THE APPEAL OF HERMAN CAIN
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2011, 6:39 P.M. ET
Notable & Quotable
Dorothy Rabinowitz on the appeal of Herman Cain.
- Dorothy Rabinowitz writing Tuesday in the Journal’s Political Diary e-newsletter:
So it happens that he can deliver a steely jibe about defense cuts (“You don’t put a bull’s-eye on the backs of our men and women in uniform”) or the way America’s wars must be fought (“The mission is victory. . . . If we are not in it to win it, we will not be in it”) and make audiences feel they’d never heard anything so bracing. . . .
An early response to the Florida poll results came from a friend, historian Alan C. Kors, who observed in mock puzzlement: “So, the ‘Tea Party racists’ in a Republican straw poll chose the self-made black Herman Cain—mathematician and successful businessman—son of a cleaning woman and a janitor, as their choice of nominee for the presidency of the United States. Well! What a bigoted group, what a caste society!”
It’s an observation whose point wouldn’t be lost on Herman Cain.