VETTING CAIN (Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

I don’t know if Herman Cain can stand up to the rigorous vetting process of the Republican primaries or the onslaught of attacks from the “mainstream media.”Time will tell. I do know that his stellar executive experience and his ability to articulate a practical conservative view of the world drives many Liberals crazy. So that’s a good thing. Even local Lefties, who swallowed entire bottles of “Yes We Can” tablets in 2008 without noticing they were made of sugar and air, are now taking shots at Cain. Fortunately their diatribes are about as effective as gnats biting an elephant’s butt.

Still, it is nice to know the Left has re-discovered the necessity for critically examining aspirants for the Presidency. Perhaps those newly found skills can be turned toward their own flailing candidate, who was last seen running around the country preaching class warfare and embracing the unwashed OWS mobs. These increasingly violent “protestors” appear to have sprung up spontaneously from a Stephen King novel (or George Soros’ checkbook). The President recently stated that he has fulfilled 60% of the promises he made as a candidate. That boast rings a little hollow and likely is not true. Even so, what he has left undone are “elephants in the room” ( e.g., things like closing Guantanamo or “bringing the country together”).

Cain is being criticized because he will not specify how he would deal with a host of hypothetical foreign policy issues. He says he will apply his problem solving skills to those issues. Unlike candidate Obama, who promised much that he could not deliver, Cain has demonstrated many times that he has such skills. Also unlike candidate (and President) Obama, Cain prefers not to pretend that he knows what he doesn’t know.

That approach is honest, direct, and refreshing to many.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA 95445