>>...was it Cain’s declaring that he was their bother by a different mother that put the target on his back?<<
No, actually the way he handled it took the target off the back with very effective humor...one of the best lines of his short campaign: “I’m the Koch brothers’ brother by another mother.”
And he said this after a setup where you thought he was going to deny a strong connection...had me in stitches when I read it. Too bad he wasn’t as well prepared in the rest of his campaign, because that’s the sort of sense of humor we could use in the White House.
Thanks for the context, I picked up the quote far downstream.