Herman Cain is Killing it in SC

Pizza executive turned motivational speaker Herman Cain is leading in the polls for the first-in-the-south South Carolina Republican primary.  I grew up there and keep up with a lot of people and I can tell you that Carolina folks love him.  A friend from college has changed her Facebook page to a Herman Cain for President logo.  A guy I went to high school with sent out an email blast listing Cain's credentials and declaring that he "just may be the most highly qualified Presidential Candidate in the past 50 years!"  That would mean Herman is more highly qualified than a 2-term governor of California, several former Vice Presidents, or a 5-term governor of Arkansas, not to mention a U.S. Senator and former Illinois state senator who was deemed by these same people to be less experienced than a small town mayor who had been governor of the smallest state for a few months, but that's just the liberal in me getting all factual and stuff. 

I have to say I don't really get the appeal of The Hermanator, and neither does LC NY Bureau Chief Doug who put it this way:

"What concerns me most about Cain is not these allegations of sexual harassment, though that is not something to be dismissed, of course. As Blow puts it, this drama boils down to: He says versus she says...and she says...oh, and she says.


Rather what concerns me most (of the MANY things to be concerned about Cain) is that he is the purchased, controlled PUPPET of the billionaire Koch Brothers, or as Herman proudly proclaimed at a Koch event on Friday: "I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother.”  Really?

And you are boastful of THAT?"

Doug is spot-on as usual.  It used to be that politicians at least pretended to stand for the people, now they're bragging that they do the bidding of their corporate overlords?  Why are so many people supporting him?  Doug sent me a fascinating Charles Blow piece from the New York Times.  Blow gets to the heart if it:

"Cain is an “American black conservative — an A.B.C.” who rejects prevailing wisdom among blacks about the racial state of play in America. He is a walking rebuff to the 400-year-old racism issue that continues to dog and drain this country. He lifts the burden of guilt from whites on the right and places it on the shoulders of blacks on the left — the ones still on “the Democrat plantation” and not willing or able to think for themselves. He is a fascinating sociological phenomenon but also an affront to some basic facts about the existence and impact of our racial reality.



Furthermore, he fits two prerequisites of the new right: he’s anti-intellectual and anti-establishment. He’s “real.” He’s a real guy with real passion who has had a real job but has no real understanding of government. Tea Party perfection."