Say what you will about Herman Cain, but he sure knows how to keep a negative story alive.
When Politico broke a story on Sunday that the presumptive (and astonishing) frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination had been the target of sexual harassment allegations by two woman employees of the National Restaurant Association when he was the organization’s president, he not only failed to come clean, in all likelihood because of a Bill Clinton-like ego that refused to acknowledge that the story could have long legs, he obfuscated, spun and then obfuscated some more.
Cain initially said that he had been “falsely accused,” which may very well be true. Then he claimed that he was the target of “a witch hunt,” which is probably true as moderate Republicans tear their hair out over the improbable success of his candidacy and the lead pipe cinch certainty that as the nominee he would get clobbered by the incumbent.
Then he claimed that he was unaware of whether the women had received settlements. Then he said that he hoped “it wasn’t for much, because I didn’t do anything.” Then he acknowledged that there had been settlements, while refusing to address Politico‘s assertion that the settlements were in the five figures (one of the women received a $35,000 severance package) and included non-disclosure agreements.
Then during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, Cain repeated his denials, saying: “In all of my over 40 years of experience running businesses and corporations I have never sexually harassed anyone,” an eerie echo of Clinton’s infamous assertion that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman . . . Monica Lewinsky.”
The claim advanced by the usual right-wing suspects that the Politico story was the onset of another “high-tech lynching” a la the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill affair is a howler since Politico calls ’em as it sees ’em and would not qualify to be part of the vast left-wing media conspiracy even if there was one. Meanwhile, Cain has used the race card adeptly, perhaps more adeptly than any aspect of his jalopy of a campaign.
There is little chance that Cain’s rabid base will abandon him in significant numbers. But he has said and done nothing before or after the Politico story to draw in the moderate Republicans and independents that he would need. It matters little if he can keep his act together between now and the Iowa caucuses on January 3 because he will be a goner — and become the answer to a trivia question sooner or later.
Let’s hope that it’s sooner.
By Cain’s own admission, his knowledge of foreign leaders is nonexistent and ditto for his grasp of history. Why just yesterday he warned that China is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. (Memo to Mr. Extra Toppings: China exploded its first atomic bomb in 1964.) And not unlike a former half-term governor of Alaska he appears to have little aptitude for or interest in learning.
He was appearing on Face the Nation as the Politico bombshell was fermenting and smugly repeated his libel that Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood “so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world. It’s planned genocide.”
The facts tell a very different story: When Sanger opened her first clinic in Brooklyn in 1916 it catered to the neighborhood’s primarily European immigrant population. She eventually received the endorsement of black leaders, including W.E.B. DuBois and Adan Clayton Powell Sr.
Sanger’s son, Alexander, had the best response to Cain.
“To think that my grandmother was clever enough to enlist prominent black religious and community leaders to exterminate their own race is not only nonsensical; it’s racist,” he told The Guardian. “Throughout her career, my grandmother’s driving force was to ensure that every child was a wanted child.”
Now I can’t speak to whether a black can have racist attitudes toward members of his race. The man who has said that Barack Obama “is not black enough” certainly would have an opinion on that, but if his handlers have any sense — which is doubtful consider the mess that they’ve helped him make of the Politico response — they will tell him to shut his pie hole.