I am away late and few will read this, but I am dumbfounded at the manner in which Cain has been abused by both sides, by commentators and bloggers, both professional and otherwise. It reeks of the Duke Lacrosse team episode. I thought that those on the right believed that the burden of the proof is on the accuser, not the accused. Why is it demanded that he produce. down the smallest detail, evidence that what is being said is false. Why should failure to do so make you suspicious? He reacted as I would have in such circumstances: simple denial at first, in the expectation of the support of those who knew my character; confusion when I found, instead, that others gave credence to unsubstantiated allegations; astonishment that I was expected to answer, in public scrutiny, to charges which were totally fabricated and impossible to address in any manner than flat denial. And on a scale that required dropping everything else to provide evidence that can’t exist because the accusations are falsehoods.

It is absolutely unsurprising that Cain sounds insecure and fumbling. You would too, Mr. Simon, in the same circumstances. If you were innocent, accused of misdemeanors that never entered your head, faced with fabricated details that would require expensive investigation to dispprove, in the harsh flodlight of a rush-to-judgment trial in the public press, how do you think you would come off? What option would YOU have other than continuing denial? This whole sorry affair is a demonstration of the incredible, filthy, evil gutter tactics of the Brave New Obama World. You should be ashamed for demanding that the victim prove himself innocent, and criticizing him for not doing so in a slick manner. You would have a lot greater reason to be skeptical if he had ready answers.