(UPDATE III) Cain: I Will Talk To My Wife About My 13-Year Affair Before Deciding What To Do
I have never questioned Herman Cain’s intelligence. He’s obviously got a fair amount of gray matter if he was able to graduate from prestigious Morehouse College, worked as a mathematician in ballistics for the U.S. Navy developing fire control systems, and then made millions by building a pizza empire.
What has been clear from the outset of Cain’s improbable “campaign,” which I put in quotes for obvious reasons, is that he never took running for the Republican nomination seriously. Never developed a campaign staff. Never seriously considered policy positions. Never did the heavy lifting requisite in growing as a candidate for national office. And as is sadly typical of many politicians, was so self absorbed that he never considered the consequences of his actions.
And so we have the sad spectacle of Cain denying that he had a 13-year affair with a woman while saying that he would have to talk to his wife about the affair before deciding whether to drop out of the race.
Cain already is losing the backing of key conservative advisers who were providing him with free positive press and were fundraising conduits. These powerful voices — ranging from Mike Huckabee to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham — are privately expressing great concern about a man they once praised, although less because of the sexual harassment allegations against him than repeated flubs on Libya and other foreign policy matters that have revealed him to be an ignoramus even if he once was a rocket scientist.
I took some time looking closely at the photograph above of Cain’s family. (No, he did not adopt Greta Van Susteren, who is on the far right in more ways than one.)
What a lovely wife and beautiful children. Yet Cain had a zipper problem and repeatedly broke his marriage vows, which would be okey-dokey if he didn’t promote himself as a devout Baptist. He certainly has deeply hurt his wife, whom despite her reluctance to make public appearances he put on television to defend his reputation, as well as the rest of his family.
38 Responses to “(UPDATE III) Cain: I Will Talk To My Wife About My 13-Year Affair Before Deciding What To Do”
something tells me that there are a lot more nails out there….
Good lord. Imagine the hubris and level of self deception that these guys must have. They must actually think no one is going to find out this stuff!
Potential candidates: THEY ALWAYS FIND OUT! Whatever it is, it will come out in the press!
Whew! I feel better now.
I think the coffin was already sealed – this is a redundant nail. And most of the sails have nothing to do with women but ignorance.
Yeah so. He’s a multimillionaire and he’s had many a man’s wife.
Who’s laughing at who?
A number of pundits — as well as some feckless commenters here — have opined that consensual affairs are private affairs. But wasn’t that exactly the case with Clinton and Lewinsky?
Well yeah, that’s the way Democrats used to look at affairs.
It is also the way Republicans used to look at affairs. It used to be no big deal. Then when it became obvious that Whitewater or Travelgate wouldn’t bring down the Clinton administration, the GOP finally “went there.”
Anyone with half a brain could have told you Bill Clinton had a checkered past – it was even brought up on “60 Minutes” when he was still just a candidate. It didn’t matter to voters, apparently, and he was elected anyway.
Frustrated in their efforts to undo that election, Republicans turned their investigative efforts to Clinton’s sex life…breaking the taboo and breaking open a kind of Pandora’s box as a result.
That tactic didn’t work either, and Clinton finished out his term, but ever since then the sex lives of politicians- private, consensual, and otherwise – have been elevated from a salacious curiosity to a qualification for elected office.
Cain is merely reaping what his fellow Republicans sowed in the 1990s.
The only thing that remains to be seen is if anyone’s going to notice that one of the guys who instigated all this “family values” horse hockey (coupled with a hefty dose of hypocrisy) is now the alleged GOP “front runner.
cjjack:
Astutely said. Gingrich’s supporters already are well aware of his own particular brand of hypocrisy, but the Party of Family Values is so desperate to beat Obama that they’ll stoop as low as it takes and hold their noses as long as it takes.
“And isn’t Cain just another political hypocrites, more often Republicans than not, who blather about the sanctity of marriage while living shadow lives?”
This doesn’t begin to rise to the level of Democratic candidate John Edwards.
Dems are smarter, they just do it and don’t preach out of the other side of their mouths.
dduck:
That you for so helpfully reinforcing my point.
You’re welcome. Just trying to help with a better understanding of “the other side”.
P.S. Smarter or perhaps craftier, still agree?
Duck-
Glad you brought up ego. Nice move.
I agree with duck. Allen, your crush on Cain seems to have left you a little bitter. Time to find a new champion.
Agree about what?
The Edwards comparison. (sorry bout not being more specific first time around)
JS, OK…………………..
JSpencer-
I am NOT moving on until the last drop of Democrat blood of insincerity and anti-integrity has been spilled upon the floor of American political deceit! We cannot have a dishonorable party! That would make us no better than the filthy Tea Party!
In My Opinion Herman Cain’s Personal Honor and Integrity has been damaged by an unlikly herd of wacky women organized to attack him by the acts of secret political operatives out of the DNC and all this SUDDENLY occurred as his proposed ideas began to gain popularity! Before that, Nothing!
If Herman Cain is on the Primary ballot, I’m voting for him!
What is the use of certain types of intelligence when one decides to be actively ignorant?
It is like having a gun with no bullets.
Lots of people are intelligent but lack good judgment. Cain appears to be one such person (unless he’s been hit by an incredibly well orchestrated smear campaign which succeeded due to his extreme naiveté- a scenario that looks increasingly unlikely.) The lack of judgment should be disqualifying even if one overlooks the potential moral failings.
