Eugene Robinson: Let Herman Be Gone

[babylonsister]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/01/let_herman_be_gone_111892.html

Let Herman Be Gone
By Eugene Robinson


WASHINGTON -- Responding to his insurgent campaign's first crisis, Herman Cain was upbeat and defiant. "To quote my chief of staff and all the people around this country, 'Let Herman be Herman,'" he said Monday. "And Herman is gonna stay Herman."

I was afraid of that.

Cain's policy positions range from the ignorant to the unworkable to the just plain goofy -- and yet he is running first or second in most polls for the Republican presidential nomination. He trumpets his utter lack of government experience as a selling point and boasts of not knowing foreign leaders' names. If through some bizarre series of events he were actually elected president, the result would surely be an unmitigated disaster.

snip//

Far-right blowhards immediately played the race card. "Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain," pundit Ann Coulter said. "He is a strong, conservative black man. ... They are terrified of strong, conservative black men." Rush Limbaugh said Cain was being sullied by attackers wielding the "ugliest racial stereotypes." Interesting to hear those two acknowledging the powerful role that race still plays in our society -- the first step, intellectually, toward concluding that there's a continuing need for race-based affirmative action. That's what they meant, right?

Um, no. I'm quite sure that the far right's quickness to compare Cain to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas -- and to call Cain's present difficulties a second "high-tech lynching" -- is just another salvo in the intra-party war Republicans are having.

snip//

So many reasons to oppose this loopy candidacy, so little time.

[tblue]

1. I really want him to be the nominee tho.

It was gonna be so much fun. :<

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Me Too.

It's ironic that the Tea Nuts think President Obama fears him because he's African American. Last I checked his Senate opponent was African American and Obama beat him like a drum.

[Yavin4]

6. We Do Fear Herman Cain. We're Sure to Lose If he Gets The Nomination.

He would be formidable in the general election.



...pssst play along

[MH1]

3. yeah but you can't count on the electorate not to ride the train over the cliff

should some disaster really trash Obama right before the election and cause people to vote for ABO ... even someone as barking nutty as Cain.

[TheWraith]

4. That's true of any Republican candidate.

Truthfully, they're all fucking madmen, and most of them more dangerous than Cain, who is at least OBVIOUSLY nuts.

[DirkGently]

5. Can't help hoping the sexual harrassment story doesn't sink this campaign.

It's not as helpful to the public if Cain simply rises and falls on his public persona, or on a sex scandal that's decided on the basis of just creating too much nonspecific turmoil.

People should listen to what this man has to say, realize how horrible his ideas are, perhaps consider the additional factor of his apparent full Koch Bros. sponsorship, and decide on that basis.