Posted on 11/03/2011 6:35:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Washington was all a-Twitter (literally) Monday over Politico’s story about the sexual-harassment charges against Herman Cain — and about Cain’s serial self-contradictions.
Faithful Fox News viewers saw him in the afternoon saying he didn’t know the terms of a settlement reached with the complainants and then saw him tell Greta Van Susteren in the 10 p.m. hour that he did.
The Politico story, quoting no named sources, described Cain’s alleged misconduct as “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature” and “physical gestures that were not overtly sexual.”
That sounds bad but not horrible. A lot worse was alleged against Bill Clinton, and he was defended by many feminists.
But we don’t know all the relevant facts in this case — the exact charges, the demeanor of the complainants, the conclusions of the National Restaurant Association counsel, the amount of the settlement made in return for the complainants’ dropping the case.
And while we know that some accusations of sexual harassment are false or exaggerated, we know that many others are true.
Many conservatives around the country see this as an attack by the liberal press on a prominent black conservative who is statistically tied for the lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
They’re correct when they say that the liberal mainstream media seem much more interested in exhuming ancient Cain peccadilloes than it was in learning about John Edwards’s extramarital affair and love child.
Or in doing any reporting on Barack Obama’s college grades, terrorist friends, extremist pastor, or dodgy real-estate deal. Can’t spoil his narrative.
But the Constitution guarantees us a free press, not a fair one. Republicans and conservatives start off with some disadvantages in our political world, including a mostly biased press; Democrats and liberals start off with others, like the unpopularity of some of their core convictions. Things seem to balance out over time.
And it has to be said that Cain and, even more, his campaign spokesmen were unprepared to deliver a single definitive response to a story that they had known was brewing for several days. Just as it has to be said that Rick Perry was unprepared to defend his record in Texas in his first three or four presidential debates.
Yes, sometimes we see unpreparedness in the White House. But a candidate who is similarly unprepared will have a hard time getting there.
Some in the liberal commentariat have opined that conservative voters are rallying to Cain because he is black. Maybe so. But most seem to back him because he seems conservative, articulate, and likeable.
We don’t have any significant polling to tell us whether the Politico story has cost Cain support. My hunch is that it hasn’t — at least not yet.
But that leaves the possibility that his support may evaporate when voters have to decide for real. Pollsters ask respondents whom they would vote for “if the election were held today.” But one thing everyone knows is that it isn’t being held today.
That won’t be true when Iowa Republicans venture into precincts caucuses on January 3, the ninth day of Christmas, which is the first real voting day, as it was four years ago.
Then they may respond as members of a midwestern focus group did a couple of weeks ago, when pollster Peter Hart asked them to raise their hands if they thought Cain was prepared to be president. No one did, not even those who had been saying positive things about Cain
We can get some sense of who voters think is prepared for the job from the weekly polls on general-election preference conducted by Scott Rasmussen.
He finds that a generic Republican leads Barack Obama by a 47 percent to 42 percent margin. Obama’s 42 percent tracks pretty well with his job approval in Rasmussen and other polls.
Rasmussen finds that Mitt Romney runs three percentage points behind the generic Republican and two points ahead of Obama. He’s the only Republican running ahead.
Cain and Perry run nine points behind the generic Republican in Rasmussen’s polls. Other candidates run 12 to 15 points behind.
Cain has been leading or tied for the lead for most of a month now, and he may hold that position for a while. But will his lead hold when voters vote for real?
— Michael Barone, senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
It’s the same old bogey man fro “To Kill a Mockingbird” and it is used against a black person and it is a lie.
What’s infuriating to me is: there are allegations but no details. There are 3 women: but they have no names. What kind of journalism/sense of justice is this? I agree that Cain could have handled this better (with better advisors) but how do you handle ghosts?
Names? We don’t need no stinking names.
