October 17, 2011 07:50 PM UTC

Ladies And Gentlemen, Your New GOP Frontrunner

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• by: Colorado Pols

The New York Times’ Caucus blog reports on unlikely leading GOP presidential contender Herman Cain’s fascinating remarks on immigration this weekend:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.

The remarks, which came at two campaign rallies in Tennessee as part of a barnstorming bus tour across the state, drew loud cheers from crowds of several hundred people at each rally. At the second stop, in Harriman, Tenn., Mr. Cain added that he also would consider using military troops “with real guns and real bullets” on the border to stop illegal immigration…

“It’s going to be 20 feet high. It’s going to have barbed wire on the top. It’s going to be electrified. And there’s going to be a sign on the other side saying, ‘It will kill you – Warning.'” At an earlier rally, on the campus of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn., he added that the sign would be written “in English and in Spanish.”

The crowd in Tennessee loved it–but the next morning, reports CNN:

“That’s a joke,” Cain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’ve also said America needs to get a sense of humor. That was a joke, OK.”

For more on this general subject, please see two news stories: “Many Hispanic voters are on fence about Obama in 2012” in today’s Miami Herald, and “Colorado GOP outreach to Latino voters bets on voters’ disenchantment” by reporter Allison Sherry in today’s Denver paper.

If your name’s not Tom Tancredo, you should be able to figure out where we’re going with this.