Herman Cain wrote his own book

Often when a politician campaigns for an important post, he promotes a book about his life. And almost always that book is ghost written.

I compared the partial transcripts of his interview with O’Donnell, with an extract from the book discussed by O’Donnell. They are similar in style. Likely the book was edited by a white editor, because most English language books are edited by a white editor, but if so that editor did not do enough editing to change the style or vocabulary much.  If it is ghost written, the ghost limited himself to transcribing large chunks of Cain’s own words.

Under attack Cain’s diction became more complex and less black – which means the apparent simplicity of his diction is the result of effort to keep it simple and to sound authentically black. Compare and contrast with Obama, the affirmative action president, who tends to fall apart when he hits a complex sentence on his teleprompter, putting stress in the wrong places thus mangling the meaning. Obama is trying to not sound black, but is not quite smart enough to handle elite diction. Cain is trying to sound authentically black, but is smart enough to handle elite diction. When Obama extemporizes under pressure, he sounds markedly blacker. When Cain extemporizes under pressure, he sounds whiter.

Normally when I see a black man in a high status job I assume he is stupid and has been affirmative actioned into his position, because that is the way to bet, nine times out of ten. I made that assumption about Herman Cain, but obviously I was wrong. Obama speaks in complex sentences to obfuscate the fact that he was affirmative actioned into his job. Herman Cain can afford to speak in simple sentences because he does not have to prove that he was not affirmative actioned into his job.

Obama’s thing is that he is half black man who is culturally part of the elite. Cain’s thing is that he is a black man who is smart enough to handle authentic American civilization – that Cain is black and yet also real American, while Obama is a real member of the elite, but not a real American. So Cain is playing up his blackness, while Obama is playing up his elite culture – a culture Obama is not quite smart enough to handle.

Obama is only half black and half American.  Cain’s story is that Cain is all black and all American.

Don’t pressure Cain to denounce affirmative action – to do so would undermine his blackness, which is already under attack from white liberals like O’Donnell. The fact that he is smart enough that he could make it without affirmative action is what you need to conclude he is no friend of affirmative action.