What if the Cain Story Came from...Gingrich!

After watching the Herman Cain-Newt Gingrich debate last night, I got to thinking (as I'm sure you did as well): What would Agatha Christie's great detective, Hercule Poirot, think of the last week in news, and the Mystery of Who Tipped Off the Cain Story? What follows is what I think he would say...

Let us go back to the beginning.

Not to the beginning of the week--no!--to when this story truly began. When Gingrich's campaign nearly imploded as his staffers resigned en masse.

Now it was obvious on the surface why this happened: Perry could pay, Gingrich would not. Less obvious was that this fact: Perry was using Gingrich as a cats-paw all along, to feel on how a Southern politician would do in the presidential primary. Which is why he allowed his lieutenants to join the campaign in the first place.

All very clever, BUT. One thing that Perry did not notice was that two people could play at that game. And Gingrich had his own unwitting cats-paw in the race as well. And that was...

Herman Cain. Yes, Mr. Cain is a fellow Georgian, and one that turned the National Restaurant Association into a loyal ally of the Gingrich Congress during his tenure there. Was this all a coincidence?

So everything was in place. Gingrich knew that Cain would shine in the primaries in a way that Rick Perry--and alas, he--could not, thus preventing the three man race from becoming a two-man race between Romney and Perry. Perry's own weaknesses will then weigh him down and Cain will rise. So much for Perry.

But what to do about Cain? Simple. Step one. Have a two man debate scheduled for a Saturday in early November. It'd be good if it was hosted by a Texas group: it will get Cain off the trail even more, and be another swipe at Perry at the same time. Step two (and this is the hard part): make sure that there is something--anything--weighing down Cain by the time that debate rolls around.

But what?

Suddenly, an old conversation with Cain is remembered by Gingrich, about some minor trouble Cain was having the office around 1999...