Cain, Down and Out

I watched Herman Cain’s dramatic farewell speech.  He portrayed himself as a victim of dirty politics.  He denied all the allegations of infidelity and sexual harassment that had  plagued his campaign for months.  He said he had gotten into the race because he loved this country and that Washington wasn’t doing its job.

His said his main priorities been been economic growth, energy independence and deficit reduction.  Really?  I don’t remember hearing him or any of the candidates talk much about energy independence.  That doesn’t even sound very Republican, unless what it means is “drill baby drill”, or in the case of natural gas, “frack it,  frack it good”.

He made some joke about being 99.9% certain that people knew the name Cain.  In typical pizza guy businessman fashion, brand recognition is his crowning achievement.  But now that he has suspended his campaign, he may go down in history, as Chris Hayes put it,  as just a footnote or an answer to a trivia question.   I think that in ten years, he’ll be as obscure a figure as he was when he briefly ran for the Presidency in 2000.

So who will his supporters support?  It appears a great many have already defected to the Grinch camp.  The rest, the “loyal” 8%, and maybe some scattered curiosity seekers who attended the farewell gathering, perhaps in the hopes of a free slice of pizza, might head on over to the wild-eyed Michelle Bachmann camp.   Michelle Bachmann – imagine if she wins the nomination and selects Sarah Palin or Christine O’Donnell as her running mate.  What a Tea Party that’d be.  Oh, and SNL would have a field day!

Now that Herman is out, RNC, why not let Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson play? They’ve been on the sidelines waiting patiently to get in the game.  Or is Newt really the chosen one?