I'm Going to Say It Since the Rest of You Are Afraid To

[Politico]

"Cain is a creep."

A question for anybody who STILL thinks this is a "setup" or some such nonsense: Why does this sort of thing NOT happen every election cycle? Think about it. We are almost at half a dozen accusers, and two people have come forward.

This is beyond embarrassing and it is shocking that Cain thought he could run for president after pulling all of this stuff in his past. It's no coincidence that Obama is POUNDING Cain by 15 points, and has even pulled a slim lead over Romney for the time being. In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

[Link]

"Cain is a creep."

A question for anybody who STILL thinks this is a "setup" or some such nonsense: Why does this sort of thing NOT happen every election cycle? Think about it. We are almost at half a dozen accusers, and two people have come forward.

This is beyond embarrassing and it is shocking that Cain thought he could run for president after pulling all of this stuff in his past. It's no coincidence that Obama is POUNDING Cain by 15 points, and has even pulled a slim lead over Romney for the time being. In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

[Politico]

"Cain is a creep."

A question for anybody who STILL thinks this is a "setup" or some such nonsense: Why does this sort of thing NOT happen every election cycle? Think about it. We are almost at half a dozen accusers, and two people have come forward.

This is beyond embarrassing and it is shocking that Cain thought he could run for president after pulling all of this stuff in his past. It's no coincidence that Obama is POUNDING Cain by 15 points, and has even pulled a slim lead over Romney for the time being. In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Not to defend Clinton, Edwards and Gingrich, but only one of the three has ever been accused of sexual harassment and that was after he became president (And Clinton was only accused twice, not five separate times). To me, there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference between being unfaithful and being a total scumbag who assaults and/or demeans women. Both activities are wrong, but one is far, far more wrong than the other. They are not even the same ball game, let alone the same ball park.

[Lief 🗽]

Of the incidents, we only know the details of one, the one that came out yesterday. And that was just Herman Cain trying to have sex with a woman who was not his wife, NOT sexual assault or harassment or anything.

[izixs]

I had implied that Cain was a creep before, but am glad that folks are finally starting to get it. There are times when attacks are partisan, and sometimes its just telling it as it is. As someone who would rather have elections be about ideas than personal minutia, even I have a limit when it comes to ignoring the personal life of a candidate. And sexual harassment and sexual assault in any form are well in the region of acceptability when calling a candidate out.

Clinton, Edwards.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Two things. First, neither of them had it easy either. Second, those two twits behaving badly, and from the looks of it, not nearly in as an extreme fashion, does not provide an excuse to automatically forgive the next guy that behaves badly, be it a Democrat or a Republican.

[The Mikado]

True.  Honestly, the Democrats' defense of Clinton was a pragmatic decision to protect the scummy President from what looked like a GOP opportunistic effort to tear down Clinton no matter what (Watergate etc. long preceded Paula Jones: the GOP wanted anything it could grab to destroy him).  Clinton was defended because, as President, he was indispensable and Impeachment was the most politicized witch-hunts in years.  By contrast, the GOP unceremoniously threw Gingrich overboard (using the disappointing 1998 midterms as an excuse) and John Edwards is probably the most hated and scorned man in the Democratic Party, which was more than willing to let him sink on his own for his scummy behavior.  Moral of the story for the GOP: get rid of Cain before you're stuck with him.  It's a blessing for the GOP that this came out.  Get rid of him, renounce him, or you'll be stuck defending his scummy pervy behavior like Dems were with Clinton.

[Politico]

Of the incidents, we only know the details of one, the one that came out yesterday. And that was just Herman Cain trying to have sex with a woman who was not his wife, NOT sexual assault or harassment or anything.

The Cain trolling is no longer funny AT ALL. It was amusing until these sexual allegations became serious.

