Herman Cain is in the midst of “reassessing” whether to continue his 2012 bid, but its legacy is already settled: His campaign will go down as one of the most hapless and bumbling operations in modern presidential politics, setting a new standard for how to turn damaging press coverage into something far worse.

This, white conservative bigots tell us, is the apex of what it is to be Black in America. For them, this, not Obama’s overachievement, is authentic Blackness.