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I’ve been thinking a lot about Herman Cain.  I used to be worried about him.  Guess what?  Now, as someone who is 99% sure he’s voting for Obama based on the current pack of lunatics running on the right, I am absolutely pulling for him.  

But first, a little history:

Actress and activist Janeane Garofalo threw down the liberal gauntlet while blasting Tea Party motives on MSNBC in 2009

“It’s about hating a black man in the White House. That is racism straight up. This is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks,” she said.

A YouTube video titled “Tea Party Racism” shows signs seen at past Tea Party events. They include:

• Obama as a witch doctor 
• A monkey face next to the words, “Obamanomics: Monkey See, Monkey Spend”
• Obama’s Plan: White Slavery
• The Zoo has an African Lion
• The White House has a Lyin’ African

Former President Jimmy Carter claimed to NBC “Nightly News” that “an overwhelming portion” of the animosity aimed at President Obama is because Obama’s black. 

However, author Ron Miller doesn’t buy it. He’s written the book “Sellout,” which is a label often tossed at him because he’s a black Republican who speaks at Tea Party events.

He points out that two of the Tea Partiers favorite politicians are a black congressman and a black presidential candidate.

“If the Tea Party movement, fragmented as it is, had an opportunity to select the one man that they’d want as president of the United States right now, it would be Allen West and followed closely by Herman Cain,” he said.

“I simply say two things. First of all, the accusation of racism within the Tea Party movement is ridiculous. Why? Number two — the black guy keeps winning the straw polls. So how could they be racists?” Cain asked.

“Would a racist organization take that much interest and be that passionate about two men who are obviously black?” Miller asked.

Fox News commentator Juan Williams can often be a little suspicious about the Tea Party embrace of West and Cain.

“Maybe sensing that they are very vulnerable on this racial issue, they’re taking to people like West or like Herman Cain because they’re seeking to defend themselves against those charges,” he said.

But Williams said he wished people wouldn’t always be dragging out the race card.

“And I just find it abhorrent to American ideals that you would try to defeat your opponent with some blanket charge of racism or bigotry when in fact there’s something else on the table, and it’s a very legitimate difference of opinion,” he said.

“It’s not about race. It’s about policies, it’s about issues,” Miller told CBN News.

This was back in September when it was written, long before Cain was elevated to the status of front runner, whatever that means in the pack of dimwits, zealots and snoozers the GOP is running.  Man, they thought it would be easy, didn’t they?

And I’m okay with that.  Because here’s who runs against Obama if Cain gets the nomination:

Herman Cain is heartlessly out of touch with main stream America: (statement about Occupy Wallstreet)

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed,” the ex-Godfather’s Pizza CEO declared.

Hermain Cain is a typical right-leaning islamophobe:

He had to apologize to Muslim leaders for vitriolic remarks in which he said communities have a right to ban mosques because Muslims are trying to inject sharia law into the U.S. and that he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration.

And yet for all for his issues with Islam being used to make law in America, he’s willing to his faith to make law here:  

“I believe that life begins at conception, period. And that means that I will have to see enough evidence that someone I would appoint shares that same view. “ 

And, of course, Hermain Cain is a mouth piece for the uber-rich:

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation’s capital. But Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

 Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his “9-9-9” plan to rewrite the nation’s tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

So how does this guy rise to the top of the polls?  Why is everybody talking about him?

Because, as Juan Williams suspects, Hermain Cain is a human shield for the Tea Party.  The perfect defense against what Janeane Garofalo (and many others, including myself) have stated a long time ago:  There’s a sick little undercurrent of racism going on in the tea party, and something had to be done to deflect.

To me, this is what it’s about:  Being able to keep the hard-right agenda going, but neutering the race card.  How many days did Rick Perry’s “N*****head” story get?  A day and a half?  The Texas Governor’s family getaway uses the N-word and this carries the news cycle less than 48 hours?   C’mon, If Obama went to the Cracker Barrel for a soda, we’d hear about how he was calling white people “Crackers” through November.

What better way for the tea party to go “See?  We’re not bigots!” than elevating Herman? It’s beautiful, beautiful strategy.  And I hope it backfires.

I have grown to love Hermain Cain as the Republican Candidate for the United States of America.  Do you hear me?  I love him having to go toe-to-toe with Obama.

Because the election becomes race neutral.  Obama’s skin color suddenly is no longer in the “plus” column for that bigoted chunk of Americans who don’t like a president who doesn’t look like their money — even if they don’t HAVE any money.

And if Cain wins the nomination, pow:  Their party ALSO has a candidate with the same skin color.  Now it’s about ideas.  And who best represents the majority of Americans.

So for now, I’m pulling for him.  Taking race out of this election is a PR move for the Tea Party.  But it’s one of the best things that could happen to Obama.  It makes this election about policies,  the direction of the country, and who has the best interest for the majority of Americans. 

So go, Herman.  Go.

But honestly, by the time the GOP candidate is chosen, I think we all know he’ll be gone, Herman, gone.

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