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When the @GOP rubber stamp Senate process actually finds a @realDonaldTrump appointee unacceptable, that is a BIG DEAL. But thank goodness. Cain, with his obsession with magic numbers, was historically, recklessly, staggeringly unqualified.
2/ The most substantive crazy contradiction of Herman Cain’s career is that his whole I-made-it-on-my-own, with-no-help-from-anybody story is that
A) it is patently false, and
B) he honestly doesn’t appear to know that.
A) it is patently false, and
B) he honestly doesn’t appear to know that.
3/ Cain was a hardworking student at Morehouse in the 1960s, based on reporting I did when he was running for President in 2012. But his tuition was at least periodically paid for by the president of Coca-Cola Co., for whom Cain’s father worked as a driver.
4/ Later, Cain benefitted from early Affirmative-Action style efforts by the military to diversify its civilian hiring. Cain did a good job and also smartly made use of government programs to help employees further their education. Kudos for that.
5/ He was eventually recruited into the restaurant business and invited into a manager/executive training program at a time when that industry and company were....yes....recognizing past practices of discrimination and opening up to having minority executives.
6/ Again, Cain worked hard, did well, and made good use of the opportunity afforded him. His later record as a pizza chain CEO was brief, and success in that role was mixed. He ended up as a restaurant industry spokesman (odd move for a CEO).
7/ Bottom line: Cain worked hard, was smart, and earned what he gained. But he also benefitted incredibly from opportunities created through efforts to make up for past discrimination.
He’s a poster child for how well affirmative action really works. But he’s unable to see that.
He’s a poster child for how well affirmative action really works. But he’s unable to see that.
8/ What made him recklessly unqualified for nomination to the Federal Reserve Board was his fascination with “numerology”—a quasi religious obsession with lucky numbers and a belief that specific numbers have kind of supernatural meaning. His “lucky number” is 45, his birth year.
9/ During the 2011-12 campaign, Cain saw 45s everywhere—even when they weren’t there. In the tail numbers of airplanes. Table numbers at an event. The altitude of his plane when something happened. And he honestly believed those were signs from God that he was to be president.
10/ There was no explanation for why the power of all those “45”s vanished as soon a woman surfaced who said she was having a 13-year long extramarital affair with Cain. (He denied it, but soon dropped out of the race.) (Maybe 13 has more mojo than 45?)
11/ Herman Cain isn’t a villain. He’s just a slightly kooky guy with no self awareness. But the idea that someone who thinks he may see the supernatural on every McDonald’s menu board was who @realDonaldTrump was ready to appoint for the Federal Reserve Board is downright scary.
