Herman Cain turns down "Dancing with the Stars"

I think someone still thinks he has a chance of being a VP candidate. Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain apparently isn’t going away

The poor deluded man may actually think he has a chance of coming back and saving the GOP.  What is this new video about?  And what's with the weird ending where they just focus on Cain's face and hang there?  Oh, and the comments below the video are fabulous. Read the rest of this post...

Gingrich benefitting from Cain withdrawal

From the Hill's Ballot Box:

According to the survey of likely Republican primary voters and caucus-goers, which was taken after Cain announced his campaign’s suspension on Saturday, Gingrich took 37 percent of the support of those surveyed, followed by Mitt Romney at 23 percent.

Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain suspends campaign, he says in order to prevent reporters from hurting his family

Cain just announced he is 'suspending' his campaign [BBC].

It is a rather sad commentary on the GOP race that having absolutely no relevant knowledge, experience or capability is no bar to being the front-runner in their nomination race.

More from NYT:

An unapologetic and defiant Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign on Saturday, pledging that he “would not go away,” even as he abandoned hope of winning the Republican nomination. Instead, Mr. Cain announced what he called a “Plan B,” continued advocacy of his tax and foreign policy plans.

“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” Mr. Cain said. “Because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I’m not a fighter.”

NOTE FROM JOHN: Yes, because the reason Cain's family was being hurt about multiple allegations of sexual harassment, and one allegation of adultery, was because reporters were reporting on it.  So the only way to stop the allegations was to stop reporters?  Are we sure there isn't another way to stop from being accused of serial sexual harassment, and adultery?

Not to mention: Thin skin isn't well suited for the presidency.  I think Cain's dropping poll numbers in Iowa were the problem here, not concern for his family. Read the rest of this post...

Women for Cain

If the photo does not tell you all you need to know, TPM has the full story.



A campaign that can't find four reasonably photogenic volunteers to agree to have their photo taken for use on the Web site is probably not going to win a major party Presidential nomination.

UPDATE: Apparently the Cain Campaign had enough of the mockery being made about the photo, so they pulled it. Now their site has a big gaping hole where the women used to be (somehow that seems terribly appropriate). Read the rest of this post...

Mrs. Herman Cain would like Herman to quit presidential race, he’s to announce decision tomorrow

When's the last time Herman Cain honored his wife's wishes?

Another family friend says Gloria Cain was never a fan of her husband’s “look at me’’ tendencies or his run for office, even though Cain assured her it wouldn’t require much of her physically or emotionally. He was wrong.

“This is a very arrogant man,’’ says the friend. “It probably never occurred to him that all these women would eventually come out. It’s funny to see him talk about the toll on his wife. He never thought of that before.’’

Sources close to the campaign say Gloria Cain wants her husband to leave the race and has no desire to do additional interviews about their marriage or the constant accusations. They describe a woman angry that her life has been turned upside down by her husband’s need for attention and power by any means.

Ouch.
(H/t Political Wire) Read the rest of this post...

Woman claims she had 13 year adulterous affair with Herman Cain, Cain says it’s nobody’s business

In every day life, I'm not sure it's anybody's business.  For someone running for President, I'm not 100% convinced that it's nobody's business.  Especially when you're competing to be the candidate of a party that professes "family values" as one of its chief tenets.  I'm sorry, but you cannot be a family values adherent and an adulterer.  It doesn't work.  If you support government intervention into our bedrooms - and the leadership of the GOP certainly does, as does the leadership of the religious right the GOP is always courting - then what you do in your own bedroom its most certainly, sadly, relevant.  And Herman Cain claims he's not for gay marriage, and wants to see a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, then so be it.  If he's going to defend marriage against me and mine, then I want to know that he's defending his own marriage too.  More from Slate. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Herman Cain circa 1991 (comedy)

Read the rest of this post...

Reporter roughed up at Cain event

And of course the police defended the actions of the officer.  Let's hear a little bit about what the Coral Springs Police Department thinks is appropriate behavior for its officers.  From National Journal:

The incident happened when several journalists who have been covering Cain regularly tried to film the candidate as he was returning to his campaign bus after an event here. As the journalists trailed Cain, the officer, who was in plain clothes, blindsided National Journal/CBS News reporter Lindsey Boerma into the side of the campaign bus. Moments later, as journalists circled around the bus toward Cain, the same man stuck his arm out and clotheslined Boerma.

The man refused to identify himself. He implied he was a police officer when he suggested that one of his “buddies” in uniform could give the reporter a ride in the back of a police car. When other journalists began videotaping him, he pulled out his cell phone and started recording the press. “I’m an independent reporter,” he said.

Unless the cop is 12, this sure doesn't sound like appropriate behavior from someone who's supposed to be mature enough, well trained enough, and mentally stable enough to carry a weapon. Read the rest of this post...

Perry and Cain dropping in the polls

MSNBC's First Read:

In the national NBC/WSJ poll (conducted Nov. 2-5), Cain and Romney were essentially deadlocked in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. And among these 102 Republican respondents, Cain was the first choice of 28 percent of them, while Romney, the former Massachusetts governors, was the choice of 27 percent. They were followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 17 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 10 percent and Perry at 8 percent.

