How would a President Cain treat civil libertarians and critics of interventionism? If his past columns are any indication, he'd brand them as terrorist sympathizers and allies of the enemy.
The longer Herman Cain is a front-runner in the GOP primaries, the more likely it is that some enterprising reporter or opposition researcher will listen to the archives of all the hours of talk radio he's done, digging out the bits that strike the average non-talk-radio-listening American as offensive. I presume such moments exist, because I've just read all the columns that Cain wrote for an audience of movement conservatives. They're hardly the stuff of Ann Coulter, but neither are they sober or fair minded. And it's Iraq war skeptics who have the most reason to take offense.
Explaining his support for the invasion, occupation and nation building, Cain wrote that President Bush "did not start this war to pipe pilfered oil from Baghdad to Crawford. He ordered retaliation against a worldwide Islamic terrorist network hell-bent on destroying Western civilization." In June 2006, he took aim at civil libertarians and those who sought to end the Iraq war. "Have no doubt about it -- there are some Americans, including members of Congress -- who want the terrorists to win," he wrote. "Every time we receive significant intelligence about the enemy, our enemies from within say we obtained is [sic] unconstitutionally, as if terrorists should receive the benefits of our constitutional protections. Every time we achieve a military victory they call for us to 'redeploy' the troops. Setting a date certain for troop withdrawal is like placing a sign in your yard telling the local burglar the times you plan to be away from your home with the front door unlocked. Our enemies from within see our national security as just another political issue."