When it comes to Herman Cain, the thing that everyone is talking about now is the sexual harassment charges from his days at the head of the National Restaurant Association.

That's a shame.  It's not because sexual harassment isn't a serious issue, and it's not because these kinds of things aren't relevant.

It's because the sexual harassement charges are overshadowing something that's far worse.

In Cain's interview with the PBS News Hour, he said some things that showed he lacks a basic understanding of the country that is going to be the biggest competitor for the United States.  Cain showed he is clueless when it comes to China.

First was his response to a question on whether China is a military threat.  Cain responded by saying "they've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability."

Trying to develop?

China's first nuclear weapon was detonated in 1964.

Now this was not a mistatement, or a gaffe.  The Cain campaign, or what passes for it, didn't release a statement saying that he misspoke or that he was talking about developing better nuclear weapons.  They said nothing so we must conclude that Cain didn't know that China has been a nuclear power since the year Dr. Strangelove was released.

And that wasn't the only stunning lack of knowledge that Cain displayed in his News Hour interview.

He showed it again about what most people say is their biggest concern, the economy.

Cain said "my China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. China has a $6 trillion economy and they're growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy -- much bigger -- but we're growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China."

First, Cain has a problem with basic math.  Five or six percent is still less than ten percent.

Second, Cain didn't know that the latest GDP figures showed that the economy grew by 2.5 percent in the third quarter.

And finally, Cain's five or six percent is based on as much economic reality as his 9-9-9 plan.

Remember the boom days of the 1990s?  We didn't see GDP growth of five or six percent even then.  What was our GDP growth rate?

It was 3.6 percent during the Clinton administration.

In fact, the United States economy hasn't grown at a five or six percent rate since the days when China was developing a nuclear weapon.  During the Kennedy administration, it grew at 5.2 percent.  Under Johnson, it grew at 5.1 percent.

Cain's comments show a basic lack of understanding of economics and national security.  It's unacceptable for a freshman in college to be as ignorant as he has shown he is.

It's funny when Miss Teen South Carolina screws up a question about how Americans can't find the US on a map. 

When a leading candidate for President is just as uninformed, it's not.

And that is the real Herman Cain scandal -- that someone as pathetically uninformed as he is could be a serious candidate.