What Do You Mean, "Oops?"

One painfully embarrassing faux pas follows another in the Republican primary election. The candidate who has the best chance for victory is the one who makes the least number of mistakes.

What a conglomeration of painful embarrassments! Seven weeks to go before American voters can actually cast their ballots in the first Republican primary elections to determine who will challenge Barack Obama in 2012 and the Republicans aren’t even at the point of trying to find a one-eyed candidate among the blind — they’ll settle for a blind candidate able to avoid bumping into lampposts.

Herman Cain is again the one to make the latest blunder. Just a few weeks ago, the black ex-pizza magnate became the surprise front runner. But then the allegations of sexual harassment began to surface, first one and then several more.

Cain at first claimed to know nothing about them. Then he knew a little bit, and then he was back to knowing nothing once again. The media uncovered people almost daily who confirmed the allegations made by his accusers. Surviving something like that politically isn’t easy.

Some contextual authority would help here, but in a video interview aired by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Cain was asked whether he agreed with President Obama’s Libya policy. Cain sighed, rolled his eyes, leaned back and gazed at the ceiling. “Okay, Libya,” he replied. Then silence while he fiddled with a water bottle and sighed once more before continuing with, “President Obama,” followed by yet another pause before he said, “President Obama supported the uprising, correct? President Obama called for the removal of Gadhafi. Just want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say, ‘yes I agree,’ or ‘no I didn’t agree.’” The interviewer nodded, Cain remained silent.

Then, a new approach: “I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason — nope, that’s a different one. I gotta go back to, see … Got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically, what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with Obama on?” At this point the interview had been going on for one minute and 16 seconds, prompting one YouTube user to remark, “And you thought Bush was stupid?”*

No previous primary campaign has produced so many embarrassments. Cain had already experienced a similar moment at a tea party movement gathering in Texas when he debated with Newt Gingrich and was asked about how health care costs should be handled, by defined-benefit plan or premium support. Cain took the microphone, wet his lips and proceeded: “Costs… er, you first Newt.” The audience doubled over in laughter.

And Texas Gov. Rick Perry made an attempt at crashing and burning when asked which three government departments he wanted to abolish. Commerce, Education and then silence. Blackout. Candidate Ron Paul, standing next to him, suggested perhaps the EPA?** Perry readily agreed, obviously relieved to be off the hook, but recanted when the Fox News moderator later asked him if that was really what he meant. He simply couldn’t recall the name of the third department he intended to abolish. Perry’s last word was, “Oops.”

Small wonder why Cain as well as Perry have both fallen in the polls. And nothing further is heard from sharp-tongued, tea party-backed candidate Michele Bachmann, who dominated the early debates. Libertarian Ron Paul never did have a chance to begin with; former Senator Rick Santorum limps along in the polls with less than 5 percent support.

The only consistent front runner is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who is not particularly liked by the party’s right-wing conservative base. Newt Gingrich, long since thought to be out of the running, is rising in the polls and is currently at number two. Gingrich can’t be dismissed as stupid; whoever avoids self-embarrassment can be counted as a survivor.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.

**Editor’s Note: The suggestion was in fact made by Mitt Romney.