(ThyBlackMan.com) If there’s one thing I admire about Herman Cain — and truth be told, there is only one thing I admire about Herman Cain — it’s his chutzpah.
That, as the great Leo Rosten observed, is the kind of gall it takes to murder your parents and then throw yourself on the mercy of the court because you’re an orphan. To borrow a phrase that others have used to demean President Barack Obama, Cain’s is the audacity of hype.
It’s what makes this previously little-known African-American businessman such a great political con man. He has used it to leap to the top of the Republican presidential heap for several weeks in a row, even though he has no previous electoral experience and few discernible qualifications. When you look beyond the smoke and mirrors of his campaign, it’s simply a scam.
To start with, although Cain touts his reputation as a problem-solving businessman who turned around the Godfather’s Pizza chain and claims to be a Washington outsider, the truth is anything but. In fact, he first attracted the attention of right-wing political activists during the late 1990s as a savvy lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, where he fought against such restrictions on American freedom as smoking bans in restaurants, tougher drunk-driving laws and increases in the minimum wage. He was so connected that former Secretary of State Colin Powell once actually stopped his car, jumped out and gave Cain a hug right there on the street. You can’t be more of an insider than that.
Then there’s the contrast between Cain’s carefully cultivated image as a humble but highly effective manager and the chaos and egomania that reportedly characterize his campaign. According to the New York Times, Cain’s staff was taken aback by an email with this admonishment for when they travel in a car with Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to.” How’s that for being aloof? If Cain can’t even run his campaign, how could he hope to manage the nation?
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