Herman Cain: The Show's Over

Herman Cain officially ended his presidential campaign today.

OK, he 'suspended' it,but the show's over.

He made the announcement in his home town of Atlanta,with, of course, his wife Gloria onstage with him.

He said the allegations have cast a "cloud of doubt over me and this campaign."

"As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign," he said. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt . . . on me, on my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I am not a fighter."

"I have made many mistakes in life -- everybody has. I made mistakes professionally, personally, as a candidate, in terms of how I run my campaign. And I take responsibility or the mistakes that I have made," he said. "But because of these false and unproved accusations, it has … had a tremendous painful price on my family."

Of course, it wasn't just the allegations of adultery or sexual harassment that did Herman Cain in. it was his obvious ignorance of anything outside of a very narrow focus, his disastrous ( albeit catchy) '999 plan', his gaffe ridden public utterances and his poorly run campaign.

A recent Iowa poll showed his support plummeting to less than 8% and falling.

Cain says Cain said he will be launching "plan B" of his public career, a new website where he will discuss economic and get this, foreign policy issues. I'm certain his book will also be for sale onsite, if you can't find it at your local thrift shop or garage sale.He also said he's planning to endorse a Republican candidate for president "in the near future."

A presidential campaign is also a job interview, or at least it should be. Americans have already seen the result of putting a man with no experience and no discernible qualifications into the White House, and there's no benefit in repeating that mistake.

It will be interesting to see where his support goes. I would personally guess that Michele Bachmann and perhaps Newt Gingrich would be the chief beneficiaries.

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Herman Cain: 'Maybe I Did, But Ain't Nobody's Business'

Herman Cain is reportedly 'reassessing' his campaign after the latest allegations of a 13 year affair with Ginger White, an Atlanta woman surfaced yesterday.

White went public in an interview with an Atlanta TV station, describing the sex as consensual and admitting that she knew Cain was married and that she’s “not proud” of what she described as a long-running affair with the married GOP candidate. “It was pretty simple,” Ms. White said in the interview. “It wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”

She also said that Cain had given her money on occasion and produced cellphone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to and from a number she said was for Herman Cain’s private cellphone. When the station sent a text message to the number, Cain called back and acknowledged knowing Ms. White.

He then went on to issue the following statement, in an attempt to get out in front of the storm:

Mr. Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain. This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault - which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.

Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door.

Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media.

In other words, if you read between the lines, Cain was saying 'maybe I did, but it's nobody's business and I won't discuss it'. One of his handlers obviously got hold of him shortly afterwards and slapped some sense into him and he's since issued an outright denial, essentially saying that either his supporters are going to believe him or Ginger White, which doesn't explain a lot.

It's pretty obvious to me that at least some of the allegations about Cain's zipper problem are true, and I actually agree with him that it isn't anyone else's business - except that's not how presidential campaigns work, and someone cheating on his spouse matters to a lot of people.

In 'The Prince', Machiavelli famously said that only the prince she be allowed to lie as a tool of governing. What he didn't say but ought to be obvious is that the Prince must be able to lie well enough to appear credible, ala' Mr. Clinton.

Cain appears to have failed this elementary test of leadership, as he has so many others.

If he bails, it will be interesting to see where his supporters end up going - to Newt Gingrich or to Michele Bachmann.

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Herman Cain For Commander-In-Chief? No, I Don't Think So!

Absolutely breathtaking. Sorry, but I wouldn't want to see Mr. Cain getting a 3AM call for anything but a late night pizza run.

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Last Night's Debate - 'Oops'

Ouch.

The big news out of last night's debate is that Rick Perry may have crippled his campaign beyond repair.

After saying there were three government departments he'd eliminate, he was only able to name two and froze for an agonizing 53 seconds when he tried to name a third one...ending with an embarrassed "Oops."

OK, anyone can have a brain freeze, but the problem here is two-fold; first, that he did it to himself, and second, that it reinforces his reputation with voters as someone who is an abysmal debater and likely to look like a fool facing President Obama. And that's a pretty low bar, frankly.

Even worse, he tried to recoup during th eanswer to another question, saying "It was the Department of Energy I was trying to think of." Aside from being lame, the Department of Energy is one of the last government departments I think you want to close given that our whole approach to energy independence needs to be ramped up and the efforts co-ordinated nationally.

Even Governor Perry realizes what a game changer this is.

Perry came into the debate at 9.3 percent on InTrade. He’s now down to 4.9 percent and dropping. One of his top fundraisers is reportedly saying that his campaign is over and it's time for him to focus on being governor of Texas.

