Cain: Perhaps Able, but Doomed From the Start
This will be my obligatory Herman Cain post, and I’ll bid some of you farewell at the outset because you won’t like what I have to say. That’s fine, there’s a comment box down below or you can post it to Facebook or Twitter and slag me there.
Herman Cain was a relative unknown on the national scene until bursting to the front of the Race for the Republican Nomination to run for the Presidency in 2012. I had heard of him as a radio talk show host and had heard him fill in for Sean Hannity, I believe, once or twice. Even then I noticed that while he has a great speaking voice and a very down home folksy way about him he has a tendency to misspeak or misuse words, mind you I’m sure he knows how to pronounce ‘Corpsman‘ and what it means, but for any candidate or anyone speaking publicly it’s one of my pet peeves. I think it betrays an underlying lack of preparation. No one is perfect and I’m not wooed by verbal fluff (I was dismayed in the ’08 election cycle listening to people talk about this ‘Amazing Speaker‘ from Illinois and remain so) I just want someone who is trying to convince me to elect them to the most powerful office in the land to be able to do it without making me cringe as they butcher the language. That was the first thing I noticed.
THE Herman Cain’s tendency to speak about Herman Cain in the third person was and is also a bit off-putting.
As he began his campaign I noticed that he was sketchy on specifics both of history and current events but much more telling to me was that he was weak in explaining his own positions. I’m sorry but if you have come up with what you’re promoting as your signature program, let’s take his most famous ‘9-9-9 Plan’ and note that at one point he said perhaps it would be 9-0-9, and you introduce it before you have the details worked out I refer you to my previous point about not being prepared. Hey, I was a good student, but my ‘dog ate my homework’ a time or two however, again, this is the Presidency we’re talking about and the whole ‘I’ll consult my assembled panel of experts’ answer doesn’t cut it for me. For one thing we’ve seen what some of the so-called experts have wrought on our country for the past century and I’ve had enough of it, and for another… Who are these experts going to be? Cain had not surrounded himself with an all-star cast of campaign insiders.
I don’t think a candidate should try to be ‘Mr. Know-it-All’ (see Newt) however I prefer a candidate with a firm grasp on the facts and on history to one who is unsure of some rather basic terms from recent world history and especially when said candidate tries to explain away his getting caught out with a series of weak excuses.
Then the multiple ‘Bimbo Eruptions’ began. First the Politico story then Gloria Allred and Sharon Bialek all culminating in the Ginger White allegation of a long-term extra-marital relationship that was apparently the straw that broke the camels back. I do not know nor do I care if a single one of the allegations were true. I do not know nor do I care where they all came from. What did concern me was that Herman Cain carried on a 13 year extra-marital relationship of some kind with a woman who he acknowledged giving money to without his wife knowing about it.
Deal Breaker, Minister Cain. Sorry sir but you and your supporters were the ones who brought up your faith. Scripture says ‘the two become one flesh’, so at the very least Mrs. Cain should have known what Mr. Cain was doing with her money.
But let’s get to the part of this that will do the most to alienate you.
Herman Cain is Black, or an African-American if you’re into hyphenating people. For some who want to see Barack Obama defeated in 2012 this was apparently some sort of secret weapon. If only the Republican Party could field a viable candidate with a high enough melanin content in his or her skin Obama’s defeat was certain. Apparently this must be because… well, I actually can’t think of a coherent explanation for this vapid reasoning.
Anyone who voted FOR Obama in all or in any part because of his ‘race’ is a Racist.
Anyone who voted AGAINST Obama in all or in any part because of his ‘race’ is a Racist.
Anyone who supported Herman Cain in all or in any part because of his ‘race’ is a Racist.
Too harsh? I think not.
The Democrat party has done a masterful job of painting themselves as the party of ‘the little guy’; the party that looks out for Minorities and the Underprivileged, the poor and oppressed. At the same time they have done a masterful job of painting the Republican party as the party of the Rich, Fat Cat Capitalists; the party that wants to reverse all the ‘progress’ the party of the little guy has managed to ‘eek out’ over the past hundred years and return us to polluted streams and land, acid rain, polluted air, unsafe food, oil spills… basically killers of kittens & puppies.
The Democrat party owns the Racist vote. Well, they own the overwhelming majority of it.
I have seen some folks on Twitter and elsewhere attempting to sell Herman Cain on the basis of ‘If we nominate him the Democrats can’t use Race against us…’.
Thinking that shows a naivete that borders on pathological. The Democrats will never stop using race as a wedge in this country. It also belies a misunderstanding of just how much damage Leftists within the Democrat party have done to the thought processes of the ‘Black Community’ over generations by destroying the family unit and fracturing the most basic societal building block. The ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ is very real. Misinformation, disinformation and blatant lies have taken root and metastasized within the black culture and it will take several generations to undue the damage. Many blacks who think for themselves did not vote for Barack Obama, and many more will not vote for him again. It had and has absolutely nothing to do with his race. They didn’t or won’t vote for him based on the fact that they saw through his rhetoric or simply disagreed with his politics. Remember, in California, 70% of African-Americans and 53% of Latinos supported Prop. 8. defining Marriage as between one man and one woman and For Obama on the same day. They were then called Religious Bigots or worse by the Homosexual Lobby.
Our country is at a precipice. In the next election we will decide to attempt to begin to reverse course from the accelerated leftward rush that finally woke many of our fellow citizens up to the 100 year assault that the country has been undergoing, or not. We may decide to continue or even accelerate the headlong rush for the rocks where great empires go to dash themselves into little pieces that are chronicled in tomes with titles that start ‘The Rise and Fall of….’. This is going to be an extremely long and hard fight. It has taken a century for the Left and So-called Progressives to drive us to this point and it will take a similar amount of time, energy and much more courage than the Right has ever shown to undo what has been done.
Making decisions about a candidate based on melanin content or TelePrompTer reading ability or the crispness of the crease in their pants or their Religion (see Romney and some folks Mormon Bigotry) or any other superficial reason has us at the precipice.
Adherence to First Principles, a return to and reverence for Constitutional Governance and the candidates ability to express those ideas and their demonstrated personal character and experience which would lead us to believe they will govern as they campaign is all we have to go on or hope for in choosing a nominee.