The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Did Herman Cain Harass Ace of Spades?

Posted on | November 9, 2011 | 61 Comments

Ace hasn’t made that accusation, but why else is he hating Herman Cain with the heat of a thousand suns?

I’ve made no bones — I think Cain is a godawful candidate, woefully uninformed, and, when confused, showing a tendency to offer up liberal, not conservative, guestimates as to the right answer. . . .
For some reason, some people are determined that this is the godawful candidate we have to go the mattresses for.
Why? We have ten other godawful candidates. What’s so special about this godawful candidate?

You can see the depths of the hate Ace has for Cain in that he’s doing the “second look at Gingrich” thing that all the Cain-haters have been doing ever since Cain zoomed to the top of the polls five weeks ago.

Ace deserves credit for being absolutely up-front about his Herman-hating, and having explained it in exhaustive detail, which is more than some other anti-Cain pundits have bothered to do. Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove, among others, are being gutless weasels about their anti-Cain attitudes.

So . . . second look at Gingrich? Not just no, but hell, no.

Newt won’t do, and everybody knows it deep in their hearts. The recent Newt boomlet won’t last, because there is a definite ceiling on Newt’s support, and that ceiling will prove lower than the 25% that Romney’s been stuck with for months.

There is something distinctly pathetic in the attempt to inflate the Newt boomlet into an actual boom, to pretend that we’ll see Gingrich on the stage in Tampa next August accepting the GOP presidential nomination. “Ain’t gonna happen,” to borrow a phrase from He Whom Ace Hateth.

What the Newt boomlet represents is the frantic desperation of those Anybody But Romney conservatives who jumped aboard the Rick Perry bandwagon in August, when it looked like the Smilin’ Texan Express was a one-way ticket to glory. After the Perry bandwagon ran into the ditch, and Cain zoomed skyward as the unexpected beneficiary of the Smilin’ Texan’s collapse, the Perrybots spent five weeks making elaborate arguments about Why Cain Can’t Win.

And they can’t back down from that contention, because backing down would compel them to admit they misjudged the political landscape, which would undermine their prestige as pundits, an irretrievable disaster for the Know-It-All Brigade.

Here we are now, Nov. 9. It has been 46 days since Cain won the Sept. 24 Florida Straw Poll, and it is 55 days until the Iowa caucuses. It has been 10 days since the first sexual harassment story ran in Politico on Oct. 30 and . . .

Cain is still winning — 25.2% in the RCP average to Romney’s 23.3%, with Gingrich at 12.2% and Perry at 10.2%. The most recent poll (Gallup/USA Today) shows a dead heat, Cain and Romney with 21% each. And as I said a couple of weeks ago, sooner or later victory becomes its own argument.

“Cain can’t win.” He’s winning.

“Cain can’t survive this scandal.” He’s still standing.

Bloodied but unbowed, this “godawful candidate, woefully uninformed” has one great advantage: He never read the Official Political Campaign Rule Book that explains why he’s supposed to lose, and why this scandal is supposed to destroy him.

Meanwhile, here’s your Karen Kraushaar headline round-up:

A Second Accuser Goes Public Against Cain
– New York Times

Karen Kraushaar calls
Herman Cain ‘a serial denier’
– CNN

Karen Kraushaar, second Cain accuser
wants ‘joint press conference’
– Reuters

Karen Kraushaar ‘had to leave
her job because of Herman Cain’
as new sex harass accuser comes forward
– NY Daily News

Karen Kraushaar now wants to go
public with other women with
allegations against Herman Cain
– Washington Post

Assuming that the parade of accusers is finite, assuming that we will not be disccusing Accuser #11 and Accuser #12 this time next week, Tuesday’s press conference may prove to be the turning point, the high-tide of the “scandal” tsunami which gradually begins to recede. If so, it will fade away in the rearview mirror after Thanksgiving and by Dec. 3 — with one month to go until the Iowa caucuses — the campaign narrative shifts. If Cain reaches early December still at or near the top of the polls, his survival will be the story: Here is the guy who stood up to the Politics of Personal Destruction and lived to tell the tale.

“If” is a very tricky word, of course. But I haven’t yet abandoned plans to become the Ambassador to Vanuatu. And if Ace of Spades says he was sexually harassed by Herman Cain — well, Ace was askin’ for it.

You know what they say: Once you go ewok, you never go back.

BTW, Herman Cain’s “Iowa Fund” money-bomb — with the goal of raising $999,000 in online contributions by Nov. 9 — hit its goal 26 hours ahead of schedule and has already exceeded $1 million.


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Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain

Comments

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  • Anonymous

    Any 4 (or 5) star general in charge of a theater has a huge political and diplomatic role.  Petraeus probably has more diplomatic experience than most Secretaries of State.

  • Joe

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  • http://twitter.com/marriedrambler Andrew Patrick

    A sugar baby.

  • http://twitter.com/marriedrambler Andrew Patrick

    It’s so refreshing reading right-wing blogs piss and moan and make baseless accusations about other right-wing blogs.

    And by “refreshing” I mean “utterly imbecilic, counterproductive, and as intellectually stimulating as Hop on Pop on quaaludes.”

    I’m not sold on any candidate, and I’m not unsold on any of them either, except Romney and  maybe Bachmann. I’d vote for Cain, Perry,or Gingrich without a qualm.  They have each their flaws and their strengths.

    I get that this particular blog is all-aboard the Cain Train. That’s fine. But  I don’t see why, if “Cain can’t win” is willful obtuseness in the face of reality, “Gingrich can’t win” is sage and considered wisdom.

    I once thought that Mitt Romney was going to be the next President. I have since been disabused of this notion, and learned the lesson that I neither have a crystal ball, nor access to the Lord God Almighty’s omniscience with regard to future events. That seems to be a lesson many could stand learning.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UNZU74NIXQBSAAC5PR2B36VMWM Edward

    I don’t want Cain to be the nominee. 

    I don’t want Cain to -not- be the nominee.

    I want a hard fought competition between candidates without these asinine “allegations” tipping the scale one way or the other.  And I want supposedly “conservative” pundits to the shut their stinking pieholes instead of helping the MSM gut the candidates.

  • http://twitter.com/alwaysfiredup alwaysfiredup

    And this is why Stacy is overgeneralizing about Newt supporters; they aren’t all Perryites.  Many of us moved to him after Palin demurred.  

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  • Anonymous

    And some of us just refuse to cave to the people who object to using the male pronouns and titles in their gender neutral forms.

  • Rick

    ” showing a tendency to offer up liberal, not conservative, guestimates as to the right answer. ”

    I dislike Ace MUCH more than he dislikes Cain, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day and this is a completely accurate description of Cain. He *would* be a terrible candidate, and a terrible president, not just because he doesn’t know enough, but because his INSTINCTS are so bad. People may dislike Bachman or Palin, but at least they’re instincts are conservative instincts. I wish Cain’s were, because a solidly conservative, personable black candidate would be *wonderful* for America…but, he is not that guy. Conservatives need to open their eyes, realize that, and move on to someone else.
    By the way, I had reservations about Palin running, but given our current set of candidates, I’m feeling her absence.

  • Pingback: J’Accuse!: The Besmirchers Of Herman Cain « The Camp Of The Saints

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