Allen, you seem to have lost it.
Why in the world would the DNC want to smear Cain? The guy was a friggin gift to Obama from God or Santa Claus. What a dream opponent — uninformed, no experience, with really transparently awful ideas, a loose zipper, and someone he wouldn’t have to worry about losing the racist vote to.
Also, and again: women who have been sexually harassed and/or assaulted by powerful men are not “wacky”. Most women have been there. It continues to be sexist that you think there is “no evidence” — you obviously think all women are inherently liars if they say something you don’t like.
roro80:
Thank you. That needed to be said.
roro80
In your description of Cain, you forgot super dumb.
If these sexual issues and marital issues exist, how could he not know that they would not come out? And why did they not come out when he ran for senate in 2004 or when he ran for president in 2000.
Something doesn’t add up.
Having an ego so huge that you think you can sleep with and/or harass whomever you want and the whole world will believe you instead of them is different than being dumb. Hubris is one of the classic flaws, and Cain has it in spaids.
What doesn’t add up? They don’t look into the sex life of Santa Claus, who gets about as many write-ins each year as Cain got in 2000, because it’s a waste of time and nobody cares who someone who WONT be president sleeps with…
Well CNN certainly played a big part in slandering Herman Cain. That black CNN guy, Roland whatever his name, had some choice words today and really needs to be against the wall for making them.
NOT one of these accusations have proven out. NONE. Yet many of you here talk about these accusations as if they were fact. Would you like people to judge you that way?
..and Shaun patronizing his family? How cheap.
Why didn’t anyone of these supposed journalists or reporters ask one of these wacky women the simple question: DID YOU HAVE SEX WITH HERMAN CAIN?
Nope. It was always a subtle suggestion used to slander Herman Cain, no facts ever.
Yes, there must be an innocent explanation for Herman Cain to rent a hotel room for the poor woman he was consoling about her job prospects. In the same city she lived in. At the most expensive hotel in town. Repeatedly. Over thirteen years.
And I am dying to hear it.
If Clinton is HIS lawyer, he would probably just say, “that depends what sex is”. The gals should probably speak out and clarify, was it nein-nein-nein or did he do another number on them.
Merkin: check to see if it was Monday Night Football on TV.
Allen, the one woman (what, exactly, is “wacky” about her?) who has said they had sex…already said they had sex. The others did not, nor have they implied as such.
Cain’s sexual misconduct doesn’t matter to me. He was never a Family Values candidate so I don’t mind if he has women on the side as long as he could be a good president. The problem is he can’t be a good president. His ideas and positions on just about everything were laughably ignorant. I think the fact that THIS is what tanked his campaign says more about the ignorance of voters than his personal flaws. And look who they run to? Gingrich, on this 3rd wife. Again, the GOP is taking short term memory loss to the next level.
Michal Steele on Hardball tonight seemed to imply it was GOP operative(s) who found these women.
If true, maybe the “boys in the backroom” have found a way to defang their astro-turfing fiasco after all.
I’m sorry but listening to this guy today just set off all kinds of red flags in my head. His whole personna just does not ring true. I had the same feeling after listening to the very creepy Jerry Sandusky deny his attraction to young disadvantaged boys.
On second thought, maybe years of dissecting my teenager’s statements for lies sharpened my intuition. This guy is a chronic liar and is delusional if he thinks he’s fooling anyone. The political field is littered with men just like him who cheat on their wives and then expect the public to believe them based on their say so.
What is it with financial leaders (Cain was a Fed board member) and their affairs? The head of the IMF thought he could get away with sexual harassment and affairs also.
Now merkin-
You don’t want to hear anymore wacky ramblings from a gold digger.
The question is; what did the opposition promise her for lies against Herman Cain?
I hope the MEDIA shows as much interest in her after the election as they have before. Bet ya her life style improves.
Oh yes…and I wonder how many others she has fooled out of cash in lieu of earning her own paycheck.
Sorry Allen, but even if the women are all shown to be desperate for cash it doesn’t discredit their stories. In this situation, women who were looking for unconventional ways out of economic hardship would have been the exact targets that a wealthy and powerful man would hit on, so it really doesn’t help sort out who’s telling the truth to attach the motive of greed or need to the women.
At any rate…one other thing that occurred to me is that aside from not telling his wife that he was ‘helping’ the woman (and others?), it would seem that he didn’t tell his campaign staff…or else why would they have been caught off guard by all of this? Even in the extremely implausible case that the payments and phone calls he was involved in were innocent and altruistic, the staffers would have had to have known that it would look bad and would have had a strategy for getting ahead of the story.
Allen, your comments get more and more sexist garbage-brained as you flail around looking for a reason to blame these women instead of your highschool crush, Mr Cain.
CS, you raised an interesting question in my mind regarding telling your campaign people “everything”. If you do and they jump ship as they have a wont to do, you risk them tattling.
If you don’t, you can get blind-sided.
In Cain’s case, since this may have started out as a book tour with a non-serious chance of his becoming a front runner, the risk of disclosure may have been low. Once you get up in the polls, you are subject to a political colonoscopy.
Good point, dduck.
Allen,
Here’s a good place to glorify Cain and to trash the women who are accusing him:
http://www.hermancain.com/encouragement
Dorian they “trashed” themselves. I already made my comment on the Cain site, but you’ll never find it.
Allen… I know you don’t like pizza, but the show has been entertaining.