Herman Cain went there with Anita Hill

How much bigger of a buffoon can he be than to joke about Anita Hill while the sexual harassment allegations against him pile up?

Is he really running to try to sell books? Is being the GOP's conservative black class clown the best way to do that? Seriously, if you were wanting to read a "how to succeed in business" book from a GOP candidate, you'd read Romney far before Cain.

And, while Cain plays to type of lecherous rich business owner, with a Stepin Fetchit twist of black lime, the GOP still wonders why more black voters won't cross over? And even a quasi-thoughtful white conservative columnist like Ross Douthat won't call out Cain as a blatant symbol of tokenism?

It's not just that the GOP has such a weak field of presidential candidates that Barack Obama might indeed get re-elected. It's that the GOP has such a generally weak field of supportive pundits of even the "thoughtful" type, and above all, it's that the GOP has such a generally weak field of blatant quasi-racist-with-a-wink voters to actually like Cain, precisely not because he's black, but because he's all too ready to be a stereotypical black token.

And, because this is likely to add to the probability of a panderfest win for Barack Obama (although it may continue to open wider third-party doors) the American public loses.