The everyman conundrum

AP political analyst Shannon McCaffrey thinks Herman Cain's everyman image is resonating. Voters (i.e., "regular folks") are responding, she writes. Among others, she quotes 60-year-old physician Jimmy Hoppers as proof: “In the field right now, he’s the most like me,” said Dr. Hoppers. “He’s run a business and paid the bills. He’s authentic.” It's hard to believe that a presumably well-educated doctor would rank as a low-information voter. But there he stands in the flesh, complete with slackened jaw. Not all such voters are as politically neritic as the good doctor seems to be. Most of the time, the Huddled Masses at least use a healthy dose of common sense when selecting a president. Moreover, a president need not rank with Cicero in terms of intelligence and sophistication to govern competently (though it would be nice). Still, I've never understood why so many Americans deem it a virtue to have a president who's "most like" them. One could argue that Andrew Jackson, Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush had much in common with the mores of regular folk. Though each man possessed admirable traits, each was nevertheless a near disaster in office. Jackson was pivotal in setting the stage for Civil War (he was a proponent of both slavery and Indian removal). LBJ gave us the nightmare known as Vietnam. Bush made a hash of the economy and foreign affairs (see the recession, Iraq, etc). Think how differently history might have unfolded had these presidents been more "thinking-man" than everyman. “I love him,” gushed truck driver James Bland about Herman Cain. “He doesn’t talk down to you. I think he gets the working man.” Bland's wife added: “And it makes me so happy that he’s put God back into things.” Now if God could only put "brains" back into things.