And thus endeth the Cain bubble:
His views on abortion, he said, should be seen this way: “I can have an issue on a opinion without it being a directive on the nation. The government shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to social decisions that they need to make.”
This is not the kind of bright-line language that social conservatives who oppose abortion – and who have been trying to elevate it as an issue amid an economy-focused presidential cycle – general like to hear.
Cain was always an unlikely candidate – and a terrible one at this particular financial juncture – but there is no way he can hope to win the Republican nomination without the social conservatives who have up until now been all but wetting themselves over the chance to win a get-out-of-racism free card by supporting a real live black Republican who talks a conservative game.
I wonder if Cain feels the same way about rape and murder. Personally opposed, but not something that the government should be trying to tell people to do or not.