Good-bye, Herman Cain, We'll Miss You

Good-bye, Herman. We’ll miss you.

We’ll miss your straightforward talk about the fiscal mess in America and about the relatively uncomplicated solutions if only there were the political will to undertake them.

We’ll miss your non-politician approach to questions, simply giving answers and not worrying much about the words because you knew we were with you and would work out what you wanted to say.

We’ll miss your big smile and easy assumption of whatever space you were in, never pushy and never arrogant, but simply there for everyone to accept or reject as they chose.

We’ll miss your racial nonchalance, not bragging about or apologizing for your skin color, and with that attitude reminding all of us, black and white, that race is not the issue, America’s future is the issue, and that it will take all of us doing our utmost to secure it for the next generation of Americans of all colors.

We’ll miss your yellow ties and double-breasted jackets, a throwback to the days when all businessmen wore similar uniforms, but on you they were more a fashion statement than a social point of view.

We’ll miss your jokes, not something easy to pull off, or even to think of, in the heat of presidential debates, but you did it and the laughter they generated made us realise, if only for a few seconds, that politics is not life and death, it is not war, it isn’t even the Final of the NCAA Basketball March Madness, it is simply the tool we use to make our community of political beliefs and necessities function for more than 300 million citizens and, while we ought to treat it with respect and be involved in its workings, we shouldn’t treat it as a thing apart but as an integral part of our lives, like family and church and friends.

We’ll miss your refusal to play the political insider game, because we are sick and tired of it and you represented the best chance we had to rid ourselves of it.

We’ll miss your open hand and heart, because in these tough times, America needs to feel connected to her President and her political institutions.

We’ll miss your mistakes, too, and we suffered with you when the pundits of big media TV made you seem a dunce because you forgot for a few dramatic moments where Libya is and what President Obama’s Libyan policies are, because, honestly, we are often as flummoxed as you are about Libya in the face of presidential policies and actions adrift in a sea of mixed messages.

You say you’re not leaving us orphans, but will continue through your new internet vehicle to try to shape and influence federal policies.

We hope you mean it because America needs a Herman Cain.