Joe emails: To understand why Herman Cain is “for real” you have to watch this video.
It is the political equivalent of Jacob going ultimate fighting with the angel on the banks of the Jordan and essentially prevailing. As the angel said “you have fought with god and succeeded”.
No one to my knowledge could come close to winning Clinton in a debate. Gingrich’s career ended when he failed, George H.W. Bush simply gave up, and Robert Dole became an even nastier SOB for even thinking he could do so. But Cain put Clinton to the test and succeeded. Herman Cain is for real.
Obama is approximately 75% the debater that Clinton is, and the only Republicans in the field who maybe can take on Clinton are (in no order) Romney (he has the practice), Cain (the simple and elegant layman’s intellect – watch the video again, he is debating Clinton and it looks like Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning – the guy has alligator blood), Santorum (the fortitude and the chops), and Bachman (the belief system and the benefit of low expectations). The rest will have to get lucky to survive a debate. Perry is a real problem, and the rest will never get the nomination and Christie aint running.
Of those 4, each has numerous minuses.
Romney is not a Republican, he is a Mormon, and he is a waffling Ken doll that does not inspire confidence – he would make an excellent secretary of the treasury;
Santorum is too conservative and too white and too male, he will not appeal to any of obama’s base or the independents who pushed Obama over the top – Santorum should move to Wyoming and get relected to the Senate.
Bachmann is too conservative for the country club republicans and her lack of chops on the intellectual side has made the Republican intelligentsia put the blacklist on her. People like George Will, Krauthammer, and Kristol will move heaven and earth to stop her, she reminds people of Palin. By the way, I think she does make for a decent Veep short lister. But the obvious choice for Veep (but depending somewhat on who the nominee is) is Rubio.
Cain has one negative. He has never won an election. He was appointed to the Federal Reserve, but has never really worked in government. He might not even know who the cabinet members are. This is a big negative and cannot be understated. He is going to make gaffes about things he does not know about. Live with it. On the plus side for his getting the nomination are two giant items.
Number one – he is not only against Obama, he is for America. He will repeal all of the Obama nonsense, but he has a plan to get America back and better than it was under George W. Bush. Yes, Romney has a 158 point plan to reform the economy, but I am stupid and I want it simpler. The rest of the group’s plan to help America is to repeal Obama’s drek and smile at how smart they are. Well, the country was in pretty bad shape before Obama buried it six feet deep. Cain is the only one who addresses that inner fear of Americans that our best days are behind us.
Number two – Cain, if you have not noticed, is black. As much as liberals love to vote for (as Biden put it) a “clean” black man, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Conservatives who have been accused of racism forever will, to put it mildly, “pop a rod” to vote for a black man who toes the party line. Independents will too. And if anyone goes after Cain in the Republican primary for his inexperience, that person will be hurt because the Republicans do not much care about that and because it will look and probably be racist.
I just do not see, short of running out of money or Romney or Perry winning both Iowa and New Hampshire (or a win in one and a strong second in the other to then run the table in the South), how Cain does not get the nomination
