Does Herman Cain really want to be president?
(Gage Skidmore)
As
Ari Melber has pointed out, there are several indications that Herman Cain isn't particularly interested in moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He's not bothering to build the kind of organizations that are needed to get people to the polls. He's not bothering to campaign in early states. He's not bothering to do any of the things that turn buzz into votes.
But then, why should he? Being president is a thankless job. Running for president as a GOP candidate? Just about the best paying job you can get with no experience, no knowledge and nothing but an overweight ego.
Why shouldn't Cain "run for president" as a profile-elevating exercise? Sarah Palin earned an estimated $12 million in 2010 as a celebrity Republican woman. How many of last cycle's candidates for the GOP nod went on to television shows, radio platforms and big book contracts? Just about all of them—except the guy who "won."
Where being a Democratic candidate can leave you working for years to fill in the financial hole, being a GOP candidate has proven to be an extremely lucrative profession. GOP voters have an insatiable appetite for being told what they already believe, with bonus points for covering it with a heap of psuedo-evangelicalese rhetoric.
Herman Cain isn't running for president. He's running to be the next Sarah Palin. He's not competing with Barack Obama; he's battling for bandwidth against the Kardashians. Charges that he has engaged in outrageous behavior? If Rick Perry wasn't passing out the info, Cain would have to do it himself. Would you bet against some cable network tossing a few million to the Hermanator for a series focusing on his invaluable business insight as he tours around his pizza empire, croons the occasional tune (with celebrity guests) and gets down with The Little People? Would you bet that the negotiations aren't underway right now?
Herman Cain doesn't have to worry about the general election, or his harassment coming back on him, or learning the president of Uz becky becky stan stan. The only thing he's worried about is that he might accidentally win the nomination. That would really hurt his plans.