Cain Suspends Campaign
Herman Cain’s candidacy is effectively over.
“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” said Cain to boos of disappointment. “I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family. Not because we are not fighters.”
Cain said he would endorse a Republican candidate soon, and announced his own “plan B” for public service, a policy web site called “The Cain Solutions.”
In the short term, I would imagine that most of Cain’s support will trickle to Gingrich. Then again, considering that Cain’s support is made up of anti-establishment types, it very well could go to a less popular candidate, say Santorum or, sigh, Bachmann. Either way, this hurts Romney as it eliminates a non-Romney with significant support. The fewer viable candidates, the less chance for Romney to eek out the nomination.
22 Responses to Cain Suspends Campaign
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Obama and the libs have three advantages here.
1. The women are disinclined to come forward. It would hinder the agenda.
2. The women are disincented to make the accusation. They are quietly paid off, or promised jobs.
3. The accusers are eliminated.
“3. The accusers are eliminated.”
That is pretty far fetched even by your standards T. Shaw. Bill Clinton had plenty of females who came forward to make accusations against him and none of them were “eliminated”. He had two advantages over his Republican opponents: a base that largely could care less about marital fidelity except as a club against Republican candidates and a media that played defense for him.
Cain is a striking example of the hubris that is the hallmark of so many people running for office. Cain had to know that this type of baggage was out there, and he either didn’t care or he thought he was invulnerable. I feel a great deal of sympathy for his wife of 43 years who certainly didn’t volunteer for the fact that she is married to a philanderer to become public knowledge. Far better for this to come out now for the GOP than for it to come out when Cain was the nominee, or, more likely, after he was placed on the ticket as the Veep nominee.
You nailed it, Don.
Bingo, Don. And this is great news for President Obama, as it makes it more likely Gingrich is the nominee and will subject the party to a defeat we haven’t seen since ’64.
Don, Had to throw in a third . . .
It’s like the other side uses “9/11 was an inside job.”
RL: If Obama gets re-elected it won’t be because the GOP candidate was Gingrich. It will be because the majority of voters (the living and the dead) decided the government and the 1% can provide for them. That will close the book on the Republic and our way of life.
Why does the desperately vital salvation for the great and dire health care crisis become destructive in 2013? Answer: It’s after the 2012 election.
I feel a great deal of sympathy for his wife of 46 years who certainly didn’t volunteer for the fact that she is married to a philanderer to become public knowledge.
“Fact”? When did accusations, however useful they are to the media, become “fact”? It hasn’t been news that large organizations pay off for lawsuits if the one suing will take less than a fight would cost for decades, as much as that sucks and has contributed to current problems.
Let’s see now Foxfier. A woman comes forward and says that she is his mistress for 13 years. Cain denies the affair, but admits giving her money and not telling his wife about it. She has supplied cell phone records showing numerous recent conversations with Cain. Now he suspends his campaign. That is a strong prima facie case that the guy is a married skirt chaser, even leaving to one side the other women who have come forward.
“A strong case” is NOT fact.
Heaven knows I can see innocent reasons for those facts we have, and as someone who’s been accused of similar behavior for simply socializing, I’m really tired of accusers getting unwarranted weight. Incidentally, the only call between them that I’ve heard of was a single, six-minute one. The other “contacts” are text messages, mostly her contacting him and him replying.
By this standard, there’s a “strong case” that I had an affair with a former shipmate- because he’s a dumb kid who has horrible taste in women, and I tried to help him through that. (Heck, I even “initiated contact” a couple of times– because I’d read something he wrote on facebook, or get an email, or hear that his psycho ex was back in his world.) I seem to remember I gave him money a couple of times, too, and our finances are NOT in the area of the Cain’s!
RL: If Obama gets re-elected it won’t be because the GOP candidate was Gingrich. It will be because the majority of voters (the living and the dead) decided the government and the 1% can provide for them. That will close the book on the Republic and our way of life.
Another option: enough votes were cast that Obama won. If my governor can win with the dead and double-votes, why not him?
