Cain is the anti Obama. He is a sharp and accomplished engineer, executive, and speaker. I do not believe that Cain has used a teleprompter. Cain may have been the beneficiary of racial preferences but he was a deserving individual who would have been denied opportunity.
Cain both benefitted from the color of his skin and was harmed. He finished #2 in his high school class but was denied admission to the state university. He, instead, went to a private, traditionally-black college.
Following his graduate work in engineering at Purdue (not too shabby) and work for the Navy on ballistics (which doesn’t sound like an affirmative action hire) Cain was hired as some kind of corporate v.p. for affirmative action by Coca-Cola which maybe, sort of was an affirmative action hire. I can understand what was going on. Herman Lay was one of the great American businessmen of his time and sought in many ways to do right by this country. I don’t think this was a bad thing.
But, Herman Cain clearly wanted to be where the action is, not some corporate suit filling out paperwork at headquarters. So, he switched out of staff management and took on challenging positions as a line manager.
So, I think when you look at it, he was helped one time and hurt one time by his pigmentation. But, you know, it’s not clear to me what actually helped him and what actually hurt him. I don’t think any real man wants what he hasn’t earned. And I think a real man learns more from adversity than he does not having anything handed to him on a silver platter.