racist.

“I loved it,” Cain said, according to local news site MLive.com. “I thought it cut through the clutter. You know, mamby-pamby commercials aren’t going to make it in the media or the political world. I don’t think it was insulting at all. I don’t think it was racist at all.”

The ad, which ran during Super Bowl XLVI, featured an Asian actress speaking in broken English. She dubbed Hoekstra’s opponent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) “Debbie-spend-it-now.” Hoekstra defended the ad against charges of racial insensitivity, but the featured actress apologized for taking the role. The video was later removed from the campaign website.

Cain criticized the “outrage” over the ad, saying that as a candidate he lacked similar defenders. 

"You’re going to tell me that that little girl walking out there saying what she said is racist? When you’ve had some people on the left calling me names,” he said. “They called me an ‘Uncle Tom,’ they called me a ‘sellout,’ they called me ‘shameless’ … Where was the outrage over that?”

Since dropping his bid for the White House late last year, Cain has touted his “9-9-9” tax-reform plan, rallied with comedian Stephen Colbert, endorsed Newt Gingrich as the GOP presidential nominee and hit the campaign trail for Republicans including Hoekstra and “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who is running for a House seat in Ohio.

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