By Justin Michael Carter
Every October 31st, children dress up in costumes and travel door to door looking to get their bags filled with candy. The idea is if these costumed kids don’t get the treats they want, there will be hell to pay in the form of a trick. If the GOP keeps treating itself to this love affair with Herman Cain and the Republican nomination, America could be on the verge of the ultimate trick: an All Black Everything general election in 2012.
New polls show Herman Cain leading the Republican field, as presumptive front runner Mitt Romney continues to fade. Unlike other contenders to the pole position who found their lead in the polls to be more fleeting than a power pellet, Cain has held the number one spot for a few weeks now. The question at hand is whether Republicans dislike Romney enough to seriously consider nominating Herman Cain in his stead. Then the real fun begins.
Herman Cain is a classic hustler baby. He gets advised by a Wells Fargo accountant, he lifted his signature economic policy from a video game, and he has next to no campaign staff on the ground in several upcoming primary states. All he has to show for these hood rich tactics is a nice lead in the polls and increasingly paltry book sales. Pouring syrup on shit don’t make pancakes, but it might keep the flies away.
Despite his conservative allegiance, Herman Cain is real Black. It’s part of his charm, like a drunk uncle at a cookout. This is why many feel that granting Cain the nomination will treat Republicans to guaranteed defeat in 2012. Sure everyone loves uncle Rodney, but they wouldn’t bet a wooden nickel on him staying out of jail. Then again, perhaps the GOP isn’t tricking itself after all. The only time President Obama lost an election was when he went up against Bobby Rush, an older Black man from his father’s generation, just like Herman Cain. Maybe they are counting on the hood checking for that Cain.
At the very least, this could make for an interesting matchup in 2012. While Obama has to measure himself and maintain a certain level of decorum and dignity that befits the Office, Herman Cain can scream at the top of his lungs and take the contest to the mud without any damage to his image. This is the difference between actually being President and running for the office; one is rooted in reality while the other dwells in the land of hyperbole.
Cain’s staunch conservative beliefs give him the freedom to keep it 100 a way that President Obama never could. In a Republican field of plastic, Herman Cain is by far the most authentic, no matter how silly his positions may seem. The President, on the other hand is constantly hamstrung; forever wary of Angry Black Man-isms in that dignified, yet impotent Sidney Poitier way, shrugging off “tar baby” darts and the like with the reserved grace that killed Jackie Robinson from the inside out years before his time. Perhaps a bout against Herman Cain will free the President to unleash his inner Soul Glow in a way he has been unable to until now.
By next Halloween we will be in the final stretch of the general election and the race to become leader of the free but increasingly expensive world will be concluding at a fever pitch. Republicans have certainly talked a pretty good game about the prospects of Herman Cain’s nomination and a general election run against President Obama. But come November 4th, if that bell rings with two Black faces standing on the other side of the threshold does anyone truly believe they will answer the door?
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