Today Herman Cain announced that he would be “suspending” his campaign. Nobody was shocked. After getting smashed on channel after channel over charges of sexual harassment and infidelity, there was little else he could do.
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Regardless of how you might have felt about Sharon Bialek or Karen Kraushaar, by the time Ginger White emerged, it was a wrap. Rather than face the firing squad alone, he walked out dragging his wife before the cameras. It was so sad. It was painful to watch.
The meteoric and mysterious rise of this largely unknown Black Republican was over. Herman Cain’s campaign went down harder than a groupie at a Lil Wayne concert. That the Republican Party would have any Black answer to the charismatic Barack Obama seemed so unlikely. But there he was. He was funny, relaxed in front of the cameras and clearly passionate. He was no dummy, did not come from a lot of money but made a lot of money selling pizza. He was everything your average Republican wanted to see in a Black candidate — almost. We all know when it comes to the Oval Office, almost is never good enough. It was a character assassination, no doubt. But who was the triggerman?
Meet Mark Block, Herman Cain’s campaign manager. This man is impressive. Mr. Block was the first 18-year-old ever elected to office in Wisconsin in 1974. In 1997 he was banned from politics in Wisconsin for three years and paid a $15,000 fine after being accused of violating election laws when he served as campaign manager for state Supreme Court Justice Jon P. Wilcox. Mark Block is powerful indeed. Yet he’s not powerful enough to get Cain on the national stage by himself.
In October of this year, an Associated Press story on Herman Cain explained some of the power behind the power “Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending.”
If you don’t know the Koch brothers, that’s OK. For those that don’t know, they run a company called Koch Industries. Wikipedia says Koch Industries is a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. David Koch is recognized as a philanthropist. His personal worth was recently clocked around $22.5 billion. Cain was backed by hardcore conservative one percenters. Why would they want a Black man to run the free world?
With the backing of the Koch family, it looked like the game was locked for Cain. But someone, somewhere knew Cain had a weakness for women. They had to. How was it before his campaign got underway nobody said “Hey look, if we’re gonna do this we need to know if you have any side chicks, spring break video tapes, baby mommas- anything?” Somebody had to have done some homework.
When the story first broke, Cain blamed Perry:
“Mr. Cain, in an article published by Forbes on Wednesday afternoon, accused Curt Anderson — an aide with Mr. Cain’s 2004 Senate campaign in Georgia and now an adviser to Mr. Perry — of being the source. Mr. Cain recalled telling Mr. Anderson about the harassment charges in 2003.
“It was a typical campaign conversation,” Mr. Cain told Forbes. “I told him that there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman while I was at the National Restaurant Association. Those charges were baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them. I don’t recall anyone else being in the room when I told him.”
Perry denied the charges and promoted the idea that it was possibly Romney who pulled the trigger. But it really doesn’t matter now.
The question is why? The answer is simple. The Republican Party never wanted a Black man to lead, but they wanted to look like they did. After the RNC Chariman Michael Steele (a right wing token if we ever saw one) was bullied by Rush Limbaugh and cast aside like a rusty spittoon, there was no Black Republican leader to represent the right. Most of the candidates Black America knew from the right were either seen as Toms (like Steele) or just had no juice on the block. They needed a new guy. A charismatic guy. A Black guy who looked like he could win, but couldn’t. Herman Cain was that Black guy.
Ultimately, Herman Cain assassinated himself. Shot himself in the heart and took his wife with him. His infidelity is his to own and his to work out between his God and wife. He knew what was in his past. Only his ego, or the false support of those in on the hit, would make him believe he could get past the vetting of so many in such crucial times. As of now, there is no fingerprints, no weapon, no get away vehicle. Suspects? There are many. We have Mark Block, the Koch Brothers to Perry, Anderson, its a long list.
The one thing nobody argue though, is that it was a clean hit, and Cain’s run is done.
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