Way back in January, after he'd quit the race, Herman Cain appeared before the Palm Beach County Republican Party at its Lincoln Day Dinner and announced, "I hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse Newt Gingrich for president of the United States." Since then, Newt Gingrich hasn't made much use of that enthusiasm. But now that Rick Santorum has suspended his campaign, there's another chance for Cain to get back into the news cycle, so he seems to be close to breaking things off with Newt and switching his affections to Mitt Romney. This, despite the fact that Cain once quipped about Romney's tax plan, "That dog won't hunt."
Whatever! It's now time for the Cain Train to pull into Romney's station. And Cain wants Romney to know that he's willing to talk about being Romney's Vice President, at Romney's earliest convenience, as the Hill's Alicia Cohn reports:
"I would say: 'Let's talk,'" he told Fox and Friends, when asked how he would react to a request. "It's not a slam-dunk."
Yeah, you know ... it's not quite at the slam-dunk stage. Pretty close though. We should chat about it. In the meantime, Romney's not considering taking the man Cain once "enthusiastically" endorsed as his running mate, is he? Because boy howdy, that would be a big mistake.
Cain said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), whom he endorsed as the presidential nominee, could "step into the role" of vice president but expressed doubt that he could be Romney's running mate.
"I believe that is 50 percent of the decision. The other 50 percent: Who is going to bring some excitement to the ticket," Cain said. "With all due respect, I don't think Newt would bring that excitement, because he has been one of the candidates and because of where he is right now."
But Cain has also "been one of the candidates," so, where is he right now? Well lately, he's been at this place in his life where he's spending money on ads where bunny rabbits get shot out of the sky like skeet, because of a stimulus package that was passed in 2009. And more to the point, he's a few steps out of sync with Romney's current message. At the moment, Romney is attempting to venture into the wide, dark canyon of his personal gender gap and argue that the "real war on women" has been caused by President Barack Obama's economic policies. Yesterday, in Delaware, he stood in front of an "armada of women" and made that case directly to them.
What's Cain been up to around the same time? Oh, you know, he was talking about how ladies need to have economic issues mansplained to them:
CAIN: Yes, President Obama is very likable to most people, if you just look at him and his family. But if you look at his policies, which is what most people disagree with, it’s a different story. And I think many men are much more familiar with the failed policies than a lot of other people, as well as the general public.
So, yeah. Cain as Romney's vice-president: not a slam dunk!
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