The money and support is pouring in for Herman Cain, but we cannot slow down now. Please help him by donating at http://www.hermancain.com/
Also to help join the buzz about Herman go to facebook.com and “like” him. In just the last week he has jumped 16% or 45000 with an impressive 12,000 in the last 24 hours. Make no mistake Karl Rove is watching Herman’s “likes” and so is Romney. THIS is the way to stick it to the GOP establishment! Please tell your family and friends to “like” Herman as well.
FAcebook is for morons
Perception is reality
Sounds like something some dopey political advisor would say.
maybe he should start delivering daily lectures on Bill Clinton and his bimbo eruptions, and how America would still go back to that economy in a heartbeat
Not just money or Facebook “likes” are needed for Cain - internet bloggers need to find out what the Lamestream media won’t —— who is behind this attack!! My money leads right back to the imposter in the White House!!
I agree. I bet the attack is from the administration
“There are 3 women: but they have no names”
Are they Black or White? Why is no one asking this VERY obvious question?
Cain knows what he is doing.
Cain’s strange smoking ad is the best known ad of the campaign so far. It went viral. It was unconventional but it worked.
What else could Cain have done before the primaries to generate this kind of fundraising and publicity that also caused him to rise in the polls.
Maybe being vague and making ambiguous statements was part of the plan to keep it going and designed to get the media to blow it out of proportion and then he would release the signed paperwork and affidavits that vindicate him. Then he gets to say “See, I told you so.” and all future attacks on Cain by the media will be questioned.
A few anonymous accusers will not succeed. Look at Kobe’s accuser. She stayed hidden for a long time and by the time they leaked her name it was too late. If she had gone on national TV immediately and tearfully said “He raped me” then Kobe would have been finished. Every woman in America would hate Kobe. There would have been protests everywhere Kobe went and the Lakers would have released him. Tiger’s accusers came forward and there were photos of white women and we all knew his wife was the victim. He was done.
Charges that Cain made faceless nameless women uncomfortable will not stick. If they come on TV today and start crying that they only got $35,000 and they deserve a million dollars now because Cain ruined their lives it just wont have any affect except to help Cain even more.
This story reeks of desperation. Cain has advisors to do the work of coming up with an effective countering strategy which will be executed. The story will be gone soon.
Of course, the desperation (and this story) is from the far left, who have been developing strategies to stop Cain before he establishes a “beachhead” of popular support. IMHO, in a few months he will be unstoppable and they are painfully aware of that. As a black conservative his Presidency will start the process of leading America out of affirmative action and loosening the remaining hold of the left on minorities.
“Normal people” of all races, i.e., those that pay the bills, are turning to him in a gradual groundswell as the effective leader with the most private sector experience that is needed to provide a solid moral leader who will manage the downsizing of government. The far-left also knows their tactic of crushing government under the weight of it’s social spending obligations would be under an attack that it can’t withstand by a Cain Presidency.
The more success America sees with less government, the more support the idea will gain in the coming decades, and the idea of increasing the scope and cost of government will become more and more politically untenable, as the obvious reality of success hits home with voters.
In short, Obama overreached, as many conservatives knew he would, and that was the death knell for the liberalism of the 1900’s.
According to the first story from Politico there were 2 anonymous accusers. Then the lawyer (for both women coincidentally) says that neither he nor the woman can find any paperwork on the case and they don’t even know if the accused was even Herman Cain! That detail was scrubbed by the Washington Post as Rush pointed out. Why? because it didn’t fit the narrative. We are now down to 2 anonymous accusers, not 3. One filed a report, one didn’t and she said he invited her to his apartment.
Who can’t remember who they filed a sexual harassment complaint against at work and if that person was the CEO? Either she files harassment complaints against every male over her at every job she has ever had or Cain happened to be out of town when the alleged harassment took place and was a proven lie. The company let her go with severance to protect against future false claims.
Again, the first anonymous accuser would have ruined the narrative for the media so they had to drop her fast but keep the numbers up to 3.
Then the media still gets to ask Cain about 3 separate instances that have 3 separate sets of facts and they get to treat it as one total instance and accuse Cain being inconsistent in his answers.
LOL! Good one!
Believe me, I’ve been wondering about that little detail, too!
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