Herman Cain Quits For the Wrong Reasons

Why Can’t We Have Smarter Republican Voters?

The end of the Herman Cain campaign for President was going to happen without Mr. Cain becoming President.  The only question when he began his campaign was the how and the when.  Now the how and the when has happened, but it is not the how and the when that many observers expected.

A series of issues and questions about Mr. Cain’s private behavior are what have forced him to cease.  This is a case of the right decision for the wrong reasons.  Mr. Cain should have quit the race for the simple reason that not only is he not qualified to be President, he reveled in his lack of qualifications and ignorance, holding them up to voters as a reason to select him.

Once his campaign gained observation as the latest in a long line of “anybody but Mitt Romney” candidates, the focus on his campaign showed ample proof that Mr. Cain was probably as least qualified a candidate as has ever been seriously considered a serious candidate.  Mr. Cain is unfamiliar with the Constitution, once saying he would sign an anti-abortion amendment, not realizing that the process does not work that way.  His 9-9-9 Plan would provide a huge tax cut for the wealthy, tax increases for low income families and an explosion of the deficit.  He didn’t know this, and he didn’t care that he didn’t know this.

So Mr. Cain should have quit because once voters examined him and his positions the voters should have left him at about 1%, including friends and families.  That they did not says something about Republican voters, and the something it says is not good for the country.  Republican voters apparently at least tolerate, and maybe cherish ignorance.  They see it as a governing virtue.  And that is not just sad, but bad, bad for the country and bad for those Republican voters.  They just don’t know it, and one fervently hopes they never find out by having someone like Mr. Cain elected to high office.