We knew it was coming, but who thought it would taste this good? Herman Cain had implosion written all over him after peaking in the Iowa polls, but now it's an all-you-can-eat buffet at the Georgia godfather's campaign.
Herman Cain--gospel-singing, self-made millionaire, top Republican candidate in Christian conservative Iowa--turns out to be a dog. In urban parlance, that's a man who can't commit to a woman. Cain can't commit to a platform, either.
Do we smell affirmative action in the Republican Party? Oh, I forgot, no one can talk about race in politics except Republicans. About Democrats.
When Dems talk about racial injustice in government policies, Repubs say they're "playing the race card." And when Dems nominate and elect a charismatic black president, Repubs say it's "affirmative action" for a magna cum laude Harvard Law graduate who is only qualified to give inspiring speeches. But what was the key to Cain's much ballyhooed turnaround of the Godfather's pizza chain? He gave inspiring speeches. Ahem?
The CEO type, real or wannabe, is the core base of the Republican party. The message: We can run things--and by God you better let us! This sense of entitlement to the presidency permeates Republican politics. We're leaders, dammit, and why can't you mewling, whiny voters recognize it?
The thing is, the party they are leading has no connection to the American dream anymore. It's never been a better time to be a CEO, but if you're a working stiff (and that means anybody who isn't a CEO), the view from the rear is always the same, as the joke goes. Social mobility--going from one class to another--has never been harder in a country built from the bottom up by poor people from around the globe.
Perhaps that's why the leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement is catching on in once-we-were-middle-class America. Who needs leaders when they only feather their own nests? The CEO is that rarest of rare birds who doesn't have to compete for survival of his species.
Like the crown prince of yore, the CEO is succored by a coterie of yes-men (and some women, for display purposes) who are rewarded for not giving him honest feedback. His flaws are papered-over by "settlements" or "agreements" or whatever word best suits the offense. The thing is, by the artificial personhood that creates a legal corporation, the CEO is virtually immune from personal liability for any wrong he does.
That doesn't make for a very good political candidate, as Mr. Cain is finding out. And as Donald Trump proved before him. It's easy to believe you have the "right stuff" to be commander-in-chief if you've never had to take a live bullet. And because of the prominence of visual media, modern candidates find it even easier to play one on TV. Until the moment comes, like Cain, when you can't remember that China already has nukes.
Maybe this politician gig is harder than it looks, eh? Maybe leading the free world through a global economic crisis, protecting the homeland from foreign attack and domestic implosion, and right-sizing the world's most powerful military takes a skill set that doesn't automatically come with the CEO title.
That's why actually running for president is the best on-the-job training for any candidate. If you can't run your campaign, how can you run America? And nobody runs a campaign better than Barack Obama.