Herman Cain Announcement LIVE THREAD (Video Feed Link) [Suspending!]

HermanCain.com ^ | 12-03-2011

[csense]

Unless I misunderstand you, aren’t you begging the question of guilt? IF he is entirely, purely innocent, then no, he is not to blame for the deeds of false accusers or the willingness of the public to believe those false accusers.

I'm begging the question of leadership. He may not be responsible for the words of his accusers, but he is responsible for how he is perceived by the public. Without such a responsibility to perception, the notion of leadership is incoherent.

As I said before, it wasn't these allegations that made me initially question Herman Cain's candidacy, but since these accusations seem to be the topic of unrelenting discussion, I will say that the reason I think it bothers most people is because his behavior fits a profile. I'm sure as an attorney, you are familiar with that term. There is a post that I read recently which sums it up very nicely. It was from a woman, and it was in response to the Ginger White affair, and the woman said, something to the effect: If it was my husband, and he didn't tell me, he'd have more to worry about losing than just the primary.

I tend to doubt that this woman would agree with you that his only fault was being too optimistic, in that He foolishly believed he would be judged according to the truth of his innocence.

Again, we come back to the responsibility of perception, and rightly so...

[tjd1454]

Thanks for your comments. It looks like events have overtaken discussions about Cain's character. I have no problem with your perspective regarding basing one's opinion on sound evidence rather than "hearsay" or one's "gut feeling."

I would like to mention that I have long perceived that we communicate many things about ourselves, our character, and our intentions in non-verbal ways. Part of this is what we would call "body language." We also convey certain things about ourselves through our demeanor - as the saying goes, the eyes are the window to the soul. There is a biblical term - one's "countenance" - which likely refers to this non-verbal "projection." Another biblical term, "discernment" (among other things) refers to the ability to appraise others, not only by what they say, but by observing them.

Thus while such intuition is not and should not be admissible in court, it nevertheless constitutes a big part of how we communicate with each other, and "size each other up." For what it's worth, from watching Cain speak and observing his demeanor, my personal appraisal was that of a man caught in a trap.