Once upon a time there were two brothers who were fond of playing politics: Charles and David Hamilton Koch.

Charles was co-owner, chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Koch Industries, Inc., the second-largest privately held company by revenue in the United States. David was a philanthropist and a political activist. Both were billionaire businessmen.

The Koch brothers thought they could have their own presidential candidate toy and be big players in the 2012 presidential election. After all, they had been successful players in the past, including Charles serving as adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and David himself running for office as Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate in the 1980 presidential election. So they thought, why not engage fully, again.

This time, they wouldn’t play the traditional Republicans’ nor the Tea Party’s game. Instead, they would get their own candidate; a non-traditional, charismatic Republican. The Koch brothers dreamed of having their own president-elect.

Herman Cain was perfect!

He was unconventional, professionally successful, with style and charisma, of good physical appearance, and, as icing on the cake, he was African American. Cain was not just any African American. He was certainly not a stiff, articulate, intelligent Harvard graduate, like Obama, who even Saturday Night Life had difficulty making fun of.

Cain was personable, non-threatening to Whites, subtly submissive, but not too much to be an offensive choice.

It worked!

The right wing of the Republican Party, especially the Tea Party, was happy to prove they were not racists. After all, they could support a Black man for president.

Cain rose to the top of the heap in no time. The scenario was ideal. Cain was a top-tier candidate. The Koch brothers were as happy as pig in shit.

Suddenly, the first stone in the road appeared.  Cain was hit with not so unusual sexual harassment charges. The brothers, Cain and his so-called campaign manager scrambled like, not one, but four chickens without a head.

In 48 hours, they made all the errors that bring down political campaigns.  The errors were not major ones, but just errors that a lack of campaign structure, lack of a real campaign manager, and  lack of a real campaign, would cause.

So, at the first sign of trouble, “puff” goes the Koch brothers’ toy down in flames.