But in the re-survey of these 102 Republican respondents, Romney’s support jumped up to 32 percent, Cain’s dropped to 27 percent and Gingrich’s increased to 22 percent.

And Perry fell to just 4 percent.

Read the rest of this post...

Video: Herman Cain jokes about Anita Hill

Photo by Christopher
Halloran,  Shutterstock

Not only am I increasingly convinced that Herman Cain has a problem with women, but it's also becoming clear that he doesn't have very good judgment either.  When you're in the middle of a sexual harassment scandal you don't call the most senior woman in the US government "princess."  As Jon Stewart noted last night, it's not really appropriate to call any girl, past the age of 5, princess.

But last night, Cain did it again.  For some reason, on being told that Anita Hill had a new book out on race and gender, Cain doubled over in hysterics.  Then he told a joke: "Is she going to endorse me?" Cain and the crowd laughed again, apparently because it's hysterically funny when women accuse men of sexual harassment and sexual assault.  (There's video via the link.)

Here's the thing.  If you're facing multiple charges of sexual harassment, and at least one charge of sexual assault, and you're in the race to be president, you'd play it serious, at least for a few days.  You'd avoid gratuitously denigrating women.  And you'd definitely avoid any discussion of Anita Hill, regardless of your opinions of her.  You wouldn't laugh at the mention of her name, and then crack a joke about it.  Unless you were a rather unserious candidate, and a little bit creepy too. Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain no longer regrets calling former Speaker Pelosi, "Princess Nancy"

Classy guy.  After regretting demeaning Pelosi last night, Cain now says he's sticking by his comments because Pelosi referred to Teabaggers as "astroturf" since they were a creation of the GOP billionaire activists, the Koch brothers.  So he figures if Pelosi can use the term "astroturf" he can use a sexist term to demean her on national television.

Good to know that Herman Cain doesn't have any issues with women.

UPDATE: According to AP, Cain's numbers are dropping in Iowa. Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain, fighting sexual harassment accusations, calls Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy"

Herman Cain literally just called US House Minority Leader, and former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy."  (Video here, courtesy of ThinkProgress.)  Not the smartest thing to do, when you're fighting multiple women who have accused you of sexual harassment, and one of sexual assault, to make a sexist comment about the highest ranked woman

Former Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino just tweeted:

Ay yi yi, former Speaker Pelosi called a princess in the debate? Not fair. We may disagree on policy, but she earned the Speaker title.

Read the rest of this post...

Cain campaign manager falsely claims accuser’s son works for Politico

"We've confirmed that he does indeed work at POLITICO and that's his mother, yes," said [Cain campaign manager Mark] Block.

He doesn't.  Never did.  Some guy with the same last name did work for Politico up until last year, but he says he's not related to the accuser.  Why would Cain's campaign be dumb enough to say that he was, simply based on him having the same last name?  It's not very professional, nor very presidential.  It's quite amateur, in fact.  You confirm stuff like this first, you don't just blurt it out on national TV. Read the rest of this post...

Markos and Olbermann on Herman Cain hiding behind his lawyer

Never a good sign when a GOP presidential candidate has to bring his lawyer to a press conference. Read the rest of this post...

Cain holds press conference, claims he never met accuser Bialek. Second accuser wants to go public.

"I saw Ms. Allred and her client yesterday in that news conference for the very first time."

Well, now he's in trouble.  Cain said today that he categorically never met his one public accuser, Sharon Bialek  All we need is one photo, one witness, to claim that he saw the two of them together, and it's over.  It's really over for Cain anyway.  I don't know how you face this man accusations from this many women and run an effective presidential campaign.  How does Cain get the media to focus on anything else.

Wait a minute.  Now, later on in the press conference, Cain is saying that there's a possibility he met the accuser, but he doesn't remember.  That's not what he said earlier.  Earlier in the same presser he said he never met her.

And now a second woman wants to hold a press conference.  From the Washington Post:

One of the women who accused GOP presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s said she wants to go public -- now that her name has been revealed -- and hold a joint news conference with all of the women making similar allegations.

She's another blonde.  HuffPost has more on the press conference.  Matt Ortega, over at AMERICAblog Elections, notes that Cain said he's willing to take a lie detector test.  Matt also said that this is starting to become serious fodder for an SNL skit, and he had a great one from when SNL spoofed Ross Perot. Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain was married with two kids at the time of the alleged sexual assault

A reader pointed out that Herman Cain was already married, with kids, at the time he was alleged to have inappropriately touched (to put it mildly) Sharon Bialek, back in 1999.  I haven't seen anyone mention that fact yet.  In all fairness, if we're going to talk about the hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich having multiple adulterous relationships while running to the right of his party, then Herman Cain should get the same scrutiny.  And he very likely may get that scrutiny from religious right primary voters he's been wooing, and who are already sketchy on him because of his apparent pro-choice views on abortion and his shifting views on gay rights.

Apropos of nothing, this is interesting from about a month ago. Cain's then female communications director, and her female assistant, suddenly quit under vague circumstances.

