The GOP's desperate hunt for anyone but Mitt Romney

Herman Cain unravels. Rick Perry stumbles. And Republicans keep praying that someone will rescue them from the flip-flopping Romney

Robert Shrum

I wish we could set aside Herman Cain, his economically insane 9-9-9 plan, and his pathetically inane responses to charges of sexual harassment — responses which have lurched from indignation and amnesia to contradiction and continued cover up.

The Cain super-PAC weighed in this week with a fundraising letter headlined: "Don't let the left 'lynch' another black conservative." A comparison to Clarence Thomas isn't particularly helpful here — except with very hardcore Cain supporters who may stick with him anyway. And their reaction makes sense: If you believe climate change is a myth, then you can believe Cain is qualified to be president.

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Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labour Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum's writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. The author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner (Simon and Schuster), he is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service.