So I notice Herman Cain seems to be embroiled in a bit of a controversy lately.
There is really nothing like watching a CEO flounder like a lungfish out of his local pond and into real life.
CEOs are not like the rest of us. They are a strange and rare breed, like unicorns. They breathe a purer thinner air, full of self-approbation and the praise of underlings. They can do no wrong. Their decisions are always right. Their jokes are always funny.
This is why they get so blinky and irritable when you get them out into the light of day. Without their flunkies and minions to support them, they get downright cranky. I’m thinking Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. I’m thinking of Steve Jobs, rest his soul, whenever it was pointed out that an Apple product was less than perfect. I’m thinking of Raj Rajaratnam snarling at the press. I’m thinking of Jamie Dimon being nasty to the governor of the Bank of Canada only a month or two ago.
And I’m thinking of Herman Cain misspeaking about China’s nuclear capability – evidently he didn’t know they had A-bombs – and then saying, in effect, “No, I said the right thing. I just said it in a way that you didn’t understand.” And saying that women have the right to choose, but not to choose abortion, which is a form of genocide.
Not to mention all of those sexual harassment cases, which he has recently said he will no longer discuss. (Poor baby! Poor innocent!)
These allegations, to me, are especially telling. If I had to guess, I’d hazard that Herman had no idea he was doing anything that could be considered offensive. He probably thought he could say and do pretty much what he liked, and laugh it off later.
Noblesse oblige, right?
Except that this kind of reasoning doesn’t work outside the boardroom.
You and I (voters!) don’t have to do what Herman Cain tells us to do, or believe what he tells us to believe. We can make up our own minds, and not worry about whether or not he’ll fire us for insubordination.
So what do you think of that, Herman?
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