48 hours after the Cain campaign crawled to a stop, some eulogizing may be in order, as well as some critical commentary.

Cain’s biggest problem was himself, not the media. He took the idea of running for President pretty seriously, but evidently did not take the idea of winning seriously. He’s like that neighbor down the street who buys the beat-up classic car, puts it in his garage, and lets it stay there under a tarp because, now that he has it, he hasn’t the foggiest idea of where to start restoring it.

On foreign policy, he was a disaster. He had no sense of the finer details, and as it turned out, no real grasp of where some of these countries even are. His insistence of “clarity” in foreign policy was good, but sadly he had no idea what that meant. Your guess was probably better than his.

Likewise, on the economy, his schticky 9-9-9 plan seemed misguided; despite its apparent simplicity, Cain certainly did not understand it himself. He changed answers, clarified that it couldn’t have been 9-9-9 for everybody, and seemed to think it was a great marketing campaign that could be easily ditched when it wore out its usefulness.

These were all missteps, to be certain. But the problem was that people liked Herman Cain. Goodness knows he was always friendly, warm, and engaging. He beat cancer, and as a result this put a certain strength into his charisma. People supported him not because of his foreign or domestic expertise, but because he often represented what Americans like about themselves—strong, capable, able to build something from nothing, and a sense of humor the whole way.

Then the accusations came—and the media was right to present them. But the Czar still has nagging doubts about the women that queued up to accuse him of inappropriate contact. If they were sincere, why did they wait? If they were greedy opportunists, why not get him when he was significantly more wealthy? If they wanted to tank him, why come out now and not later?

There are a couple of possible answers. The first is that these were false claims; however, some of the accusers were quite credible, and the rest lacked any lurid or outrageous claims. The second is that Cain was probably pretty well known for dalliance, and the GOP decided to act now before he got more popular. Otherwise, if Cain took the lead and was nominated as the GOP candidate for President, the Obama campaign would destroy him at the last instant, clinching a Democratic victory.

Herman Cain had to be stopped before he became a critical liability, and this isn’t the election to goof around with.

This is not to say his campaign was without value. For one thing, it proved that liberal Democrats are horrific liars on the subject of race. Consider: conservatives and independents alike preferred a black candidate whose parents were poor, who battled his way through the corporate world to build himself an empire, who refused to play the race card, and who served in the military. The liberal Democrats preferred a not-fully-black candidate who came from a well-to-do background, who was molly-coddled through Ivy League schools, who lived overseas in privilege, and who was handed opportunity after opportunity and never held a definable job. For that, Cain’s place in history is assured: you will hear his name each time Democrats call Republicans racist.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.