Herman Cain's third endorsement goes to... Mitt Romney!

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Herm Cain and the Swiss Miss, falling into partisan lockstep behind Mitt

After dropping out the Republican presidential race, Herman Cain endorsed "The People": "We the people are still in charge. That's who I'm endorsing. We're going to have to lead this revolution. We have to take our power back. I'm endorsing the people. The people who started this country." Not exactly the most conservative rhetoric, and not exactly all that meaningful an endorsement. But in its stupidity it lined up with his whole campaign.

Then, a while later, he endorsed Newt Gingrich: "When you find a candidate that basically is running still on the ideas and the ideologies that I was running on, along with him embracing 9-9-9, then it was a no-brainer and I thought that the timing was right." In other words, Newt said he liked his crazy tax plan, which is highly unlikely, and Cain thought they were ideologically similar, though what we witnessed back then was Newt coming to Cain's rescue on policy matters during debates and other joint appearances and Newt using Cain to attack Romney.

Well, we now have Cain's third endorsement, and this time it's for... Mitt Romney: "My endorsement evolved. Early in the process is one thing, but as we converged toward the convention, what we did earlier isn't as relevant. It wasn't a matter of changing my mind." Yes, it's just like it was for Obama and same-sex marriage, an evolution in his thinking. Please. Embracing Romney because he's the guaranteed nominee isn't exactly the same as taking an historic stand on a major civil rights issue.

And, yes, like so many other Romney endorsements, this one lacked conviction. Cain said that Romney is "right on the big issues," but to a simpleton like Cain, or indeed to any Republican, that would pretty much describe... any Republican.

Really, none of this matters. No one cares what Cain thinks about anything these days, including the election, and his endorsement is essentially meaningless, particularly after the ridiculousness of his time on the national stage. He was a joke then, and he remains one, more so even than Trump.

The only even vaguely interesting thing here is what this endorsement says about Romney -- which is, again, that Republicans aren't exactly excited about having him as their nominee. It's just that he's the only one left.