“African-Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded, not even considering a conservative point of view.I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative. So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open minded, pure and simple.,” said Herman Cain to CNN”s Wolf Blitzer.

The last time someone used the word “brainwash” in a presidential campaign it was 1968. That was Michigan Governor George Romney who claimed that he was “brainwashed” on Vietnam. The Republican frontrunner at the time, Romney’s campaign quickly fizzled. Yes, George Romney is the father of Mitt Romney. This is one word that Mitt Romney will never mention in his campaign.

Forty-plus years later and Herman Cain claims that most African-Americans are brainwashed because they vote Democratic. By coincidence, those who support him are open-minded, according to Cain. There is nothing original in that thought. Plenty of candidates consider their supporters as thinking voters while their opponents are dumb, ignorant or, as in this case, brainwashed. The difference is that most candidates don’t say that publicly.

The problem with Cain’s approach is that it insults voters. No one has put together a winning campaign based on that premise.

It is true that African-Americans are far more liberal than Americans in general. Cain does make the point that the right conservative platform might be able to peel away as much as a one-third of black voters. He might be right, although it is doubtful that his “deprogramming” platform is the one to do it.