Cain's Policies Are the Real Scandal

Herman Cain hit the first major crisis of his campaign in Politico’s sexual harassment story, and "far-right blowhards immediately played the race card," writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post. Ann Coulter said liberals were "terrified of strong, conservative black men" while Rush Limbaugh said Cain’s attackers were wielding "the ugliest racial stereotypes." Robinson thought it was "interesting to hear those two acknowledging the powerful role that race still plays in our society—the first step, intellectually" toward supporting race-based affirmative action. “That’s what they mean, right?”

Really, these cries of racism are “just another salvo in the intraparty war Republicans are having” between establishment types, like Karl Rove, who back Mitt Romney, and those looking for someone, anyone else. The rest of us didn’t need a scandal to write off Cain—we’ve seen his policies, which “range from the ignorant to the unworkable to the just plain goofy.” This is the candidate, Robinson reminds us, who has bragged about not knowing the names of foreign leaders. If he were somehow elected, "the result would surely be an unmitigated disaster." Scandal aside, there are "so many reasons to oppose this loopy candidacy," concludes Robinson, and "so little time." (More Herman Cain stories.)