Just because you're black

Doesn't mean they're mocking you because you're black:

Presidential hopeful Herman Cain knows why Jon Stewart was so quick to mock him during a recent episode of "The Daily Show."

It's because he's a "black conservative." ...

Cain's remarks came after Stewart attacked the GOP candidate's proposal that all bills be three pages long.

Cain's take on Stewart's "I'm Herman Cain and I do not like to read," is certainly more reasonable than that of Newsbusters'*,which claimed that Stewart's statement was "racially charged."  Still the idea that Cain is being mocked because he's a black conservative is a little much.  Stewart mocks everyone; it's part of his schtick.  When Stewart said he doubted that the grey underwear picture was really Tony Weiner because the bulge was too big, was that because Weiner was black or a conservative?  No, it was because he was a public figure.  So are you**. Get used to the treatment.

But more important than the fact that a comedian made fun of Cain is the fact that his 3-page bill idea is really stupid. Colossally stupid. Historically ignorant.  If I believed that he was at all serious, I would not under any circumstances vote for Herman Cain***. And there is a simple illustration of the reason for that: the Constitution, as originally printed, is 4 pages long, even before the bill of rights was added. What part(s) would you like to throw away in order to reach this arbitrary length?

The simple fact that some things simply take more than three pages to write properly means that, should they be forced into a three page length, they will consist of nothing but broad goals, vague directions, and enabling legislation to create an office with a budget that will write the real rules. That result will be worse than 2000-page legislation, because it will leave everything to the discretion of the bureaucrat, rather than just most things as it is now.

The problem with today's legislation is not that it is too long, nor that it is too specific. The problem (though this is closer) is not even that it is too vague.  The problem is that it is too broad.  Congress has taken all of civil society, all economic activity, all relationships, and made them the subject of legislation.  It is less important that this legislation is poor than that it exists in the first place.

Rather than worrying about how long legislation is, he would be far better off**** discussing why there need be so much of it in the first place.

* Which is tantamount to saying one has a better grasp of history than Joe Biden. Of all the conservative sites in the blogosphere, Newsbusters is about the lamest and least insightful around. But that's because it's not an investigative site as it claims, but a GOP shill factory. 
** Though Cain is probably safe from Stewart's small dick jokes.  I suspect deep down he is thankful for some stereotypes.
*** Not that I would vote for a former Fed official anyway.
**** perhaps Cain would be best off insisting that his main priority as President will be to enforce the first five words of the First Amendment to the best of his ability.