A week ago, the Washington Post reported that the word “Niggerhead” had appeared for many years on a rock at a hunting camp leased by Rick Perry’s family. Herman Cain promptly went on two Sunday shows and called Perry “insensitive” for taking too long to paint over the rock. Perry responded with a quick statement agreeing that “the word written by others long ago is insensitive and offensive. That is why the Perrys took quick action to cover and obscure it.”
Cain and Perry showed no such clarity a week later, when Robert Jeffress, a prominent Baptist pastor speaking at a national family-values conference, called Mormonism a non-Christian cult and urged voters to support Perry over Romney because Perry was a “genuine follower of Jesus Christ.” Cain, again appearing on two Sunday shows, refused to say whether Mormons were Christians. “I'm not getting into that controversy,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley before implicitly affirming the distinction: “I am not going to do an analysis of Mormonism versus Christianity.” When CNN asked the Perry campaign whether Perry would repudiate Jeffress’ statements, the campaign said Perry “does not believe Mormonism is a cult,” but it ignored the pastor’s other allegations.
