On Herman Cain

Last updated on: October 20, 2011 at 2:33 pm by Scot McKnight

On Herman Cain 2011-10-19T14:10:32-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Well, I won’t even venture into the field of politics without admitting that I find this stuff interesting but nowhere near as important as many folks do. But, still, I think Herman Cain’s ability to rival old-line politician Mitt Romney is making for some interesting political discussions, not the least of which for me is his ability to say what the thinks succinctly and seemingly without political jargon. Though his avoidance of the jargon is his politics.

Daniel Drezner gets after Cain’s lack of foreign policy:

It took me a couple of hours of reading, cogitation, and regurgitation to critique Mitt Romney’s foreign policy positions. As you’ll note, I didn’t think it was perfect, or even all tat good in places. But, I had to think about it, mull over the content… you know, think.

Now, I desperately want to be an equal opportunity blogger, and at this point Herman Cain appears to be the co-frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. Sure, I’ve had my fun with him in the past, and he has no shortage of foreign policy gaffes, but I figured that impromptu utterances during debates are only one part of a candidate’s overall policy vision. The thoughts that are written down, they imply some foreithough. So I thought I’d go over to Cain’s campaign website and spend an equal amount of time to analyze his foreign policy thinking.

I found…. a total of five paragraphs on “national security.” That’s it. No white papers, fact sheets, bullet points, or list of advisors. So you gotta think that these are going to be the most awesome and mind-blowing foreign policy paragraphs ever!!!

But Michael Tomasky thinks Cain might be Romney’s biggest nightmare:

Everyone is calling Herman Cain the new “flavor of the month” without always properly emphasizing why we’ve seen such a succession of flavors—to wit, that conservatives are desperate not to have to vote for Mitt Romney. This is the central fact so far of the GOP-nomination race, and Romney’s central problem. He has two possible ways to fix it. One is to destroy Cain’s conservative bona fides. The other is to shore up his own. Both are going to be really, really hard for him to do….

Cain, however, is an altogether trickier matter for Romney. Cain appeals to right-wingers in deep emotional ways, ways that have only a little to do with his extreme political views. Conservatives just reflexively adore businessmen. This is one of the major differences between conservatives and liberals. Liberals aren’t impressed by most business people. Big deal, liberals think; I could have gotten rich, if my goal in life was peddling more Whoppers to a populace that doesn’t need them. (Cain made his mark at Burger King before Godfather’s Pizza). Instead, I wanted to educate children or defend the downtrodden and the tortiously wronged. Liberals see a rich man and think of Balzac. But conservatives think liberals and Balzac are seditious and crazy. Yes, Romney is a rich man, too. But the problem is no one knows what he does, or did, at Bain Management. He didn’t make stuff. Cain made hamburgers and pizzas. They’re rather popular. Point Cain.

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