Before woman problems put his campaign in a state of suspended animation, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was filmed for an interview with BET, which has turned the footage into a half-hour documentary, “The Curious Case of Citizen Cain,” airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
BET sat down with Cain before a lot of the more damaging stuff that derailed his campaign hit the fan. No Ginger White. No Pokemon farewell quote. But still there’s enough juicy stuff to keep viewer occupied, from Cain’s stunning lack of knowledge of foreign affairs to his declaration about scams being perpetrated upon black people by the Democratic Party.
Consider it “Cain Unplugged” – or unhinged.
Cain came to national attention when he challenged President Bill Clinton at a town hall meeting in 1994 about health care reform, challenging Clinton’s math on the impact the president’s proposal would have on businesses required to provide health insurance to employees.
He was subsequently contacted by the late conservative Republican Jack Kemp, who eventually persuaded Cain to join the GOP in 1996. The two were friends until Kemp’s death in 2009. Tony Lee, in an article for Human Events, suggested that Cain became something of a free enterprise devotee and his 9-9-9 economic plan was “bold and courageous, for it seeks to completely shred the federal tax code that so frustrated Kemp.”
The “9-9-9” economic plan would toss out the entire federal tax code and replace it with a 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent personal income tax and a 9 percent federal sales tax.
Supply-side economists have praised the plan for its transparency and – if for no other reason – blowing up the current, complicated tax code. Opponents, however, say the plan is deceptively regressive because the federal sales tax hits poor people the hardest.
Cain left the private sector in 1996 and went on the lecture circuit, became a part-time minister at a suburban Atlanta church, wrote four books and became known as a conservative policy advocate, as well as a newspaper columnist and an Atlanta talk radio show host, according to About.com.
What many people don’t know about Cain is that the 2012 presidential campaign is not his first foray into electoral politics. He was a minor presidential candidate in 2000, and he had a higher-profile, but ultimately unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
Despite his previous campaign experience, however, Cain struggled, making odd, confusing policy pronouncements, expressing controversial views about Muslims, race and immigration and being MIA on foreign affairs.
We could go on, but we’ll let BET explore his missteps. BlackAmericaWeb.com has, however, put together a few questions – okay, actually a Top 10 list – that we hope the network’s designee, Emmy Award-winning former anchor, Emmett Miller, asked Cain:
10. What do you read?
Just as then-CBS news anchor Katie Couric stirred a hornet’s nest in 2008 when she asked GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin what she read to stay informed, we wonder where a man who couldn’t answer a foreign policy question about Libya, called for an electrified fence along the nation’s borders with Mexico, suggested local governments could legally ban mosques and said that he would not hire Muslims in his administration gets his ideas.
9. Did you really not anticipate that accusations of sexual impropriety – true or false – might come to light?
Cain’s campaign was rocked by the news that the lobbying organization he once headed, National Restaurant Association, gave financial settlements to two former employees who said they were sexually harassed by the candidate. Three other women eventually said they, too, had …..
