First it was Michele Bachman. She won the Iowa straw poll on the same day that Rick Perry announced he was running for President and she got John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy mixed up. (How did Rick Perry put it ... "oops.")
So ... everyone's attention turned to Rick Perry. We've got experience with a Republican governor of Texas being President. What could go wrong there, right? Until we saw him debate ... and that was long before the "oops."
Next up - Herman Cain. Interesting personal story. Something different and unexpected, a black conservative businessman, a true outsider. Certainly, he doesn't have a grasp of all the issues, but he'll learn in time. He's the man ... until the sexual harassment charges begin.
And so now, Newt Gingrich, an intriguing yet flawed candidate in his own right, is the latest ABR (Anybody But Romney).
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But before Herman Cain is completely disregarded and discredited as a candidate, I want to take a moment to say a few things about the charges leveled against him.
I'm pretty skeptical of the media. I don't believe much that I see or read. I tend to think that authors and writers have agendas that bias the way they report. (I know, I know, it's a jaded way to look at the world, but I can't help it.) Given my own bias to distrust, I would have thought that my reaction to the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations would have gone something like this:
"Here we go again. When it comes to conservative black men, the partisan media only has one play in their playbook - accuse them of sexual harassment. They did it to Clarence Thomas, and now they are doing it Herman Cain. Ironic? No. Proof that he's innocent."
But that wasn't my reaction. My reaction was that I didn't believe Herman Cain's denials of the sexual harassment charges, and I don't believe his denial of the most recent affair allegations. I think he is lying.
Why I think he's lying may be the most interesting part.
For a decade now, I have been a faithful reader of a fantasy football website called Footballguys.com. The site has a message board called the Free For All where people talk about all sorts of topics. I very rarely contribute, but I try to stay up on most of the conversations. Back in May, a thread began about Herman Cain. In it, some anonymous poster named Jutz wrote this:
Posted 25 May 2011 - 09:40 AM
So... is anyone up for some Herman Cain rumor mongering?
My mom used to work for her home states restaurant association. Each state has a restaurant assoc. and they all roll up to the National Restaurant Assoc. Herman Cain used to be the CEO and president of the National Resturant Assoc. I was watching Fox and the name Herman Cain comes up from the debates. My mom basically says something like...
Herman Cain... the Hermain Cain that was president of the National Restaurant Assoc? He is a player (or something like that). We were all at a meeting and he was blatantly hitting on the head of our (insert town name) chapter president that organized the whole event. They said he was hitting on her all night and later on tried to get her to go to some shady bar's back room area... or something like that.
Yes, my mom has been known to make up stories from time to time, but she has no reason I can think of to make this one up. She might remember wrong though too.I'll be curious if he keeps doing well if any 'stories' will come out.
(Here's the link for those of you who are as jaded as I am.)
Several months later, some stories did come out. And, for better or for worse, I am left thinking that Herman Cain is a liar because of what some anonymous dude on the internet says his mom said.
Am I crazy for believing a fantasy football message board poster and not believing a candidate for President of the United States?
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1 comment:
If the allegations were false wouldn't Cain be pressing charges on all these women for defamation, libel and slander? I agree something just isn't right with this guy.
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