Running for prez: Is it worth it?

• Reprints

Updated: January 3, 2012 9:09AM

Man or woman, black or white, youngish or well past the half-century mark, anyone considering a run for the presidency in 2016 or 2020 has to be looking at the news of the day and thinking:

Who needs it.

Who needs the scrutiny. Who needs the media and the opposition digging through scraps of your past — not to mention your family’s past.

You know Herman Cain’s gotta be thinking that today, as we get closer and closer to the moment when he announces he’s dropping out of the race.

Cain turns 66 in a couple of weeks. He has had a long and storied career, working as a mathematician, a bank executive, the chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, a columnist, a radio host, an author, a motivational speaker.

Every once in a while, he’d throw his hat into a ring — and the hat would get thrown back. Nobody paid attention when Cain ran for president in 2000 or senator in 2004.

But this time around, lightning struck, and in a matter of a few debates and a few choice sound bites and catchphrases, Herman Cain went from, “Who’s that guy on stage next to Bachmann?” to an instant hero of the GOP.

And when polls and media and your opponents started taking you seriously, that’s when the skeletons start making noise in the closet.

Do we know if all the allegations against Cain are true? No, and we probably never will. But Cain has gone from flat-out denials to “reassessing” his campaign, and you get the feeling that sooner rather than later, he’s going to say, “Bleep this,” and say his goodbyes, while wondering why he ever deigned to step into this blinding spotlight in the first place.

And all over, scores of brilliant, qualified, ambitious men and women with simmering presidential ambitions have to be thinking:

Who needs it.

Ads that subtract

Thanks to all who responded when I asked for the most annoying TV ads out there. A sampling of your responses:

Donald Haas: “The Ford ad with the phony interview and the ‘reporters.’ ”

Yeah, there’s something about that one that really grates. I’m sure those are actual Ford owners, as the ad states, but what about those reporters? Actors playing reporters always, always overdo it.

Pam Nawrot: “The Geico commercial where the parents, in an attempt to save money, eat their daughter’s goldfish instead of ordering sushi. Eeeeeeeeeeeeew!”

 Indeed, disgusting. But you gotta hand it to Geico for creating multiple attention-getting ads. As Matt Damon’s airline pilot, Carol, said on “30 Rock,” “Why does Geico have three different spokespeople? They have the caveman, the lizard and then the stack of money with the eyeballs.”

To which Liz Lemon replied, “And the fake Rod Serling guy?’

Carol: “Oh my God, thank you!”

The caveman, the guy from “The Brothers McMullen” who asks, “Does the little pig go wee-wee all the way home,” the eyeballs and the gecko with the Cockney-ish accent. That’s a LOT of effort for selling . . . what is it, insurance?

Debbie Muse: “This ad is usually on cable.  It’s for one of those around-the-neck alarms that are geared toward the elderly. The woman talks about how she seldom gets visitors and no one comes to see her so, when she falls in her kitchen, it is several hours before her neighbor finds her. While lying on the floor, she says, ‘I wonder how my children and grandchildren will get along without me!’

“Well, I’m guessing just fine, since they don’t come to see her anyway.”

Megan Eskew: “In regards to ads we hate the most, I have just one word: YOGURT. There is one yogurt commercial in particular where two women are in a coffee house, and one orders a ‘350-calorie’ drink. Her friend, who is tall and looks to weigh about 110 lbs., orders a ‘410 calorie’ drink. When the barista asks her if she wants ‘whip’ on that, she looks away momentarily, grabs a container of yogurt from the mini-fridge under the counter, and declares, “Never mind, I’ll have this instead.’

“Is it healthy to save calories? Sure. But a woman who appears to be over 5-ft. 8 and under 110 pounds does not need to worry about that. Let’s see some curvacious women making healthy choices instead of the woman who looks like a stick of celery!”

Amen.