Herman Cain managed to skate through on the sexual harassment question. Moderator Maria Bartiromo brought the topic up, saying: “Shareholders are reluctant to hire a CEO where there are character issues.”

Cain's response was to sort of sidestep an answer and attack the premise of the question: “The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations,” Cain said. “This country’s looking for leadership and this is why a lot of people, despite what has happened over the last nine days, are still very enthusiastically behind my candidacy.”

It was an obviously prepared and rehearsed answer that got some cheers and was probably the smartest thing he could have said, but it doesn't really address the situation - or his poor handling of it thus far.

The candidates seem to have decided, individually or collectively that there's not going to be any sparks between candidates and they will focus on the positive. Newt Gingrich was his usual articulate self and Mitt Romney also continued to look like the most presidential person on the stage, at least in terms of his poise and ready answers.

He spent a decent amount of time talking about national security and foreign policy issues,an area where he's fairly strong. He reiterated unequivocally that as president, he would see to it that Iran did not obtain nuclear weapons.

When asked to address the flip flopping image, he was likewise strong, saying,“I think people know me pretty well, particularly in this state. I think people understand that I’m a man of steadiness and constancy.”

“I will be true to my family, to my faith and to my country, and I will never apologize for the United States of America.”

In summation, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich came out of the debate with some momentum, Herman Cain managed to avoid any major mistakes and Rick Perry is going to have some serious thinking to do about his next move.

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Source: "Herman Took Advantage Of Seniority And Power With A Young Woman. It Was An Abuse Of Power."

Not from the Politico or the New York Times, but from conservative site Pajamas Media.

They're claiming that two sources have told them that a female employee of the National Restaurant Association told associates she had been taken by Herman Cain to his Crystal City, Virginia residence where she alleged “he had taken advantage of me.”

One source, a male, told PJ Media:

"Herman took advantage of seniority and power with a young woman. It was an abuse of power."

Implying that coming forward with the accusations was an ordeal for the young woman, the source also said:

"Who do you believe, a CEO or a mid-level staffer? It was unsettling for her to make charges."

The name of the woman — who was in her early twenties at the time of the alleged incident — has been confirmed by PJ Media. We have chosen not to reveal her identity for reasons of discretion.

Both sources, one male and one female, worked at the time — mid-1990s — for the governmental affairs department of the National Restaurant Association, as did the woman.

According to the female source, Mr. Cain and the woman had been with a large group for a long evening of food and drink at the Ciao Baby Cucina, a restaurant near NRA headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. This was a normal routine, as the trade association worked with the food and beverage industry. Afterwards, Mr. Cain allegedly took the woman by taxi to his apartment, where she spent the night and woke up.

The female source told PJ Media that she witnessed the woman and Herman Cain break away from the large group as part of a smaller group.{...}

Both sources claim that during this period following the incident while the woman was still employed, the NRA’s human resources office held many “closed door meetings” that included her. The woman’s parents retained legal counsel and arranged an undisclosed financial settlement.

Today, the NRA is expected to meet with attorney Joel P. Bennett, who represents one of the women who have made claims against Mr. Cain. Bennett has stated he wants the NRA to terminate a confidentiality provision which bars his client from revealing the grounds for the settlement.

All this comes on top of allegations by conservative talk radio host Steve Deace, who claims that Herman Cain said “things to both of my female staffers that at best are professionally awkward if not inappropriate over the last several months.”

At least now, we have some specifics that go beyond allegations of inappropriate words or gestures.

Again, if a company paid two separate accusers a years' salary on behalf of Herman Cain, there's no way he couldn't have known about it. So in the multiple and constantly changing stories he given the public, he was simply not being candid.

Another point I think is worth mentioning. It is certainly possible that in this case, the sex could have been consensual, or simply the result of a little to much to drink on the part of the woman mentioned above. Perhaps she simply changed her mind about things after the fact. That's not exactly unknown.

But the fact remains that if Herman Cain as a married CEO was guilty of this kind of lapse in judgment with one of his employees, that is evidence of stupidity that makes it even more clear than his serial gaffes that he's not qualified to be president.

In other news, the Cain campaign has backed down from its claim that the Rick Perry campaign was behind this. Yet another dumb move on their part that backfired.

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Attorney Claims Cain's Comments Violated Deal, Allows Accuser To Go Public

The other shoe appears ready to drop on the Herman Cain sexual harassment story.

The attorney for one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment said his client is considering going public with full details, since they feel Cain violated the confidentiality agreement that was part of the original settlement:

Attorney Joel Bennett told CBS’s "The Early Show" on Wednesday that his client hasn’t spoken publicly because of the confidentiality agreement, but that Cain’s comments might have cleared a path.