Carmichael explained her decision is a personal one and that she's pursuing other professional opportunities. She also said that her assistant, Francis Boustany, is also leaving out of allegiance to Carmichael.

Out of allegiance? It would be interesting to ask them again why they left. Read the rest of this post...

Herman Cain’s unfortunate statement in response to an accuser going public today

Politico published an email that went out late today from Herman Cain to his list. It's a bit odd. Here are a few key excerpts, with my emphasis added:

Unfortunately, the media-driven process by which one must seek this opportunity is fundamentally unserious. I have touched on this before - the emphasis on "gaffes," gotcha questions and time devoted to trivial nonsense - and everyone knows the process only became further detached from relevance this week as the media published anonymous, ancient, vague personal allegations against me.

Claims of sexual harassment, and today's claim of a sexual assault, are not gaffes, gotcha questions or unserious trivial nonsense. They're rather serious charges on their face. No one is alleging that Herman Cain got the number of states wrong. They're calling into question his number one qualification for office, his business stewardship.  That is per se relevant.

So once the editors of Politico started looking for people who would make claims against me, their chances of finding a few takers were probably about 100 percent. These people will not give their names. The so-called "witnesses" who purportedly corroborated their stories also will not give their names. That's about what you would expect when people are engaging in a "hatchet job," as it's been described by Joseph Fassler, who was chairman of the National Restaurant Association board when I was there.

It's easy to make accusations when, by virtue of your anonymity, you don't have to be held accountable for the claims you're making. It's easy to publish them when, like Politico, you don't follow basic rules of journalism by naming your sources or giving any details whatsoever about what supposedly happened.

The women aren't anonymous. At least one filed a claim at the time, and a second went public today. Second, they didn't "take up" Politico's offer to make up lies about Herman Cain. They made the accusations 12 years ago. They're simply repeating them today.

Contrary to the belief of experts, so wise and learned in the ways of politics, I do know what the established rules say I am supposed to do. I simply refuse to do it.

Clearly. Read the rest of this post...

Will the GOP hold accused sexual assaulter Herman Cain to the "Clinton Standard"?

As John points out, you can never quite tell if Republicans are going to let a scandal sink one of their own.

But the GOP treatment of Herman Cain needs to be judged according to their treatment of Bill Clinton, who they impeached over a consensual affair. Neither Monica Lewinsky nor Hilary Clinton ever made a public complaint about the sex, so why was it ever anyone else's business?

If Sharon Bialek's claims are true, she is doing her party a big favor by stepping forward now (she's a Republican). One of the reasons that the GOP suffered such devastating losses in the 2006 midterms was the Mark Foley scandal that broke only days before the election. Then- GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert's attempts to achieve a cover-up compounded the disgust the public already felt for the failed Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Better to have bad news come out now than a week before the election.

Until today, the only indication of the seriousness of the allegations against Cain came from the fact that the National Restaurant Association had paid a significant sum in at least one settlement. But did that really mean that the harassment was serious, or even real? (After all, settlements are sometimes paid simply because they're cheaper than litigation, even if you're innocent.) If Sharon Bialek's claims are true, the complaints were quite obviously about much more than some mildly inappropriate banter. It was not so much an allegation of sexual harassment as sexual assault.  And that makes these allegations far more serious than anything of which Bill Clinton was accused.

Another angle on the scandal that does not seem to have been considered is the fact that Cain is an associate minister at a Baptist church, and has made his faith a significant part of his campaign. I have no objection to consensual adultery: If it improves his presidential job performance, let him recruit a harem via Craig's List, for all I care. Hypocrisy is another matter entirely. If a politician is preaching family values by day and philandering by night then throw him to the wolves. In this case, Cain is a minister and he is quite literally preaching family values, both in church and on the campaign trail. Read the rest of this post...

Does it matter that Cain’s accuser is white?

I'm intrigued, and actually even somewhat mystified, about a discussion taking place on TV and on Twitter about the race of Herman Cain's accuser. She's white (and blonde). And several folks are saying that that is the nail in Herman Cain's coffin.

Here's what one (black) pundit had to say on MSNBC a few hours ago:

"It's very jarring for I think for the GOP, for anybody, to see a black man be sexually aggressive in an unwanted way to a blond white woman"

I honestly did not have the same thought when I saw that she was white.

The argument about why her (white) race matters tends to be multi-fold, and I'm just summarizing what I've heard:

1. A lot of people tend to believe white women who accuse black men of things. (You can call this the "To Kill a Mockingbird" argument.)

2. Especially in the GOP, and the south, there's an illogical fear/concern about black men being sexual predators towards white women. (Again, I'm just summarizing what I'm reading and seeing on TV.)

3. Some in the black community may not be thrilled that Herman Cain was trying to fool around with women who weren't black. (There was a quick reference to, I think, this on MSNBC by a black pundit a bit ago.)

I wonder how this case might be handled differently than the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas situation, since now the accuser is white. @Patricialicious on Twitter commented on that:

These situations are an interesting mix of race and gender dynamics in this country. Anita Hill is black. A black woman making these types of allegations are typically viewed different from a white woman making these allegations.

And Anita Hill was 20 years ago. One hopes society has advanced somewhat since that time. Read the rest of this post...