R.I.P. Herman Cain

It took a little longer than expected, but it should come as no surprise that former GOP front-runner Herman Cain bowed out of the presidential race last weekend. Cain was simply overwhelmed with the mounting allegations of sexual misconduct. And instead of dealing with them head-on, he continued to believe that by simply ignoring the charges, they would go away. That shows a shocking degree of naivete about how the national media and the national political scene works, and is just one reason Cain wasn't fit to occupy the White House. It's also a damning indicator of just how broken our current political system is.
I must admit, I watched with some fascination as Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, rose from near obscurity to the front of a crowded field of vastly more experienced candidates. And make no mistake. Cain brought a lot to the table. He was as close to a political outsider as we're ever likely to see anymore. He's been active in politics behind the scenes for awhile. But other than a lone Congressional run in his home state of Georgia, he had no big-time political experience. That makes what he managed to accomplish even more remarkable.
Cain had perhaps the best backstory of any of the candidates. He beat stage 4 liver and colon cancer. His "9-9-9" tax plan, which called for a 9 percent income tax, a 9 percent sales tax and a 9 percent corporate tax, was fatally flawed and hoplessly regressive, unfairly penalizing the poorest Americans. But for awhile, it managed to stimulate a much-needed discussion on the shortcomings of our current tax code.
I have said from the beginning that, while Cain wasn't quite ready for prime time, he would make a great Cabinet secretary for someone someday. I've even touted him as a potential dark horse pick to be vice president. Now, unfortunately, due to the merciless "chew'em up and spit'em out" nature of our political system, that is unlikely to happen. What a shame.
Our current political system is broken. Once, not so long ago, candidates were allowed to have private lives, outside the glare of public scrutiny. Today, thanks to the advent of the 24-hour news channels and the explosion of the Internet, that's no longer so. And our entire country suffers as a result.
I understand that when you declare your candidacy for political office, particularly the presidency, you give up a large part of your status as a private citizen. And some of that increased scrutiny is justified. This is particularly true in Cain's case, since he was largely unknown when he entered the race. Still, I think we've gone too far in our endless quest to get to "know" our candidates.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again here. I don't care who a candidate is sleeping with, or who he slept with in the past. If he's cheating on his spouse, it's really none of my business. That's a matter best left to be settled between a husband and a wife. It shouldn't be tried in the court of public opinion.
Likewise, if a candidate experimented with drugs or got a DUI when he was in college, so what? We all do stupid things we wish we hadn't in college. As long as the candidate is not currently addicted to drugs or alcohol, it shouldn't matter. What should matter to voters is who the candidate is NOW, not what he did 20 years ago.
With Cain's exit, we now are left with a field of professional politicians and Washington insiders. That's a shame. Cain was far from perfect. But he was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale political scene. He had vast potential. Unfortunately, our current political system chewed him up and spit him out. That's going to continue to happen, so long as a bloodthirsty, tabloid-crazed public continues to lust after every scrap of information -- relevant or not -- about our politicians. Unless we learn to rein in that instinct and establish some realistic boundaries about what we have a right to know, pretty soon, new candidates will simply decide not to run. And who can blame them? We'll be left with the same flawed candidates and the same stale ideas. We'll be left to hold our nose, pull the lever and cast a vote, not for the best candidate, but for the "lesser of two evils." And our entire country will suffer as a result.