Noted Romney-booster Ann Coulter (“we’ll attack him *after* he takes office”) , has some more things to say about Cain’s accusers this week:
“And now we have Ginger White stepping forward to claim that she had a 13-year affair with Cain….[Much like his other two accusers...] She’s another financially troubled, twice-divorced, unemployed single mother, who has claimed sexual harassment in the past, declared bankruptcy once, was accused of stalking and had a libel judgment entered against her just this year. So far in 2011, she’s had nine liens put on her property….
White’s proof that she had a 13-year affair is that she has two of Cain’s books signed by him — one with the incriminating inscription, “Friends are forever! Everything else is a bonus,” and the other, “Miss G, you have already made a ‘big difference!’ Stay focused as you pursue your next destination.”….Also, White produced evidence that Cain had texted or called her cell phone 61 times during four non-consecutive months — but did not reveal what those texts said. (“Would you please return my lawn mower?”)
….This is the sort of evidence you get with an actual sexual predator: Bill Clinton’s accusers had gifts, taped phone conversations with him and a semen-stained dress…
Ginger White claims she had a 13-year affair with Cain — and all she has are two books with inscriptions that could have been written to an auto mechanic who waited in line at a Cain book signing. Even her business partner during the alleged affair says White never mentioned Cain’s name.
These women are like triple-A ball players with the stats being: number of bankruptcies, smallest bank account, number of liens, most false claims, number of children out of wedlock, degrees of separation from David Axelrod, total trips to human resources and so on.
That wouldn’t be dispositive — except for the fact that their only evidence is their word….Most people say, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’ I say, ‘Where there’s smoke around a conservative, there are journalists furiously rubbing two sticks together.’”
anncoulter.com
One can come up with innocent explanations for anything Foxfier, but the weight of the evidence is against Mr. Cain. My guess is that it was the text messages that got him to drop out.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/From-the-Wires/2011/1129/Ginger-White-Her-phone-bill-has-61-calls-or-texts-from-Herman-Cain-video
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2011/1201/Herman-Cain-admits-payments-to-Ginger-White-edges-toward-quitting
He obviously thinks the evidence is against him and so he is dropping out.
I love this statement from Cain’s mouthpiece:
“No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life,” Lin Wood, Cain’s attorney, wrote. “The public’s right to know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door. Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media.”
That is pretty weasel worded even for a member of my profession. I certainly do want to know if a candidate is an adulterer. It speaks volumes about their trust-worthiness, their penchant for reckless behavior and their willingness to betray someone they purportedly love. This idea that someone’s private life is off limits in the area of adultery when they are running for the most important elected position in this country I find completely risible.
And still, that is not an establishment of fact.
Given that this is the latest in a long line of low-on-substance accusations from dubious sources, I think he just figured out that they’ll keep slinging until something sticks. Clearly, that tactic worked in some cases– just yesterday I heard a talk radio guy talk about how it was clear that he was guilty, since he’d been accused “so much.”
A bit more detail for the “61 calls or texts” thing:
In a one-month period, Ginger White sent 52 texts to Herman Cain’s phone. There were 17 texts from Cain’s phone to White’s, most appear to be responses to her text messages.
The only phone call they mention is back in January. (And yes, I know that 52+17=/= 61. Maybe that’s why she’s got financial trouble.)
It would be more than enough for me to convince a Judge in a dissolution case Foxfier, under a standard of more probable than not, and unlike a court of law in the real world there is no presumption of innocence. People have a duty to themselves not to throw away their reputation through stupid actions and that is precisely what Cain has done. It strains credulity to give Cain the benefit of the doubt when he has already admitted giving money to this woman, somehow the sums that he gave her slipping his mind, and forgetting to tell his wife all about it, all the while carrying on an extensive cell phone and texting contact with the gal. Oh and the money was always in cash according to Ginger White. Almost as if Cain didn’t want someher to find out about it. When Cain was asked about the amount of cash he gave White he responded that on advice of counsel he couldn’t answer that. Yeah, I can understand that.
