Filed by KOSU News in Politics.
November 18, 2011

It’s not like Herman Cain really has a real shot to win the New Hampshire primary. Indeed, any Republican presidential candidate not named Mitt Romney probably doesn’t have much of a chance to win the Granite State.

Still, one of the expected stops for conservatives who want to at least give the appearance of running a real New Hampshire campaign is visiting with the editorial board of the Manchester Union Leader.

So it’s noteworthy that Cain was a no-show at his scheduled meeting Thursday morning with the newspapers’s journalists. The Union Leader evidently wanted to allow C-SPAN cameras in for the meeting.

Cain’s campaign is understandably somewhat camera shy at this point after his devastating fumble on a question about Libya during his meeting with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board earlier this week.

Apparently, there was a disagreement over how long the meeting would lgo as well, with the Cain campaign wanting it to be over shortly after pleasantries were exchanged and the Union Leader wanting access to Cain for about an hour.

An excerpt from the Union Leader’s story:

Cain and his staff later contended the newspaper cancelled the interview.

McQuaid responded, “We had an hour-long interview scheduled. They, in effect, cancelled that, saying it could only be 20.

“It’s kind of funny, I think, that with candidates complaining that the media doesn’t give them enough time for depth, that Cain’s camp blows off an in-depth interview,” he said.

Also, Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon told Politico that the campaign will not allow any future newspaper editorial board meetings to be videotaped.

“Videos are typically used for television and it’s a newspaper. We decided we didn’t want to do the video,” Gordon said.

McQuaid said he was not concerned about Cain not showing up.

“It’s politics and campaigns. I don’t think he’s going anywhere from here at this point, anyway,” he said.

[Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]