Political Class Underestimates Herman Cain at Their Peril

Four years ago how many people believed Barack Obama, with his thin resume and fairly mysterious past, would become President of the United States? What experience did he have before becoming a state senator, and then a US senator? He was a community organizer, wrote a book and worked for a college. He went on to vote present a lot.

What Herman Cain lacks in political experience, he more than makes up for with his business background. He has demonstrated leadership abilities that we’ve yet to see from the current president – not to mention the charm, charisma and honesty that has propelled him to first place in the Republican primary polls.

Every time Cain has a “gaffe” (none of which are any worse than what we heard from the Obama/Biden team in 2008) the political class writes him off. But it seems people in flyover country are willing to forgive – or at least overlook – a few slips of the tongue from a candidate who comes across as genuinely wanting to turn things around.

Sure, he’s sailing into uncharted territory, and his campaign team may not be as polished as some of his competitors, but so what?

Well-connected GOP consultant Ali Akbar, who has heard many complaints about the Cain operation, wrote yesterday: “To understand this article in proper context, you would have had to work on a dark horse longshot campaign. Rules and methods are different.… Volunteers rise to coordinators and staff positions quickly.… It’s not a pretty sight, but many tea party readers know exactly what I’m talking about.” The clashing of egos is routine within all campaigns. However, as many Tea Party activists have learned in the past two years, the problems can be worse when the egos involved are not veteran professional operatives but rather enthusiastic volunteers new to the game. As much as grassroots conservatives may loathe the hired-gun mentality of Republican operatives whose loyalties are for rent to the highest bidder, valuing loyalty over professional competence creates other problems. And these kinds of problems — ubiquitous within Tea Party-backed insurgent campaigns during last year’s mid-term elections — must now be worked out by Cain’s staff under the media glare of a fast-rising presidential campaign.

Recently it was noted that Cain wasn’t spending money he didn’t have, so it’s no wonder his organization was somewhat discombobulated. That’s a good thing, that sort of frugality is something people are looking for in a leader. But now that his campaign is pulling in somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per week, expect his campaign organization to expand and improve.

People who dismiss the Cain campaign as “un-serious” are making the assumption that Herman Cain and his staff are unaware of how high the stakes really are. I, on the other hand, take them at their word when they say they have a strategy, and are doing all in their power to turn their momentum into a decisive victory

I just wonder if the political class is frightened of Cain. Will they become irrelevant if he’s elected? Maybe if they stopped dismissing him, and the millions of Americans who support him, they’d have a better chance at keeping their jobs. People are sick and tired of the professional political class. Look where they’ve gotten us. All they do is compound the problems created by their predecessors.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while probably remember when I first started covering the campaign of Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle here in NY25. Hardly anyone had even heard of her, let alone thought she could beat an incumbent with a huge war chest. I’ll tell you now, she didn’t have the best campaign organization. She didn’t want political insiders running her campaign since she wasn’t a political insider. Yet somehow she managed to squeak out the win, and has gone on to vote her principles, while answering to her constituents for every vote. Whether they agree or disagree, people appreciate the respect she shows them. In fact, she spends far more time holding town hall meetings than she does fundraising, so she’ll most likely be the underdog in the next race. From what I’ve heard she hasn’t been giving that too much thought, she’s busy doing her job.

That’s how I envision Cain if he’s elected – busy doing his job rather than jetting from fundraiser to fundraiser. If it’s meant to be – if people believe he’s the right man for the job – things will fall into place. Political class be damned!

Addendum: It seems some in the media are finally waking up to the fact that Herman Cain is the front runner. Bob Schieffer declared that it’s time to start taking him seriously. How long will it take before the pundits at Fox News have the same realization?

Schieffer: I think it [The Cain campaign] has to be taken very seriously at this point, Scott, and here’s why. Think about this: Mitt Romney has been plodding along at about 25 percent in the polls and it’s like he’s been running most of his life. Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, gets into the race, zooms immediately to the top in the polls, has a couple of stumbles, and goes back down.

But then you take Herman Cain, who has no real campaign staff, has not raised very much money — some people weren’t even sure he was serious about this. He’s gotten in, he makes a couple stumbles, and he keeps going up. Somehow or the other, Herman Cain is connecting with a big segment of Republican voters right now and that’s why he can no longer be ignored.

Pelley: But there’s a long way to go. You mentioned the campaign financing and lack of organization. Does he have the legs for this race?

Schieffer: Well, we will find out. But so far so good for him. It’s almost like one of those movies, Scott, where the candidate has no campaign staff, where he has no money, and then he just starts talking about things and people like it. That is what has happened for this candidate so far. These Republican voters like what he says. This may not carry him very far — I don’t know how far — but so far it’s going pretty good for Herman Cain.

Pelley: Bob, thank you very much. And as fortune would have it, Herman Cain will be Bob’s guest this Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

Who knows, maybe Schieffer just wants to boost his ratings for Sunday morning.

Update: It isn’t just the Republican political class underestimating Herman Cain. A liberal pundit on MSNBC actually said that Cain is a “black man who knows his place.”  How does one even respond to such a ridiculous and racist charge? I suppose the progressives are even more frightened of Cain than the GOP establishment, so they’re projecting their racism, as is the norm with them.

Tags: ann marie buerkle, herman cain, political class, underestimated