Democrats and liberals are having a field day with Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s Declaration of Independence-Constitution gaffe, but they might want to wipe those smirks from their faces. “Tea Party Candidate Confuses Constitution with Declaration of Independence” trumpeted a headline in the Baltimore Afro-American about a speech Cain gave in Atlanta. Indeed, Cain did commit what the classic satirical author Jonathan Swift might have called a Brobdingnagian gaffe. Here are excerpts from the harshly critical Afro-American editorial poorly disguised as a news story:
“Tea party favorite Herman Cain launched his candidacy for president on May 21 by chiding Americans to re-read the Constitution — but only proved that he himself needs a refresher course.
” ‘We don’t need to re-write the Constitution of the United States; we need to re-read the Constitution and enforce the Constitution,’ Cain said to a cheering crowd in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.
“But then the radio talk show host proved his own ignorance by alluding to passages from the Declaration of Independence, a separate document published years before the Constitution.
“Now I know that there are some people who are not going to do that, so for the benefit of those who are not going to read it because they don’t want us to go by the Constitution, there’s a little section in there that talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
” ‘When you get to the part about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, don’t stop there. Keep reading. ‘Cause that’s when it says ‘when any form of government becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.’ ”
Besides the Afro-American, liberal Web sites have weighed in on Cain’s clearly goofy rant. The implication is that members of the Tea Party movement, Republicans and conservatives in general are all as clueless as Cain about the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. I have some bad news for the libs: We’re not. Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore knows passages of the Constitution by heart and can recite them verbatim. And that doesn’t prove all conservatives, Republicans and members of the Tea Party movement are up to snuff on the Constitution either.
What is proved by the frenzy over Cain’s gaffe is how the liberal media have some clear, brazen double standards. I remember visiting an Anacostia community center about four years ago, where some obscure senator from Illinois who had recently announced his presidential candidacy was about to speak.
“If I’m elected president, I will pass legislation,” one Barack Hussein Obama said then. And he didn’t say it just once. He said it a couple of times.
Now, class, today’s civics lesson will be on the functions of the different branches of government. All together now: What branch of government passes legislation?
That’s right! The legislative branch. Now what do chief executives, typically the highest-ranking members of the executive branch at the local, state and federal levels of government, do with the legislation the legislative branch passes?
Right again! They sign it. Obama’s gaffe was much more egregious than Cain’s for this reason: While Cain does have an impressive resume, at no time was he a professor of constitutional law. Constitutional law professors are supposed to know that chief executives sign laws and that legislatures pass them.
And I’m not even going to get into that business about Obama and the 57 states in the Union. The president leads Cain 2-1 in major gaffes. If Cain’s disqualifies him from being in the Oval Office, so should Obama’s.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
