You know how Rick Perry could only remember two thirds of the government departments he wants to abolish? That answer was a classic of political insight next to Herman Cain trying to explain his position on Libya. His first response was to to try confirm that Libya is indeed the country with Qadaffi and the rebels and the airstrikes. That was sort of like a kid in a spelling bee asking for the word to be used in a sentence. The rest was pure blather, a man feeling his way through the dark — he knew that he’s against whatever Obama is for, but he had no idea why.
After long pauses, Cain finally settled on the position that Obama should have done more research into the opposition. He did not explain whether Obama’s alleged lack of research actually caused him to make the wrong decision about aiding the rebels. He simply knew nothing about the subject. And this isn’t some obscure corner of foreign policy; this is a widely covered war in which the United States just participated!
The highlight may be when Cain, visibly struggling to pull out the file in his brain where some handler explained to him what Libya is, says, “Got all this stuff twirling around in my head.” Don’t listen to the voices, Herman!
Update: Cain was operating on four hours sleep, his campaign tells Chuck Todd. I have been on four hours sleep before. It has not prevented me from recalling the general outline of recently concluded American military interventions.
