Smoking cigarettes, raising Cain

Today's print column, belated.

According to recent polls, many folks find Herman Cain's presidential campaign to be smooth and satisfying.

And Cain grabbed attention this week with an online video featuring a testimonial by his campaign chief of staff. At the 40-second mark, Mark Block (spoiler alert) smokes a real cigarette. Crazy, I know. Then the ad switches to Cain, who slowly unpacks a sly grin that takes about 10 seconds to develop.

Some thought it looked good, like a campaign video should. Cain has come a long way, baby. Others said it's in bad taste.

I appreciated its raw quirkiness, but it's the reaction that lit my fire.

First, there was the odd societal shock at seeing someone, gasp, smoking. Growing up, pretty much every adult I knew puffed away constantly. Now, the sight of a cigarette being smoked sends some swooning. We would be less surprised if he had fallen into a mall fountain while walking and texting. Progress, I guess.

Second, there was the search for meaning. The punditgensia speculated mightily on why this stunning smoking was in the video. Was it a subtle ash flick for Americans who loathe the nanny state and all its rules? Was it a nod to big tobacco and other interests that President Herman Cain won't snuff out profits? Was it an attempt to give our tobacco craving president a nicotine fit?

Will it turn off smoke-free voters? Is secondhand smoke on video a health risk?

I don't see any deep meaning. But I do know that smoking gave Cain a news cycle breather.

Media types stopped talking momentarily about his flawed flat tax, which would burn middle class taxpayers already singed by flat incomes. Conservative fallout from his unsteady abortion stand faded for a day. There was a cease fire on his deep lack of depth in the one area where a president can wield power virtually unchecked: foreign policy.

So the video was a nice, temporary smoke screen. I think Cain should capitalize.

Why not do a series of videos with Block. In each, at the 40-second mark, he does something dangerous.

Maybe he's in the woods, and as the camera pans, we realize he's poking a hibernating bear with a stick. He's driving a car, and the camera shows the speedometer hitting 100. He bites into an enormous greasy cheeseburger, sky-dives, holds up a golf club during a lightning storm, tells a woman she does look fat in those jeans. You get the idea.

They could call it “Raising Cain - The Most Dangerous Campaign in America.” Surely a viral hit.

Otherwise, the focus will be on dicey policies. And the fact that in a Cain administration, the risks will all be ours.