Can Herman Cain Rise from the Ashes

Herman Cain is no longer a presidential candidate. But, he has not left the political scene in America, as the letter he sent yesterday to people registered on his new “The Cain Solution” website attests.

I want to quote some excerpts from the letter to give a flavor of Cain’s thinking about how he can influence the political direction of the United States, even though not a candidate.

“Since my campaign ended, I’ve been honored to hear from so many people who asked me to continue because they felt I was the person who could help this country fix things that urgently needed fixing. I will continue to lead but not as a candidate, because I chose to put family first.
“I will continue to be your voice and our voice. We will make 9-9-9 a movement. We will put “strength” back into Peace through Strength and Clarity. We will become energy independent. We will put “united” back into the United States of America.
“We have seen repeatedly that expecting 535 Members of Congress and the president to make bold changes to truly fix problems from the inside of Washington is not going to happen. Washington is broken! We must change it from the outside….Politicians’ actions are ultimately determined by what they believe the people are demanding of them. We will demand bold changes….This is why I have created The Cain Solutions.

“Whether the pundits like it or not, my campaign took off because of the 9-9-9 plan. It was a classic case of an idea that was substantive, effective and easy for people to understand. The tax code is a mess. Rates are too high, loopholes are too prevalent and people in Washington are constantly trying to use the tax code to manipulate behaviors and outcomes. The 9-9-9 plan would achieve a massive transfer of power from Washington to the people. We can make that happen.
“Congress and the White House refuse to enact a responsible budget that’s balanced and achieves real spending restraint. They refuse to address major spending commitments that have us saddled with massive debt and unfunded entitlement obligations. And they constantly try to manipulate the currency to cover this up. Sound money policy would stop the pretending, stop the manipulation and bring back a strong dollar along with sensible fiscal behavior.
“Finally, energy independence gets into everything from regulatory reform to national security. Most people have no idea how severely excessive federal regulations hamper our ability to access plentiful, affordable energy resources right here in the USA. Excessive regulations add mightily to the cost of exploration and distribution. And as we are now seeing, we can’t even build a pipeline to get oil from our friends in Canada due to a political stalling tactic by the president.
“This regulatory environment is insane. Politicians yammer on about “job creation,” but there is scarcely a better way to create jobs than to get out of the way of domestic oil extraction, production and distribution. It addresses a real need and a real demand that will exist for a very long time in the future. If the people realized this, they would demand an end to these crazy regulatory policies – and change would come.”

These are bold plans and initiatives that no one can argue with as being at least in part what America needs to correct her fiscal and energy and unemployment messes.

But, the question the Cain letter raises for me is how will he do it? How will Herman Cain move America when the tea Party, the conservative Republican House of Representatives, and even Donald Trump, have not been able to do anything very constructive about taxes or energy independence or the standstill in Washington.

Herman Cain is a determined and charismatic person whose personality and ideas took over the GOP presidential debate for several months. That he was driven to quit his quest and return to private life was both sad and, in a way, predictable.

While I do not subscribe to the theory that he was the target of a deliberate plan to oust him from the presidential pool, I do believe that through perhaps unconscious racial and ideological prejudices, Herman Cain was driven from public life. We have yet to see real proof of any wrongdoing. We have yet to find out what his accusers would have said under oath. And, we have yet to hear Cain’s full story. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps he is a man who loves “skirts” in much the same way Bill Clinton did. But, we actually know very little about the details of the accusations that brought him down at the hands of a media bloodhound frenzy.

And so, I ask again, how will Herman Cain turn anything he proposes into acts? Will the media hound him again? Will his 9-9-9 plan once more be the butt of TV pundit smirks?

Or, will Herman Cain, like Donald Trump or Newt Gingrich who rose from the ashes of sexual innuendos and broken marriages and media attacks, rise once more? Will he be able, as a private citizen, to stop the media from sidelining him as an aberrant outsider who does not belong in politics? 

Does Herman Cain have enough will power and sufficient funds and followers to make a real difference?

We simply do not know these answers yet.

But, if he builds up steam in the coming months, and we find Republican presidential hopefuls beating a path to his door, as they already have to Donald Trump’s door, is search of validation and voting followers, the answer will be clear. Herman Cain will have survived to do the work he believes in.