Among the lessons of Tuesday?s GOP debate: Herman Cain?s rivals don?t know how to handle him.
They piled on from the start of the CNN forum in Las Vegas, pulling apart the ?9-9-9? plan that?s led to his surge in the polls.
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But then all six backed away, leaving just moderator Anderson Cooper to challenge Cain for his comments on the border fence and his gaffe in saying he?d empty Guantanamo Bay for a prisoner exchange. Rick Santorum skipped the swipe he?d telegraphed about Cain?s position on gay marriage. Rick Perry defended Cain on the border fence. Mitt Romney smiled through Cain?s attack on his business record at the end, and only mentioned Cain in his response to give him an indirect compliment.
They?re in a bind: Like most insurgent candidates, Cain is an elusive target. He?s not a politician with a record to pick apart. Rather, he?s a highly likable figure who seems to be tapping into a deep vein of anti-Washington anger without seeming very angry himself. There?s also a complicating factor: He is a viable African-American candidate in a party that has a complicated history with racial politics.
So while veterans of insurgent campaigns ? and those that fended them off ? universally express confidence that Cain will eventually crash and burn, they also warn that candidates looking to hasten that demise will find that task exceptionally difficult.
?If you?re not really careful how you handle him, there will be a real backlash,? said Ed Rollins, a veteran of the Ross Perot, Mike Huckabee and ? until recently ? Michele Bachmann insurgent campaigns.
One immediate problem: There?s not much to grab onto for those who want to tear him down. Without a record in office, Cain hasn?t made the kind of tough compromises that can be caricatured by an effective campaign consultant. Nor has he elaborated on his positions with any specificity, leaving his opponents no toehold.
His rise is rooted in the simplicity of his tax plan and his authenticity. His greatest strength is his likability, according to a CNN poll ahead of the debate that showed him leading the field on the question at 34 percent, which makes him a hard man to cast as the enemy. And he?s most popular among tea party activists, a constituency his rivals cannot afford to alienate.
That Cain?s black adds an extra level of caution. Cain himself has talked often about how his candidacy rebuts charges of racism among Republicans and in the tea party base, and few in the party are eager to prove him wrong. But as was demonstrated during Barack Obama?s 2008 run, the intensity of a national campaign can quickly magnify even minor perceived hints of racism.
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