“There was more than one incident that my client received sexual harassment,” Bennett said. “She would like to speak out for the record, only because Mr. Cain has stated that he didn’t sexually harass anyone, that there wasn’t any substance to the allegations, and basically made it look like she was some type of frivolous claimant looking for money.”

According to Bennett, one of the stipulations of the confidentiality agreement was that neither party could make disparaging remarks about the other. Bennett said Cain violated that agreement on Fox News on Monday when he said that he had been told that the accuser’s performance in the workplace “was not up to par.”

“I think she’s upset about his statements and would like the record to be balanced and clear,” Bennett said.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Cain’s other accuser received a full year’s salary, worth between $35,000 and $40,000, as a part of her severance package.

A couple of things here. Note that the attorney refers specifically to a confidentiality between the two parties,. Unless the attorneyis lying, that has to mean that it involved Cain and his accuser, since the National Restaurant Association who paid out the settlement did not make any comments. And if Cain was directly involved as a signatory in the confidentiality agreement, then he was a lot more aware of all this than he has let on.

Even as late as Monday morning Cain was claiming that he was “unaware of any sort of settlement” stemming from harassment charges...and then changed his story later on that day, admitting to being aware of a “termination settlement” but denied any instance of sexual harassment, while offering details he seems to now recall about one incident. Again, if he was an actual signatory to the agreement, he was not being totally candid.

Another point worth calling your attention to is the size of the settlement, if Pravda-on-the-Hudson is correct, always a 50-50 shot. Cain referred to the settlements as equivalent to a 'normal termination settlement'. As I mentioned before, given that just preliminaries with the EEOC can cost $10-15,000 in attorney fees, throwing a few months salary at someone who brings a nuisance value complain to make them go away is a fairly common tactic in corporate America. Settling for a full year's salary is not - unless the complaint had some legs.

Let me be crystal clear. Whether or not Herman Cain committed some kind of sexual harassment ( after all, the Leftist media that is driving this story likely voted for Bill Clinton twice!) but how poorly Cain has handled this.

The attacks are definitely racially motivated and designed to punish a black conservative for straying off the Democrat plantation But unfortunately, with the way Herman Cain has dealt with this episode and the number of other gaffes he's made, Cain has continued to give them ammunition. And we're still only in primary season.

He's a likeable and decent man who has no experience in government and is simply not ready to be president.

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The Mark of Cain

The big story over the last few days has been a concerted attack on GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. I haven't said much about it yet because I deliberately wanted to see how deep the story went and more importantly,how Cain was going to handle it.

The attack on Cain involves some vague accusations of sexual harassment that date back over 15 years, from when Cain headed the National Restaurant Association. A couple of unidentified women who worked there apparently accused Cain of 'conversations allegedly filled with innuendo' and 'physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable.'

So the Association apparently gave the women a small settlement to avoid the expense of litigation, a common tactic in these politically correct times. As anyone with any experience in these matters knows, just the initial dealings with the EEOC can involve a cost of $10 to $15,000 based on nothing more than a complaint,no matter how insubstantial.

For that, based strictly on hearsay, Herman Cain is in the headlines today accused of 'sexual harassment', even though numerous female employees who worked for the NRA at the time have come forward publicly to state that they never heard, observed or experienced any conduct from Herman Cain even remotely suggesting 'sexual harassment'.

Cain's real sin doesn't appear to be inappropriate sexual conduct but being an independent minded black conservative who strayed off the Left's reservation. For that, he has to be destroyed. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who's been mentioned as a possible vice - presidential nominee got the same treatment last week from the Washington Post for the exact same reason.

And the attacks on Cain - and yes, they're race-based - have been building for some time, ever since Herman Cain began gaining traction in the polls. And of course, the Left has made sure that the attacks mostly come from blacks...just to emphasize what happens to those who stray off the plantation.



For instance, a MSNBC 'analyst' named Karen Finney recently accused Republicans of racism, saying that Republicans are supporting Herman Cain because of his race:

"One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy," Finney said. "I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he's a black man who knows his place. I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me."

Finney is hardly unique or alone in saying this. In fact, it's become a part of the Left's repeated mythology as the election season moves into high gear.

“He’s engaging in a very dangerous, irresponsible type of rhetoric,” said Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia state conference of the NAACP. “It’s almost like he feels the need to be accepted in a different class or community, and somehow, by portraying his own race or portraying the poor as a problem, it’s going to advance his cause. I think he’s going to find that that’s not true.”

