Jeopardy! contestants fail to remember Herman Cain

A couple years ago, Republican candidate Herman Cain was leading Mitt Romney in the polls. Now, judging by the failure of these Jeopardy! contestants to successfully name him as the answer to a fairly obvious question, nobody even remembers him.

During the game show's Tuesday night airing, none of the contestants attempted to answer the clue, "This pizza magnate and 2012 presidential candidate was a math major at historically black Morehouse College."

Even Alex Trebek was a little taken aback when not a single contestant buzzed in. "How quickly you have forgotten Herman Cain," he said.

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Most people would take this as a ding on Herman Cain, but I see this as an illustration of the ephemeral and superficial nature of modern political coverage. We obsess over the most granular ups and downs of politics (remember 9-9-9! or "DEEP DISH!" or "the water tastes the same!"?), but how much of what we obsess over will even be remembered a few years from now?

So thank you Herman Cain — and Alex Trebek! — for putting this all in perspective.