Formal presidential candidate Herman Cain has issued an apology following a public outcry over a video his political action committee released this week in which Mr. Cain appears to drown a hobo.
The video is the latest in a series of provocative videos produced by Cain Connections as part of Mr. Cain’s so-called “Solutions Revolution.” Previous spots have depicted a goldfish being killed by a young girl, and a bunny rabbit being blown out of the sky by a man with a shotgun.
This most recent spot is the first to depict the death of a human.
“It was perhaps a mistake to include such an grim portrayal of the end of a life,” said the statement on Mr. Cain’s official website. “Though I still strongly believe it was and remains an apt metaphor for what taxes are doing to the middle class in this country.”
In the video, which has been pulled from YouTube, Mr. Cain is first seen struggling with the hobo on a remote creekbed. The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza then subdues the hobo — a disheveled man in his fifties or sixties — with a blow to the head.
The hobo then struggles for his life as Mr. Cain holds him under water until he is dead. The entire scene takes place in one continuous shot — including an extended close-up on Mr. Cain’s sweaty and physically strained face — with no soundtrack, adding to the sense of dread.
Mr. Cain then pushes the hobo’s corpse deeper into the creek, turns around, puts his suit jacket back on, and walks off into the distance as a promo for his website comes across the screen.
“Some people have misrepresented or misunderstood the message of the video,” Mr. Cain’s statement continued. “But the American middle class has gotten the message loud and clear: that they are getting drowned like so many hobos, in a remote area about 20 minutes down a dirt road off I-80, with no witnesses.”