Pam Spaulding, the black LGBT blogger and darling of the Left made it even plainer, accusing Cain of 'shameless tap dancing for conservative white voters'.

And those are just a few examples. The most inadvertently comical thing about them is that all of these people probably voted for Bill Clinton - twice. That alone should shoot any pious homilies about 'sexual harassment' or untruthfullness out of the water.

And yet, as despicable and racist as these attacks are,they once again point out something that needs to be said. As likeable as he is, as compelling as his personal story is, Herman Cains not ready for prime time and his handling of this latest attack proves it.

Commonsense would dictate that if you're going to run for office, especially as a conservative black man, your very first practical task is to have your people do opposition research on yourself.

Anything even remotely attackable in your history or background needs to be looked at so that there are no surprises...so that you're prepared if and when it surfaces. Herman Cain either neglected to perform this elementary step or knew about this and simply tried to bluff his way clumsily out of it, changing his story about four separate times in the process. There's no third option, and neither one bodes well for his performance as president.

For a comparison, simply look at Governor Sarah Palin and how she handled media attacks on everything from her family and her very femininity to her generally excellent record as Alaska's governor to see the difference.

These attacks will likely not sink Cain, but it gives us an unfortunate preview of what we're in for if he's the nominee and the real attacks start.

And his continued gaffes, like his latest one on China are going to be easy ammo for the Obama campaign to destroy him:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you view China as a potential military threat to the United States?

HERMAN CAIN: I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States... we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they're a military threat. They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

Is it really too much to expect someone who's running for president to realize that China has been in the nuclear club for several decades? Imagine that surfacing in a debate...along with all the other ones he's come out with.

Herman Cain is an immensely likeable and decent man, and the racist attacks on him are despicable. But as I explored here, there are a lot of reasons he's simply not ready for the presidency.

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The Farce In Las Vegas

There's only one word to describe last night's GOP debate in Vagas - embarrassing.

Part of it was Rick Perry's desperation to do anything to stop his campaign's freefall, and part of it was that CNN's Lefty moderator Anderson Cooper did an abysmal job and not only allowed some of the candidates to behave like kids fighting in a schoolyard but actually egged them on.

The wildest swinging came from Governor Perry, who tried to make an issue about Governor Romney's supposed 'hiring' of illegal aliens for landscaping and maintenance work at his home, something that been unsuccessfully thrown at Romney before. Romney's explanation is a simple and plausible one, that he hired a company to do the work and simply had no way of knowing they had illegal aliens among the work crew.

I've got news for Rick Perry. In most states with substantial populations of illegal aliens, you've probably unknowingly 'hired ' one of them if you've gone to a car wash,visited a restaurant, gone to a fast food drive through, had your house painted or your roof repaired or hired anyone to do your gardening or brush clearance. In fact, if Governor Perry has done any of these things, he's almost certainly 'hired' an illegal alien or three himself.

So instead of actually discussing the issue intelligently, what we got was a silly brawl.

Most of the debates have highlighted a certain lack of substance among all the candidates, although that's definitely a product of the way the debates have been conducted. No one with any real understanding of the issues America faces should be expected to answer some of these questions in a minute, and when you get someone like Anderson Cooper in charge, you get exactly what you got last night. I don't think it's accidental that the questions asked seem skillfully constructed steer away from anything that could be construed as an avenue to attack President Obama's failed policies, although some of the candidates are better than others in using the brief time they're allowed to work a mention of that in.

After last night, it struck me that most of the candidates on that stage might justifiably mention President Reagan as someone worthy of emulating, but they seem to have forgotten what President Reagan called his eleventh commandment: 'Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.'

As I look at the GOP field, I think I mirror the feelings of many Americans. While we realize that almost anyone on that stage would be better than what we now have in the White House now, (let's eliminate Ron Paul please, in spite of his occasional good idea) we're still undecided because of the lack of substantive answers on most of the issues from any of these candidates.

A capsule look at the three frontrunners makes the reason for this uncertainty obvious.

Herman Cain, likeable though he is seems to answer almost every question aside from his unworkable 9-9-9 plan by saying he would 'gather all the intelligence/information, look at all the angles and make my decision based on that.' He's an intelligent candidate with a compelling personal story who's been impressive in how quickly he's learned the political ropes, but his answers in certain areas have highlighted the fact that he simply isn't knowledgeable about a lot of areas like foreign policy or how government works. I'm simply not convinced he's ready for the top job yet.