Putting a hand on a woman's thigh and asking her, "You want a job, don't you?" is not right. Maybe it's not sexual harassment since she was not employed by him or his firm at the time, but it's basically the same thing: Promising career advancement if you perform sexual acts. It's just beyond creepy. And I'd be willing to overlook this if it was an isolated accusation, but now we have a second accuser who has stepped up publicly, and there are at least three others who may or may not step up too. This is worse than John Edwards, and I thought that was a tough act to top...

And now all of a sudden Obama is destroying all of the GOP candidates except Romney, and Obama has a slim lead over Romney for the first time in a long time. Guess what: It's the female voters. This circus is turning them off from the GOP offerings and pushing them back into Obama's corner. It's time for Cain to drop out.

[NVGonzalez]

I don't usually agree with you Politico, but on this one you are spot on.

[The Mikado]

Agreed.  Compared to Cain, Romney's a saint.  (One of the advantages to being a Mormon, I guess: squeaky-clean personal life). If the GOP, knowing what it knows now, picked Cain over Romney, it'd be the most disgusting things in politics in a generation.  Obama vs Romney may be the most boring and uninspiring pair of candidates since Bush/Dukakis, but they're not creepy molesters.  "Barack Obama: you'd trust him around your daughter.  (Probably because he'd bore and depress her to death)

["'Oeps!' De blunders van Rick Perry Indicted"]

By contrast, the GOP unceremoniously threw Gingrich overboard (using the disappointing 1998 midterms as an excuse)

This is incorrect. Gingrich's affair with Calista wasn't known until the year after he stepped down; the House GOP had been trying to dump Gingrich for political reasons for quite some time (a coup attempt was tried in the summer of '97), so the midterms really were what did him in.

[sentinel]

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Edwards - Happened after he lost. Not legitimate.

Clinton - Happened during, so that's legitimate.

Gingrich - I haven't seen him accused of sexual harassment? I know he stepped down for ethics violations.

[Wonkish1]

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Edwards - Happened after he lost. Not legitimate.

Clinton - Happened during, so that's legitimate.

Gingrich - I haven't seen him accused of sexual harassment? I know he stepped down for ethics violations.

Newt didn't step down for ethics violations. He stepped down when the GOP lost a few seats in 1998 and some of the leadership convinced the GOP house that it was Newt's fault for why that happened.

The ethics violation against Newt was an absolute joke.

[Psychic Octopus]

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Gingrich - I haven't seen him accused of sexual harassment? I know he stepped down for ethics violations.

The man's personal life is (or was, he and Callista seem okay) a trainwreck. First, he married his high school math teacher when he was nineteen, then cheated on her, and divorced her while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery. Later on, he cheated on his wife (with Callista, a woman twenty or so years his junior) while leading the charge against Clinton for doing the same!

He's basically the Republican version of John Edwards, except instead of running the hell away from him, the GOP praises him for the 1994 elections. There's no doubt that Newt is a brilliant man (albeit intellectually dishonest at times), but this is not the sort of behavior one expects in a president.

[Simfan34]

Clinton, Edwards, Gingrich.

Although each case is different.  It takes some megalomaniacal b@lls to run for president.  It attracts a certain type of person.  The type of person you may vote for but not the type you would want to date your daughter.

Hearing this stuff kind of stuff makes me rather uncomfortable.

Gingrich - I haven't seen him accused of sexual harassment? I know he stepped down for ethics violations.

The man's personal life is (or was, he and Callista seem okay) a trainwreck. First, he married his high school math teacher when he was nineteen, then cheated on her, and divorced her while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery. Later on, he cheated on his wife (with Callista, a woman twenty or so years his junior) while leading the charge against Clinton for doing the same!

He's basically the Republican version of John Edwards, except instead of running the hell away from him, the GOP praises him for the 1994 elections. There's no doubt that Newt is a brilliant man (albeit intellectually dishonest at times), but this is not the sort of behavior one excepts in a president.

To make

[Lincoln Republican]

Let me be clear.

I agree.

CAIN IS A CREEP!!!!!!!!!!

YES, PERVAN CAIN IS A CREEP!!!!!!!!!!

GET OUT NOW PERV BEFORE YOU COST ROMNEY THE ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

DING DING DING!

