I was taken aback until I remembered that Cain has said this before.
– Herman Cain campaigned at Florida’s Holy Land Experience (yes, really … it’s a Christian amusement park) Friday, and on Yahoo! News, Chris Moody relates one particularly interesting tidbit from his speech. While talking about his recent cancer struggle, Cain said he worried when he learned the name of one of his surgeons: Dr. Abdallah. “I said to his physician assistant, I said, ‘That sounds foreign,’” Cain recalled. “Not that I had anything against foreign doctors—but it sounded too foreign,” he continued, adding that he was particularly concerned when he learned the doctor was from Lebanon—until the assistant said, “'Don't worry, Mr. Cain, he's a Christian from Lebanon." According to Moody, the crowd laughed “uneasily” at the anecdote. On Slate, David Weigel notes that Cain has told the story before—see the video at left—and points out, “Lebanon is the most Christian nation in the Middle East. … Cain hears the last name, though, and panics. You're left to wonder what would have happened had the doctor been a Muslim or a Druze or something."