Herman Cain's presidential campaign should be flying high.How much of this is really Cain's fault is hard to say, but here's what we can say: Running for office isn't easy. The candidate who says, "I'm not a politician, I'm a businessman!" has always been one of my pet peeves. If someone came to your house and said, "I'm not a plumber, I'm an accountant, which is why I've got just the kind of outside-the-box thinking necessary to fix that leaky toilet," you'd tell him to take a hike. Running a campaign is not like running a business: it's a unique type of organization with unique kinds of demands. Being an effective candidate or legislator requires a different set of skills than selling pizzas. Among many other things, managing campaign staff and volunteers is not like managing employees of a business. They have different incentives, different motivations, and act in different ways. This is what almost every businessman/politician finds out. They almost inevitably fail.Last week, the highly anticipated first poll from the Des Moines Register put him in third place, with 10 percent support, ahead of more well-known presidential hopefuls.
But instead, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO suffered a wave of resignations from his early-state staff, throwing into question whether Cain will continue to rise - or if this is as good as it gets for the long-shot candidate...
The move, which shakes the campaign of the tea party favorite into turmoil in a state where he's staking much of his 2012 hopes, comes after weeks of swirling rumors between Cain’s staff and volunteers in the Hawkeye State accusing each other of affairs, homosexuality and professional misconduct.
"A lot of volunteers, who worked hard for five months, are all leaving the campaign," said one Iowa volunteer.
