Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot to like about Herman Cain. He's funny and personable. He's a great American success story. His 9-9-9 tax plan may be half-baked, but the concept behind the plan -- replace the corporate income tax with in effect a consumption tax -- has a lot to recommend it. (Although, the plan has a lot of problems, too.) Finally, in a political cycle that has seen too many coded racial attacks on President Obama and his family, it's a source of great pride to me to see an African-American topping my party's polls.Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot to like about Herman Cain. He's funny and personable. He's a great American success story. His 9-9-9 tax plan may be half-baked, but the concept behind the plan -- replace the corporate income tax with in effect a consumption tax -- has a lot to recommend it. (Although, the plan has a lot of problems, too.) Finally, in a political cycle that has seen too many coded racial attacks on President Obama and his family, it's a source of great pride to me to see an African-American topping my party's polls.Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot to like about Herman Cain. He's funny and personable. He's a great American success story. His 9-9-9 tax plan may be half-baked, but the concept behind the plan -- replace the corporate income tax with in effect a consumption tax -- has a lot to recommend it. (Although, the plan has a lot of problems, too.) Finally, in a political cycle that has seen too many coded racial attacks on President Obama and his family, it's a source of great pride to me to see an African-American topping my party's polls.
- From: goodnews8778@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:09:37 -0700
Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot to like about Herman Cain. He's
funny and personable. He's a great American success story. His 9-9-9
tax plan may be half-baked, but the concept behind the plan -- replace
the corporate income tax with in effect a consumption tax -- has a lot
to recommend it. (Although, the plan has a lot of problems, too.)
Finally, in a political cycle that has seen too many coded racial
attacks on President Obama and his family, it's a source of great
pride to me to see an African-American topping my party's polls.
If Herman Cain had served as governor of Georgia, or even mayor of
Atlanta, he'd be a valid and credible candidate for president of the
United States.
But here's the trouble: he has not held those offices or any other
executive office at any level of government. He did serve on the board
of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the 1990s, including two
years as chairman -- a distinguished position and an important
responsibility, but not one that involves the management of a public
agency.
So what?
David Frum
David Frum
So everything! The president's most fundamental job is to run the
government. That job is very, very hard. The consequences of a mistake
are very, very serious.
For that reason, Americans have historically demanded a record of
successful accomplishment in public office from their presidential
candidates. The current president is an exception to the rule, and --
well -- enough said.
Barack Obama became president despite a negligible record in large
part as a reaction against the perceived failures of the George W.
Bush presidency. Many voters in 2008 made a calculation like: "Obama
may never have governed anything. But George W. Bush was a two-term
governor of the country's second biggest state, and he got us into
Iraq and a terrible recession. So maybe experience doesn't count.
Maybe what we need is a different style: somebody more cautious than
Bush, somebody who doesn't always go with his gut."
Cain responds to Belafonte's criticism
Herman Cain: '9-9-9' not a gimmick
Herman Cain, GOP avoid race card
CNN Red Chair Interview: Herman Cain
You might expect Republicans to react similarly against the Obama
presidency, demanding from their nominee skills that Obama lacked:
administrative experience, negotiating skill, deep policy knowledge.
But no. From Donald Trump to Michele Bachmann to Herman Cain, the
Republican activist base has again and again fixed its hopes on people
who have never held an executive public office -- and who defiantly
reject the very idea of expertise.
Meanwhile Mitt Romney -- the man who saved the 2002 Olympics and who
inaugurated the nation's first universal health insurance program as
governor of Massachusetts -- can't rise above 25% or so among
Republicans. And the seemingly most logical alternative to Romney --
Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- has collapsed in the polls. Perry may not be
the sharpest pencil in the pack, but he can at least claim experience
in government.
The Trump, Bachmann and now Cain boomlets reveal a worrying
disinclination among some Republicans not to value government
management very highly. These voters assume that if a candidate
professes the right values, he or she will make the right decisions.
Barry Goldwater gave this disregard its classic expression in his
"Conscience of a Conservative."
"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it
more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to
promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to
pass laws, but to repeal them."
But guess what? Repealing laws is just as hard as passing laws. A
president who wishes to extend freedom must still staff his or her
administration with people who can do their jobs. And the more you
reduce government's size, the more important that what remains should
work well.
Back in 2008, National Review editor Rich Lowry talked about a
Republican "competence primary." That year, the Republican field was
dominated by candidates who could claim some huge success in
government: Romney; New York's crime-fighting fprmer Mayor Rudy
Giuliani; and the very effective three-term governor of Arkansas, Mike
Huckabee. The race was won by John McCain, the man who had devised and
pushed the "surge" strategy that turned around the Iraq war.
This time, apparently, the competence primary has been canceled. Too
bad. In the depths of the worst economic crisis since the Depression,
competence is needed more than ever.
.
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