Cain: Smoking Ad Was Letting 'People Be People'

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.)