I'm really cute and truthful too!
Recent news on the harassment front has not been good for Mr. Cain’s candidacy. He has other problems as well. Although most of the harassment accusations have been vague and Ms. Bailek’s graphic accusations are unraveling, his campaign has ceased to surge and appears now to be in retreat. I supported his quest for the presidency and find his retreat very sad.
Harassment accusations are in the nature of political cancer and those against Mr. Cain have metastasized into his vital organs — his “oops” moments among others reflect that metastasis. Denial doesn’t help in fighting cancer and neither do half-measures. Complaints that the situation is unfair (it is) or due to malice (it probably is) are not useful either. There were effective steps that Mr. Cain and his campaign could have taken, before it became too late. Persuading only his base of committed supporters that he had done no wrong would not have been sufficient. He also had to convert those who had come to view him with suspicion or anger, to prevent others from doing either and to establish himself as capable of dealing reliably and effectively with major problems as President.
This article, published today at my blog, presents a postmortem on the Cain campaign’s efforts to deal with the metastasizing cancer of harassment accusations and suggests effective steps that could have been taken but appear not to have been. I very much wish that those or comparable steps had been taken.
It is hard to distinguish the exact cause of Cain’s decline. For me, it isn’t the accusations from these women – but his inexcusable gaffes on things going on in the present. It is one thing to say you are going to surround yourself with experts when you get in office, but if you have absolutely no clue whatsoever of the basics of foreign policy, how can you ever know what skills are required of your advisors? This is the exact problem I had with Sarah Palin initially. Her foreign policy was non-existent. If you are going to run for high office in the land, take a week and sit down with a foreign policy expert and do nothing but talk about foreign policy 24 hours a day. I want my leaders to know at least as much about foreign policy as I do just by reading the news every day. When the inevitable question comes back around to say what magazines, books, etc you read to keep up with current events you better damned well have an answer too.
The thing about the accusations that is a problem for me is that Herman didn’t initially just laugh them off. If it was me being accused of sexual harassment I would laugh in the face of the accuser and dare them to prove it, because anyone that knows me would know how stupid the claims were. Instead, Herman had to say “I’m innocent, but…” It is that “but” that killed him.
And when Cain’s campaign hires a mouthpiece who not only falsely accuses innocent reporters (innocent of the charge of which he was accused, at least), and then refuses to fire said loose cannon mouthpiece, it calls into serious question the kind of “experts” he’s gonna hire.
Favoritism is far from unknown in the corporate world… in fact, quite a few people climb up the ladder because of it. Cain’s background isn’t any defense against that, and it sure looks like that’s what happened in this case.
Herman Cain has a vicious mouth. He and his underlings have slime jobbed Rick Perry a number of times. Cain is also grossly ignorant—and has taken advantage of white race guilt. This man is not even close to being ready for prime time.
The only way you fight charges like that is to have started the battle long before the charges were ever made, long before you ever met the people who may eventually charge you.
The simple life answers are to avoid appearances of impropriety. I know it sounds hard, but millions of men married to jealous wives accomplish this task for decade upon decade. Hundreds of thousands of business owners throughout time have avoided the appearance as well. Only in our culturally deteriorating society do people try to argue that he could not have avoided the charges. Yes, he could have.
My thoughts on the whole mess are that the women are mostly lying. That Cain is either misleading, lying or for a pastor, CEO and husband, extremely lacking in the area of knowledge on inappropriate behaviors.
I think the women spent time alone with Cain, I think Cain sought out time alone with women regularly for ego reasons. This leads to many occurrences of appearance of impropriety. Each and every one of those instances leaves the door wide open for someone to claim something happened and have at least a little credibility. Every one of those instances diminishes the ability and credibility of simply denying the charges.
Things that seemed inoffensive back in the ’90s are now deemed offensive and sexually harassing. It is impossible to anticipate such societal changes more than a decade in advance. What might have happened by 2021 and how will words uttered in 2011 be viewed then?
A president needs to have common sense and decency, consistently with the present; there are few universal gold standards of acceptability for all ages. To demand that a candidate have been prescient and to have spoken and behaved more than a decade ago as he would now is a bit much.
That said, there are things that Mr. Cain could and should have said and done promptly in response to the harassment accusations. He failed to do so. That, in my view, is the problem.
Actively seeking out lovely ladies to spend time alone with as a Married Pastor and CEO of a company has never been appropriate and in our lifetimes will never become appropriate behavior.
How do you fight charges like this?
