Will Cain Be Cancelled?

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Yesterday John Cole asked an interesting question:

While Cain’s bizarre and shifting responses to the sexual harassment charges are interesting, I think the weirdest thing about this whole incident is what provoked it. Who fed this to the Politico, because we know for a fact they weren’t doing due diligence on Cain and just stumbled across it. They don’t do journalism, they do rumor and innuendo and fluff pieces, mixed in with planted trial balloons and horse race analysis and he said she said crap from anonymous sources and unnamed officials.

So who fed them this? Rove? The Romney team?

The allegations against Cain really do have Karl Rove’s modus operandi written all over them. Steve Kornacki walks us through the Scandal Thus Far, and while there’s a heck of a lot of smoke, the actual fire seen so far doesn’t seem to amount to that much.

I’ve been holding back talking about the allegations, partly because part of me would like to see Cain continue to challenge Romney for the GOP nomination. (I’ve been looking at Cain’s policy proposals on his campaign website and much of it is in Ron Paul territory. In other words, he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the general election.) So far, the sex scandal has been dismissed by righties as an evil libruhl plot, even as they slaver over New York Post stories about sex among the OWSers at Zuccotti Park.

There’s also been an attempt to smear Cain with the background of his cigarette-smoking campaign manager, but frankly I don’t see that getting any traction, either.

Several rightie bloggers have picked up on an interview of Cain by Judy Woodruff, in which he says he is concerned that China might get nuclear weapons in the future. WTF? It’s possible he just misspoke, as Gerald Ford did in 1976 when he said “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.” That possibly cost Ford the election.

But that was 1976. Right now the isolationists seem to be shouting out the neocons over in Wingnut World, and baggers would be challenged to find China on a map, never mind have a clue about its nuclear capabilities. So I don’t know if that little flub is going to hurt him, either. We’ll see. If a Democrat were to have said something like that, that’s all we’d hear about from now to election day. And if Karl really is the one behind the sex scandal stories, this is the sort of thing he would seize upon to club Cain. However, he’s going to have to find a proxy somewhere to do the actual clubbing.

Update: “The Fringe Frontrunner.”

9 thoughts on “Will Cain Be Cancelled?”

  1. Wasn’t Cain’s “motivational speaker” role to be the fluffer for a Koch-sponsored ultra-con political organizing group run by Dick Armey or something similar? I should have kept a note of the URL for that info, but it seemed like something no reporter could ignore, so I figured it would become a headline. Hasn’t happened yet.

    • The media have not seriously covered Cain at all. The policy proposals on his campaign website are a joke. He wants to do away with FICA payroll taxes and turn Medicare and Social Security over to the states (and no, I’m not confusing him with Ron Paul). People should be more dependent on churches and charities “to offer a helping hand instead of a handout where they live.” Apparently charities can’t give people a helping hand now because of the evil federal government. But at the same time, he wants to institute a privatized Social Security system; he doesn’t say whether this will be state or federal.

  3. Oh, this has Rove’s pasty sweaty white mitts for Mitt all over it.

    Is is ok to feel schadenfreude when the ratfucker’s ratfuck their own side?

    Or is sheer unbounded glee more appropriate?

  4. cund – It mystifies me as to why Mitt would ‘hire’ Rove to mount this campaign against Cain. Do Rove/Mitt really see Cain as a threat to Mitt’s nomination? If Rove does (I don’t think Mitt is mentally capable of thinking much past his evening meal) it means the Tea Party (Cain is their darling, I think) has more clout – very scary – than it’s given credit for. (That should scare the hell out of all of us.)

  5. Of course, it makes no sense that the Left would be behind the leak, since for us Herman Cain is the gift that keeps on a-giving. My first thought when I heard of the would-be scandal was, “Hmm, who leaked? Romney or Perry?” Or maybe their butlers did it.

  7. Seems Herman fashions himself as the conquistador of love. Another former target of his sexual escapades has come forward to shed light on the Hermanator’s MO. He had a corporate love shack were he would ply his victims with sweet promises and Barry White songs in exchange for a little taste of honey. Yep, Herman has a fondness for bringing the hens back to his crib..

    I hope this scandal takes him down. His excuses and intentional forgetfulness pertaining to his actions is reason enough to disqualify him for any position where trust would be an important element. It’s like they say.. the truth is always an option. He should have just confessed to foolishly acting inappropriately years ago and that the matter has been resolved satisfactorily to all persons involved. That would have ended it.. but now he’s got to knock down and rehash every sordid detail that raises it’s head.

    Herman is a hunka hunka burning love!

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