Herman Cain should start wising up
But what made Republicans favor Cain in the first place?
According to the poll, “Cain is likable.” I have been writing about the power of likability in presidential races for a long time, and, when you get right down to it, the more likable candidate usually wins the general election.
But primaries can be different. Primary voters tend to be more activist and ideological and more likely to judge whether a candidate is a “true” Republican or a “true” Democrat.
Yet in the case of Cain, Republicans may be willing to overlook things like his recent dramatic flip-flop on abortion, not just because they like him but chiefly because they don’t like anybody else.
The GOP field is the weakest in several cycles, leaving the party with the embarrassment of Cain atop the polls.
Why is he an embarrassment? Because he doesn’t just demonstrate a lack of knowledge about foreign, domestic or even civic affairs — he doesn’t know how a constitutional amendment becomes a constitutional amendment, for example — but he is proud of his ignorance.
“I’m ready for the gotcha questions, and they’re already starting to come,” Cain told a reporter. “And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?’”