“With the exception of a couple unique instances, for which my wife was made aware of in advance of I have never spent time alone with women who are not my wife. We all know what the appearance of impropriety is, and I know it even more so as a pastor who has counseled many a couple on the issue. I respect women and always have worked to ensure that they are not placed in situations where they can be thought to possibly be doing anything that would harm their reputation. As a CEO I know that my actions can affect many people’s lives, and as a CEO I kept myself above reproach to the best of my ability just as I expect all of my employees to keep themselves above reproach. Even so, there were some instances where women made grievances known, and where I failed to ensure they were always comfortable, I took it upon myself to repent of those failings and not allow it to happen again.”
If he could have honestly said that, I think he would have. I think plenty of men would be able to make a statement of that level of clarity honestly.
With the exception of a couple unique instances, for which my wife was made aware of in advance of I have never spent time alone with women who are not my wife.
In an elevator? Giving one a lift to the bus stop on a rainy day? In his office with the door open? Such a statement, particularly with the word “never,” could be unfortunate.
Times do change. Once upon a time, it was considered gentlemanly and proper to compliment a woman on her appearance. Now, at least in a work environment, that seems to be verboten.
Is there a way to defend against these slanderous accusations? No. Humans are stupid creatures. They listen to the emotions, rather than think critically about things. The natural reaction is “guilty until proven innocent”. This is why we EXPLICITLY say exactly the opposite in law, because it is not natural to people.
Many of Cain’s supporters have dug in against these things. They recognize, and are tired of, these smear tactics. I think the damage comes from the increased attention to Cain’s candidacy. Now. He opens his big mouth and gets things horribly wrong.
He needs to stop joking, because it is too easy to think he is being serious. “I wonder what delicious is in Cuban?” WTH? Okay, I’m guessing he is actually mocking Obama, but he needs to say so, so people do not take him seriously. Otherwise, one gets the sense that he is yet another black guy ready to cash in on white stupidity. If he really meant that comment, I withdraw all support for him. I do not need another black President who is just too ignorant to know Austrians do not speak Austrian or Cubans don’t speak Cuban.
It is time for him to get serious and do his homework, or go home.
Cuban spanish is entirely different from Iberian spanish or South American spanish.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dialects_and_varieties
He was in Little Havana. He wanted to say “delicious” the way the local cubans do.
And really, WHO GIVES A CRAP!?
I didn’t even bother blogging his Cuba gaffes. It’s just too much at this point. He’s clearly not very informed and not interested in becoming any more informed.
He should have avoided Chicago and everyone from there. He never worked or lived there – but somehow harassed every woman there (and none anywhere else). Crazy. Almost like somebody from Chicago doesn’t like him.
Cain’s candidacy wasn’t doomed – it simply followed the naritive arc. Peak for a month, something happens, people loudly decry that it’s not his fault and strongly defend him, he fades into the background amongst murmurs from the conservative press about how well Romney’s doing. It’ll happen to Newt too.
I dunno ’bout them polls. I had a nice talk with a lady in California that is pi$$ed about the way the press has been treating Mr. Cain and the rest of the Republican candidates. And the fraud involved in The Stimulus isn’t sitting so well, either. In fact, she’s started watching FOX.
Liberals have a sense of fairness, too. Steven Breen can draw snide cartoons all he wants, but the adults in the room are all sick of the current administration and the drooling MSM.
I thought he had just about neutralized the harrassment charges.
What has brought him down is the lack of knowledge. He might have thought he would get the same pass that little lenin received…no hard questions, ever, and circled wagons around every faux pas. It hasn’t happened, except on conservative blogs.
When is anyone other than me going to realize that the Cain ACCUSATIONS have Chicago filth written all over it?! This has been Obama’s handlers’ M.O. since his race for junior senator!!!!!
Slander and dishonest soundbite reporting will not change my vote. And the same goes for my fellow conservatives.
We will not play the “appeasement” game with the left. We are done. We gave their moderate-left and hard-left crap a try, and its failed miserably. Now its time to present a clear and distinct alternative.
And I’m not going to settle for supporting the “most electable”. Electability is a bull**** qualifier used by the establishment to make sure that only members of the Old Boys’ Club get their turn in the power seat.
All of the Republican candidates are electable: they are all 35 years of age, are natural born citizens, and all have lived in the US for at least 14 years.
His campaign is not over. The truly scary thing here is just how well the republican women have been programmed by the left. The accusers have been proven liars. The man who now steps up was found by gloria allred.
So many women wonder why they can’t find a good man. This is why. We can’t trust you to stick by us when trouble comes. If your indecision about Herman Cain gives us Romney, you will have yourselves to blame for re-electing Obama.
Now we have to contribute to Cain whether we want to or not now, re secret service!! ?? That’s not very conservative/TParty!!!!