The Herman Cain Phenomenon: What It Tells Us About The Republican Presidential Race

So now we have a new phenomenon: former Godfather Pizza CEO and talk show host Herman Cain, winning the Florida Republican straw poll, putting him in the forefront of the news, after earlier surges in Iowa’s straw poll for Michele Bachmann, and then in the public opinion polls for Rick Perry.

After Bachmann and Perry flopped in debates, now the excitement is with Cain, who has ZERO political experience, and yet tells us his business background qualifies him to be the leader of the free world and deal with foreign policy, when a major criticism of Barack Obama is his supposed lack of experience, even though he was a US Senator for four years and an Illinois state senator for eight years, more experience in office than Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter, among others!

This concept that a businessman is good to run a government is a false argument, as government is NOT a business, and cannot be run like one!

But beyond that fact, Herman Cain is a candidate with major flaws that disqualify him to be our Commander in Chief.

His 9-9-9 tax idea is ridiculous and unworkable. Having a 9 percent corporate tax rate, a 9 percent flat income tax, and a 9 percent national sales tax will NOT work, will NOT raise adequate income, will allow corporations and wealthy people to continue to have unfair tax rates, and will victimize the middle and lower classes in a major way!

A national sales tax will burden the poor and lower middle class much more than the wealthy, as any sales tax is inherently unfair, since it does not take income levels into consideration!

Beyond that, and Cain’s lack of ANY government or foreign policy experience, there is the unfortunate issue of his health. Cain revealed to us in Thursday’s Orlando debate that he had stage 4 colon and liver cancer, and has been a survivor for five years. evoking sympathy and applause from the debate audience.

But his explanation, that he has survived because there was no government involvement in his medical care, is preposterous, as the reason he has survived has nothing to do with that at all, but rather because he was RICH enough to be able to afford the best health care, which most Americans cannot acquire!

But beyond that, should a person who has miraculously survived stage 4 colon and liver cancer be running for President, when the odds of his survival for at least five years more is unlikely? And then we would be stuck with his choice of a Vice Presidential running mate, with the fear that it might be a Sarah Palin type or one of his opponents in the race! Is that being fair to the American people, and is it not a question of Herman Cain’s own ego that makes him run? This is reckless behavior on his part!

The one good thing about Herman Cain is that, being an African American, it would be fascinating if both of our candidates for President were black, a very intriguing idea on its surface. But that is not enough to make this a good idea! The question arises whether Herman Cain is willing to deal with the problems of black America, being someone who has become wealthy and seems to want to ignore his past! And one has to wonder whether the Tea Party Republicans would EVER be willing to endorse a black candidate for President, based on their past rhetoric.

So instead of focusing on Herman Cain, if the Republicans had any common sense, they would be moving toward Jon Huntsman, who has suddenly surged in the polls in New Hampshire, now in third place and with double digits (10 percent) behind MItt Romney, who is way ahead, and Rick Perry. This could be the sign of Huntsman starting the long climb to prominence, which would give the Republicans a REAL chance to defeat Barack Obama!