Herman Cain is certainly a phenomenon.  Back in the bad old days of 1984, the presidency of Gary Hart was torpedoed just by having a picture taken of Donna Rice sitting on his lap.  Of course, Hart set the situation up by challenging reporters to follow him around relentlessly because "he had nothing to hide." When we go back even further, we see the American public pretty much totally in the  dark about the sexual dalliances of FDR, Ike, JFK, and LBJ.

Fast forward to 1992, and we saw America's interest in potential president's sex lives begin to change.  Bill Clinton famously dodged the issue of whether he had sexual encounters with Jennifer Flowers, while apparently no one paid attention to the long term attentions that George H.W. Bush paid to Jennifer Fitzgerald.  Of course, the GOP later initiated impeachment proceeding for the blow jobs that occurred between Bill and Monica Lewinsky.  But wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- the House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton for perjury and not infidelity to Hillary.

Almost twenty years later, the American public is treated to the circus that is Herman Cain.  In many quarters, Cain appears to have continuing support of a sizeable percentage of GOP voters despite a rapid drop off of support from Republican women.  Cain continues to talk tough. Clint Eastwood hasn't publicly retracted his support of him.  And most of all, Herman appears to be the continued darling of the Tea Party.  Why is this?

I think it's because Cain really conforms most closely to the belief structures of the Tea Party members.  Let's check off the list of what I think those personal qualities are of candidate and supporters:

Cain is a very successful businessman, being close to the ideal of what Tea Partiers would like to see happen to themselves.

Cain appears to have unlimited self-confidence, projecting the public persona of what Tea Parties  would like to see for themselves both publicly and privately.

Cain says many bad things about blacks, poor and homeless people.  People who don't have a job are just lazy. The jobs are out there.  Go and pick fruit for a living if you need to.  Mexicans are trying to destroy the country.  Most black people are shiftless and lazy. They think they have some kind of entitlement coming to them.  If you're poor, it's your own fault.  I beat the odds, why can't you?

Cain appears to really believe that there's no such thing as sexual harassment.  Women are just cruising to make money from sexual harassment lawsuits.  What do those bitches want anyway?  And I know that in my position of power and influence, bitches want nothing more than to suck my cock.

Cain demonstrates an ignorance of facts and what might pass for reality if he had the time to actually study the situation.  But don't we all know that your character and self-confidence are more important than responding to things the way they really are? You can conquer anything at any time if you have the right attitude.  (Go back to blacks, poor, etc. statement.)

Cain ignores the huge financial support that he's gotten from the Koch brothers. The power and influence of  superwealth in this country is just a mirage, as we all live in a democracy. Encourage more and more for less and less -- less and less for more and more.

Some things are okay, but overall -- not a pretty picture, is it?