Is the Lie Safe Harbor in Politics? Ask Herman Cain

In the storm, you tie down one end of the jibe, tack into the howling winds, and hope for the best. Cain's chances are strapped down to denial. He denies the movement for social justice or Jesse Jackson's influence in threatening to boycott Burger King that got his foot on the corporate ladder. He denies that he closed 100s of stores and laid off employees, lost $35 million his first year and never reversed the decline, finally buying a business driven down to 10% of its former value. He denies those above him in Republican rank and experience, never mentioning (or apparently consulting with) Colin Powell, Condi Rice, or others of greater gifts. He denies being a lobbyist, an insider who opposed smoking bans and lower alcohol blood level limits. He denies that denial has been his principal means of advancement—even to the extreme denial of his racial integrity—giving Perry a pass on the rock, but a slap on the rumor—and saying his code name if elected would be “Cornbread.” Like Topsy, Cain asserts “nobody never made me,” he just “grow'd.”

 But look at what can not be denied: Who does he cuddle? Who funds his weekly antics? Who are his “brothers of the other mother.” (Check what that says about the daddy between the lines and go back to integrity lost.)

He is the anti-function, a symbiotic attack on Obama: if I'll so dumb and you believe national tax policy can be written on a napkin by an accountant, maybe you shouldn't think Obama is so much.

Herman Cain is a sycophant held up for independents and moderates to say, yes, true conservatives come in all colors. His visibility counteracts the claim that Republicans and the Tea Party never fully bought in to diversity and harbored fears of a black takeover of power–manifested by a run on bullets right after Barack was elected with shortages lasting for six months and public rallies where attendees banished guns.

But Cain, with his lack of narrative, geography, policy knowledge and failed corporate positions reflect a movie lexicon made famous by another Morehouse man, Spike Lee. Herman Cain has political jungle fever.

I believe in redemption but I cannot endorse the sin.