Citizen Cain

Herman Cain is surging in the polls.  He's practically pulled even with Mitt Romney.  A lot of this is simply conservatives casting about for an alternative.  Mitt is popular with establishment Republicans, but a lot of others are uneasy and would like to see a serious opponent. At first it looked like it might be Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, and now they're moving toward Cain, whose lively style has distinguished him in debates.

I'll admit he's pretty interesting, and even fun, and doesn't back down at cheap attacks.  And who knows, maybe he'd make a fine president.  But Cain's essentially unknown.  Sure, he's got the gimmicky 9-9-9 deal (which does sounds like a pizza promotion), but as a man who's been a private citizen all his life, he has practically no record to run on.

We know he can run a business, but that tells us next to nothing about how he'd run the country.  Business experience is helpful, but government is simply a different animal.  It's hard enough to guess what his economic policy would be, much less his foreign policy. So I wonder if his appeal isn't unlike Obama's four years ago--supporters can imagine he'd support whatever they believe in.

PS  A friend noted with all the attacks on Cain for not being an "authentic" black man, maybe he should take on a hip hop nickname just to throw it back in their face.

I suggested "M.C. Cain," except the Republicans ran him four years ago and lost.