Why is there not even a sniff of sexual scandal with Obama, the most evil man yet to occupy the Oval Office?
And this is great news for President Obama, as it makes it more likely Gingrich is the nominee and will subject the party to a defeat we haven’t seen since ’64.
I guess one might say never say never, but you do posit here a sequence of events – given the state of the economy and given the observed level of public disapproval of the President – that has no historical precedent.
It strains credulity to give Cain the benefit of the doubt when he has already admitted giving money to this woman, somehow the sums that he gave her slipping his mind, and forgetting to tell his wife all about it, all the while carrying on an extensive cell phone and texting contact with the gal.
Except that is exactly what you do when someone you’re trying to help is having financial trouble and the amount of money involved isn’t a big deal to you. As HA’s laundry list of issues demonstrates, “financial trouble” is a mild way of putting it.
That she sent three times as many texts as he did, and almost all of his were in direct response to her texts, supports the image of someone who’s got a sucker on the hook. (I can only imagine what his response-text at just before 5AM consisted of… oh, wait, I don’t have to imagine much, I’ve been there, although mine arrived at 2AM. Hopefully, his spelling was better than mine.)
My cynical personal experience suggests that he’d finally figured out that he wasn’t doing any good and had stopped helping. Usually results in a lashing out, especially if that lashing will get whatever it was they were gaining before.
PWP: That is so because all the Cain detractors are NOT racists. You see, Herman Cain is a conservative. He isn’t a black man. Ergo, he is responsible for his actions.
In accounting we have standards for loss/gain contingency recognition. The contingency, say charge off a loan, needs to “probable” = more likely than not, as in 51+%.
I think “probable” works in civil legal matters. Criminal would require a “beyond reasonable doubt” determination, I think.
I have been married for 29 years Foxfier. I would never in my wildest dreams give a younger woman not related to me cash on a regular basis to “help her out”. I would give her a check, specify on the check that it was to help her out, and I would make certain that my wife knew all about it. As a matter of fact, I would have my wife write out the check. My cynical attorney experience of 29 years indicates to me that Cain might wish to retain a very good divorce attorney in the near future, especially when more details comes out in the book his mistress is no doubt planning to sell the rights to.
“Why is there not even a sniff of sexual scandal with Obama, the most evil man yet to occupy the Oval Office?”
Unlike movies and novels Paul, people can often be good in certain aspects of their life and evil in others. Franco was a devoted family man for example, and killed off some 100 K of his fellow Spaniards after the Spanish Civil War.
“I think “probable” works in civil legal matters. Criminal would require a “beyond reasonable doubt” determination, I think.”
Correct T.Shaw. A dissolution is, ironically, a “civil” proceeding!
.. My cycnical attorney experience of 29 years ….
Is largely what I attribute your position to, actually… Folks tend to see what they expect in a situation where there’s insufficient information. Part of why I didn’t go the glib route– though it’s oh so tempting!– and make cracks about how next we’ll hear he’s been dining with tax collectors, and is rumored to have spoken to a woman of ill repute at a well.
Your theoretical actions are based on your experience of what can be reasonably construed as suspicious; a seventy-something, married, conservative businessman and preacher who still automatically calls some women “hon” (iirc– it was some once-standard and now big news term) is going to have different assumptions. This is why I keep pointing out he’s not a politician.
(Now that I think about it, considering how many pols are lawyers, that may have changed the political landscape rather starkly. The assumptions are all funky. Pure theory, though.)
Cain is a terrible liar. When Hannity suggested that the matter could be easily resolved by comparing travel records for the times White claimed to have met Cain in hotels, Cain responded, “let’s not play detective.”
I like Andrew Klavan’s take on this from a few weeks back. We take the charges seriously and investigate them because we’re the good guys. We expect a higher standard of conduct from our own candidates than others do of theirs. We don’t slander the women or circle the wagons, because we really care about getting to the truth more than about protecting our own. Of course it isn’t fair. A battle between the good guy and the bad guy is never fair.
Klavan doesn’t add, but I believe, that over the long haul decency is a viable political strategy.