Oh yes, finally, the clown known as Herman Cain was forced out of the race, although true to that nutty Republican establishment, it was only when allegations of infidelity--a consensual affair--came out, instead of allegations of SEXUAL ASSAULT. But he was always in this race for the money; a true vanity campaign to position himself as a "black conservative" in order to sell books, get speaking gigs, and maybe sign with Fox News for a TV show. He was never meant to get this much attention, and scrutiny, and with the "Cain Train" already slipping in the polls after the SEXUAL ASSAULT accusations, he was finally convinced by prominent Republicans behind the scenes (who knew the truth about his "candidacy") to move on. So, in true "Cain Wreck" style, he announced his "suspension" at the opening of a new campaign office (?) and was still in the bus when he was introduced. And so the wild arc of Cain's candidacy came to a close: a vanity campaign to frontrunner, the Anti-Romney of the desperate Republican base, and now moving on to his original second phase: speaking circuit.
Meanwhile, the Republican primary continues to reel from the lack of true "credible alternatives" to Romney, such as Mitch Daniels or Mike Huckabee, and now we see the curious case of Newt Gingrich. He is incredibly the FOURTH candidate to rise from obscurity to run-away frontrunner in this wild, unpredictable race, and it's surprising, but also a bit telling, the Republican base didn't "look to him" earlier. On the surface, he sounds moderate, seems to be intelligent, accepts climate change, and is acceptable to the Republican establishment (he's part of it to a degree.) But underneath that surface, it's quite ugly. Just like with Cain, Gingrich never thought he had a realistic change and treated this as a vanity campaign. (He decided to take a long vacation in Greece for crying out loud.) But his intentions are actually a lot more seedier than Cain's: for years, Gingrich has been using his name recognition to actually scam people out of their money for his own personal wealth. It's complicated to explain, but basically, Gingrich offers "awards" over e-mail to lots of people but the only way to accept the award is to attend a $5,000 "awards dinner" or something like that. And that's not even the end of it. Rachel Maddow has been doing a lot of research (wait, journalists with an open bias can actually do research and report on it? Who knew?) and has detailed the vileness, so for more information, check her stuff out.
As with Cain, and Perry, and Bachmann, the media will dig through it all and hopefully his underreported scam operation will come out, but with Iowa quickly closing it, there may not be enough time for all of Gingrich's hypocrisy, HUGE baggage from the 90's, etc, to derail his momentum. That Republican base is clamoring for the alternative to Mitt "I Was Pro-Choice Until I Wasn't Exactly One Week After The 2004 Election" Romney and Gingrich may just be it. And that concerns me somewhat. I know many Democrats would love to see Obama face off against Gingrich, another aged Republican leader who's been around awhile, and there are serious pitfalls for Gingrich in the general: his scam, his haughty, arrogant demeanor, and his penchant for suggesting wild things such as poor children becoming janitors for their school. I can see the ads already. But again, he can pull a Reagan and act all moderate and reasonable, despite his extreme positions, and also has a knack for classy moves: he once debated John Kerry way back in 2007 over how to solve climate change in a true Lincoln-Douglas fashion, and he has proposed 3-HOUR debates with the President over the economy. So, Gingrich may be easy to demolish on certain points, but he scares me.
So yeah, if President Gingrich happens, I'm seriously moving to Canada the next day.
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