Gee, ever wonder why most of the Cain "supporters" are liberal Democrats?

[Torie]

I can't say that beyond a reasonable doubt as of the moment anyway (I may reach the point that I do) that Cain is guilty of execrable conduct. What I do know is that he has handled all of this incompetently, has not really been forthcoming, has not pushed to get all the documents out, and has seemed disingenuous, and that he or his campaign has irresponsibly lashed out at other candidates for probably being behind it all (although Cain in his quite demagogic presser dialed back on that one). In other words, the "affair(s)" just reaffirmed what I already beyond per adventure knew ... Cain is unfit to be POTUS. The end.

[RI]

there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE difference between being unfaithful and being a total scumbag

No, no there isn't.

[Eraserhead]

Let me be clear.

I agree.

CAIN IS A CREEP!!!!!!!!!!

YES, PERVAN CAIN IS A CREEP!!!!!!!!!!

GET OUT NOW PERV BEFORE YOU COST ROMNEY THE ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe if your guy could actually grab a lead over him and hold on to it, he'd consider it.

[LastVoter]

In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

DING DING DING!

Gee, ever wonder why most of the Cain "supporters" are liberal Democrats?

Don't need to sensationalize this, can train has been able to unite people across party lines.

[Erc]

From a purely political standpoint, at least the guy has more sense than John Edwards.

Cain could not have thought that he had a legitimate chance to win the nomination when he entered the race, and jumped in to promote his worldview (or book tour, depending on how cynical you are).  He was hoping to get enough attention to have this mildly noticed, while he couldn't have dreamed of getting enough attention for the media to bother digging up a fifteen-year-old scandal.

John Edwards, a prominent national figure after his VP run in 2004, with a halfway decent shot at becoming the 'anti-Hillary,' runs despite having cheated on his wife (the nationally beloved Elizabeth Edwards) within the last year.

They're both scumbags, but at least Cain could have reasonably expected that his scandal would never come to light during the campaign.  Edwards just got lucky that no one but the tabloid press took the allegations seriously until after he lost.

[The Vorlon]

And Clinton was only accused twice, not five separate times).

Lewinsky
Jones
Kathleen Willy

Those are three off the top of my head, I suspect I am forgetting a few more....

I am not defending Cain, just pointing out the Slick Willy was pretty slimy too and that there seems to be a tad of a double standard here.

Cain propositioning a subordinate is wrong, but Clinton banging a 21 year intern in the White House is ok?

One can argue the relative ranking of the impropriety, but both are clearly deeply wrong and disqualifying acts for the office of POTUS.

Granted, Slick Willy was clearly better at it (Clinton threw a completed pass, Cain's passes look like they all fell incomplete) but that does not alter the morality of the matter, but rather speaks to the skill and charm of the offender.

[The Mikado]

And Clinton was only accused twice, not five separate times).

Lewinsky
Jones
Kathleen Willy

Those are three off the top of my head, I suspect I am forgetting a few more....

I am not defending Cain, just pointing out the Slick Willy was pretty slimy too and that there seems to be a tad of a double standard here.

Lewinsky didn't accuse Clinton of anything, and in fact tried to lie to protect the man.

[Link]

And Clinton was only accused twice, not five separate times).

Lewinsky
Jones
Kathleen Willy

Those are three off the top of my head, I suspect I am forgetting a few more....

I am not defending Cain, just pointing out the Slick Willy was pretty slimy too and that there seems to be a tad of a double standard here.

Lewinsky had a voluntary sexual encounter with Clinton.  While unseemly that would not change how I would vote unless Clinton was one of those Bible beating family values hypocrites that was trying to run my personal life.

Let's treat all these men fairly.  We don't want to have a double standard here.

The other thing about Clinton is he fought to improve the lives of women in general.  Cain on the other hand...

[minionofmidas]

In other words, at this point anybody who supports Cain is really supporting Obama for re-election.

I just don't like to see Whites on a ballot paper.