What stopped the Cain Train?

Phil Valentine

December 6, 2011

PhilValentine.com

 

Who woulda thunk it?  Of all the GOP candidates it would be Herman Cain who got voted off the proverbial Republican island first.  I would’ve sworn it would’ve been Huntsman or even Bachmann.

What hurts is I know Herman Cain.  I was touting him for president long before he was even a blip on the radar.  I remember painstakingly explaining over and over again to new inquisitive callers who Herman Cain was.  Apparently I didn’t know the full story.

Even today we still don’t know the full story.  Was the accusation of a 13-year-long affair true?  It’s hard to say.  It sure looks like it.  One doesn’t suspend a presidential campaign because of a lie.  Cain never addressed the accusations with the fervor of, say, Justin Bieber.  Bieber, the pop music sensation, was accused of fathering a child and hit with a paternity lawsuit.  Not only did Bieber deny the charges he insisted on taking a paternity test.  When the accuser dropped the lawsuit and claimed they were settling out of court Bieber didn’t stop there.  He continued to press the paternity test and is now pursuing defamation charges against his accuser.

That’s what people do when they’re innocent.

I told people early on that Herman Cain was one of the most dynamic speakers I’d ever heard.  I knew that all he had to do was get his message in front of enough people and he would catch fire.  Winning the Florida straw poll gave him the platform to do that.  Pundits like to point to Rick Perry’s stumble as the catalyst for Cain’s ascent.  It was, in fact, that Florida straw poll that brought Cain the much needed attention to take his message to the people.

But it would be Cain’s missteps that brought him down.  Although there were several accusations of sexual harassment none ever had a great deal of credibility.  It seemed to me that if Herman was at bat swinging that many times he would’ve connected.  “Where are the women he actually slept with?” I asked.

Lo and behold Ginger White appears.  Her claim of a 13-year-long affair made the sexual harassment charges look like an innocent peck on the cheek by comparison.  Cain denied the charges, though lacking the passion one would expect from such an accusation.  But it was his lawyer’s response that sealed the deal for me.  In his initial statement regarding the affair Herman’s lawyer said that the sex life of a candidate is beyond the boundaries of what the people need to know or what the press should report.  If that wasn’t an admission of guilt I don’t know what was.

Even in the aftermath of the end of Cain’s campaign there is no Bieber-like response to the woman who apparently brought his campaign to an end.  I am led only to believe that she’s telling the truth.

Which brings us to a more important question.  Herman was bound to know this would come out.  Why did he lead so many of us down this path knowing that he would have to someday explain himself?

And why isn’t he ending his campaign instead of suspending it?  Because suspending it still allows him to raise and spend money just like any other presidential candidate.  Even the way he ended his campaign sounds a bit disingenuous.

Now as the Cain train eases back into the station and the passengers gather their belongings several key questions remain.  For which campaign will they now buy a ticket?  The bigger question is why they were ever sold a ticket for this one in the first place?