As Presidential hopeful Herman Cain announced the suspension of his campaign on December 3rd, the media world was abuzz. Cain, who made the shocking announcement amid mounting controversy surrounding allegations of sexual harassment and adultery, was considered by many in the media to be a front-runner in the Republican race for nomination.
The Onion got this one right with their headline “Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn’t Know China Has Nuclear Weapons”. And before Mr. Blake asks for it, here’s video proof.
Cain is apparently also the guy who sees no problem with quoting Pokémon during his concession speech. The exact quote was the following:
“Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me.”
That right there, is pretty much the theme song to Pokémon The Movie 2000 titled “The Power of One“, which was performed by Donna Summer. This is the kind of stuff you just can’t make up – how in the world did anyone take this man seriously?
For a man whose biggest claim to fame was being the CEO of a discount Domino’s Pizza, the media sure rallied behind the guy. He’d been given so much airtime, so many interviews, and so much credibility. But why?
On numerous occasions, with his stammering and blank stares, he’d demonstrated that he had no idea of what he was talking about. This was most evident by his lack of knowledge about foreign countries and complete lack of an actual foreign policy other than a really trite slogan. In addition to his lack of working knowledge about anything not involving pizza, he’d previously served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Omaha Branch. Aren’t we supposed to be at odds with the Federal Reserve? What happens when a former Fed gets into the White House and starts serving up favors to all his old acquaintances? And let’s not forget the failure of Aquila, Inc. that he contributed to.
We very well dodged a serious bullet there. It’s like going out to your local pub and almost going home with the girl with a third of a smile and the neck tattoo, only to have her vomit on herself and call her own cab. The next morning you wake up safe and sound in your bed thinking “that was a close one.” You keep wondering what your buddies were thinking, telling you it was a good idea.
In this metaphor, your buddies are the media and the ever-present uninformed voters, and this is the root of the problem. The media never cared that Cain was under-qualified – they wanted to tell the story of a CEO of a pizza company running for President because they knew it would get ratings. The uninformed voters ate it up because Cain had sort of a soulful Joe the Plumber vibe about him. See, that’s what most people do – they envision themselves as a “winner”, when in fact most of them are on the low end of the spectrum, will always be on the low end of the spectrum, and don’t even realize it. This is what keeps poor people voting to keep taxes on the rich low – delusions of grandeur. But I digress…
Cain’s run for the nomination demonstrates a fundamental problem in our society and I, for one, am glad to see him out of the race. Now, if only we can have some adult discussion about the newly passed National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which seems to allow the Government to effectively suspend the Constitution and indefinitely detain American citizens without due process just for the mere accusation of saying mean things about the Government. Yeah, let’s talk about this at the debates.
[...] Burying Cain [...]