Ron Paul, of all people took advantage of this when he slapped Cain around last night about his 9-9-9 plan by saying that the Republicans were at fault for the debt problem 'because we were in charge during the last adminsitration' . A confident and informed candidate would have responded by reminding Paul that according to both the Federal Manage and Budget office and the Congressional Budget Office, the major debt problems and the bulk of the outlandish spending occurred after January, 2007 - the date when the Democrats got control of both houses of Congress. ...followed up by a line about how he,Cain, was more about solutions than blame, and maybe even including a stinger by alluding to Rep. Paul's long and successful career in bringing pork and government largess to his home district.

Another question mark I have about Cain is his not revealing what advisers he has, if any. As a successful CEO, he obviously knows how to hire, a significant aspect of what a president does, and especially one with no governing experience - so whom has he hired? And why the secrecy?

And then there's Cain's propensity for shocking gaffes,like the recent one about building an electrified fence on the Mexican border. While he later dismissed it as a joke after it raised eyebrows even among his supporters, he certainly didn't deliver the remarks as one.

Mitt Romney may come across as presidential, and he's obviously done some deep thinking about the issues, but his convenient endorsement of policies that resonate with the GOP's conservative base as opposed to some of his former positions has created a lot of uncertainty.

He's become pretty good at fending off some of the slapshots sent his way by the other candidates, but there still seems to be a packaged, slightly insincere aura about him, mainly because he does seem so crafted.

As a former Blue State governor who created the clear antecedent to ObamaCare, is he serious when he says he wants to repeal it? As a Harvard-trained technocrat, can he really be counted on to rein in the excesses of Big Government run amuck? Who is the real Mitt Romney? That's essentially what people want to know, and while he's given off some positive signals, he's been far too cautious about revealing it, and it's no certainty that he ever will.

Rick Perry's executive experience as a governor is obviously a plus, but his obvious weaknesses as a debater and his facile endorsement of boilerplate conservative positions set against his failure to adequately address his endorsement of Big Government programs like the Gardisil vaccination dust up, the Trans America Super Corridor or his defense of instate tuition rates for illegal aliens makes me wonder if he ever really wanted to run for president at all in the first place, deep down.

His performance in last night's debacle couldn't have gratified anyone but his hard core supporters.

He's proven himself skillful at raising campaign cash and at slapping together an organization in record time, but the question remains at how serious the whole endeavor is. Thus far, Perry has proven himself to be good at mechanics but poor at both process and substance.

There's no such thing as a perfect candidate, but at least one of these three men is going to have to take some serious steps to address these questions in order to get voters to support them for any other reason than the fact they aren't Barack Obama.

I doubt it would happen, but I would love to see representatives of the major GOP candidates ore even the candidates themselves sit down quietly somewhere, take an honest look at what happened last night and whom it actually helped and come to an agreement about better ways to conduct themselves with each other so that the American people get a better and more substantive look at the candidates.

It may be that our politics have degenerated to the point that someone who's actually a real leader simply can't surface in today's political circus, but I think I speak for a great many people in saying that I'm sick and tired of simply voting for the lesser of two evils.

The stakes in 2012 are higher than they've ever been.

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Herman Cain Aces 'Meet The Press' - And David Gregory Beclowns Himself

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Whatever one thinks about Herman Cain, you have to give him credit for the skillful way he handled an obviously partisan and barely polite David Gregory on MSNBC. Gregory's agitation is most noticeably present when they discuss Cain's 9-9-9 plan, and he's barely able to keep his 'journalist' mask on.

Just a note to Mr. Gregory...if you have a 9% Federal income tax rate, you're definitely going to have more money to spend or invest,which creates economic activity that can likewise be taxed.Ditto if the numerous excise taxes and 'fees' are axed from the cost of goods. And of course, that has no bearing on what the local politicians you elect choose to charge you for the privilege of living in their jurisdiction!

My answer to David Gregory's bleat about how the poor who now pay no taxes would pay more might have been 'but there are people on your network every day screaming about how we all need to pay our fair share! Do you disagree with that concept?' Cain's response is much more diplomatic.

Cain's 9-9-9 plan has a number of problems, mostly in two areas. First national sales taxes, also known as VAT elsewhere always go up, something Gregory hinted at in one source he quoted. Politicians just can't resist it. And second, the current tax code actually creates economic activity in a number of areas, real estate purchases and investment and new car sales and leases being two of them. But the basic idea is at least worth exploring with the object of some heavy tweaking.

I loved the part where Gregory referred to Cain as 'African-American, a term I know you don't like.' Why deliberately use it then if you know someone finds it distasteful? At any rate, Cain's response is excellent, and the entire interview is worth watching.

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