HERMAN CAIN PRESS CONFERENCE UPDATE: Video, Headlines, Reaction

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UPDATE 6:05 p.m. ET: The Lonely Conservative has video:

UPDATE 6:51 p.m.: A quick sample of major media headlines:

Herman Cain: I’d take lie detector test
to rebut Sharon Bialek claims
— CBS News

Cain on dropping out of presidential
race: ‘Ain’t going to happen’
— Daily Caller

Cain denies harassment claims
— USA Today

Cain Says Alleged Groping
‘Simply Did Not Happen’
— Wall Street Journal

It is too early to analyze or evaluate the long-term impact. The immediate reaction toward Cain’s press conference has been generally positive. If he didn’t “hit a home run,” as they say, he at least got a solid stand-up double. And his vow that he will continue the campaign, without regard to his accusers or their accusations, is perhaps the most important thing he said during the press conference.


UPDATE 5:58 p.m. ET: Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints is profoundly skeptical of Sharon Bialek. Allahpundit is poll-watching:

Finally, here’s the latest from Gallup showing some movement in Cain’s “positive intensity” score since the allegations first started flying.

What counts, really, is the results of the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, now just eight weeks away. All the polling in the world at this point is just a wild shot at a moving target. It’s been nine days since these accusations first surfaced, and we have many more news cycles to go through before we’ll know how the voters in Iowa view this.

UPDATE 5:40 p.m. ET: The press conference is over, and I think anyone who watched it will agree that it went well for Herman Cain. His lawyer’s opening statement might have helped put the press on notice to treat the candidate respectfully. The post-press conference panel discussion now on Fox News seems favorable toward Cain. I’ll be aggregating reaction and adding commentary in a moment.

UPDATE 5:27 p.m. ET: ABC News asks about former employee Karen Kraushaar, now a spokeswoman for the IRS, and Cain says her accusations were determined to be “baseless.”

UPDATE 5:23 p.m. ET: “In no way am I trying to minimize sexual harassment in the workplace. . . . It’s very serious.”

UPDATE 5:20 p.m. ET: The floor is opened to question, CBS reporter asks him if he would take a lie-detector test. He says yes.

UPDATE 5:16 p.m. ET: “We will get through this.” Makes frequent references to “the American people,” talks about his wife, Gloria.

UPDATE 5:14 p.m. ET: Any suggestion that he will withdraw from the campaign “ain’t gonna happen. . . . I will not be deterred.”

UPDATE 5:12 p.m. ET: Herman Cain says he wants to “take my message directly to the people. . . . I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period.” He says, in essence, he doesn’t know Sharon Bialek from Adam’s housecat.

UPDATE 5:08 p.m. ET: We’re live! Cain’s lawyer talks about his own experience in representing victims of harassment and sexual assault. They didn’t act like Sharon Bialek, he says. Herman Cain is now being tried “in the court of public opinion.” Lawyer, he seems pretty pissed.

* * * PREVIOUSLY 4:49 p.m. ET * * *

Scheduled to begin in Phoenix at 3 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. ET. It will be liveblogged, summarized, aggregated, et cetera. A sample of headlines:

Cain accuser has history of
financial troubles, legal squabbles
— Chicago Tribune

Jobless & shameless gal going for gold
— NY Post

Cain Camp Questions Bialek’s Background
— National Review

GOP senator says Cain should
quit if allegations are true
— CNN

The GOP Senator? Lisa Murkowski. Yeah, right.

105 comments

  1. We will keep throwing out accusations till something sticks.  That is how it works. 

    Did I call you any names today?  That means you are annoying me and I feel the need to attack you.  I only attack those who I consider dangerous. 

  4. Don’t lie small, lie big.  Just repeat a lie long and frequently enough and eventually the public will believe it.    

  5. Exactly!  (Boy, is she nasty–as in character–looking.) 

    I thought she was an independent.  Having lost to Joe Miller and failing to steal the nomination.

    Corrupt, vicious old witch.  She’s one of the people (one of many) who represents EVERYTHING that’s wrong with D.C. and the GOP.

  11. Stacy,  I know this is blashpeme, but there’s a side of me that almost hopes Herman quits.  Cause I know once that happens, every single Republican everywhere in the United States is gonna be super, super, super pissed off.  Herman is one of our superstars.  He’s our teammate.  You fuck with our teammate we’re gonna fuck with you 10 times harder. 

    Mark my words.  If they get Herman to quit, we Republicans are going to throw everything we’ve got at Barack Hussein Obama.  Anything’s fair game.  It’s gonna get real, real, real nasty.

    Eric Dondero, Lifetime Republican Activist, Cain supporter and Damned Proud of it. 

  14. Well, yes, but that’s completely separate from the primary, unless there’s a candidate who thinks it was a good idea.

  16. That’d be really bizarre for Chrissie Mathews to make two sexual harassment allegations in two days. Wasn’t Chrissie on t.v. yesterday, standing next to her attorney Gloria Allred?  

  18. Having an attorney with him was very good. Expert testimony and testimonial with just the right touch of legal menace.

  25. Now they will harangue him about the lie detector test.  The press will never be satisfied with one conducted in his lawyer’s office by an examiner his lawyer chooses.

    Interesting that he rails against “anonymous charges” but then comes up with the “it’s the Democrats” accusation with no names or facts.  Maybe he just approves of the rule his supporters have adopted:  It is fine for us to use the exact same tactics we decry when used against Cain.

    But the “settlement” and “agreement” still doesn’t fly.  He was told about the story ten days before it was published, and couldn’t figure that out or make a call to a former colleague on the NRA Board? 

    Other than that, he still denies everything and insinuates a deep dark conspiracy to keep him from the nomination and the White House. 

  26. just think of four more years of obama as a prison sentence…
    by the time the election rolls around, you’ll have done four years.
    just four more to go…

    this isn’t a zero sum.  obama is completely destroying the dem/lib brand.  four more years, and there won’t be any dems left.

    romney losing the general, on the heel of mccain losing the general, only after beating romney in the gop primary…

    i can live without romney.  i couldn’t live with myself for voting for him.

    a reelected obama is going nowhere, outside of being impeached, with a gop house and senate.

  29. I do not like these predictions, but he has a factoid about Cain losing support of women in Iowa that is rather chilling. 

    But he also says Huntsman would be preferable to Romney which seems a wee bit crazy. 

  30. What are these “exact same tactics” that the Cain supporters decried but then used themselves?

    What “deep dark conspiracy” is Cain insinuating?

    Keep in mind that the left doesn’t need to coordinate its activities – leftists/progressives/Democrats/MSM/etc. simply count on eachother to do what they always do.

    We on the right like to talk about “going Alinsky,” but such attitudes (and tactics) fit uncomfortably with us. You can see that, right? Or maybe not.   

  34. I don’t like the Disgust thingy for signing in, it keeps asking me for a login even if I already just logged in. And it intercepted a reply and put in the general thread.

    Smitty!! Get on this. 8)

  36. I’d be leery of that agreement to take a lie detector test by CBS.

    Unless he’s already taken one as prep, he could be in big trouble if it’s a bluff.

    You all KNOW CBS will take him up on this and so should him and his staff.

    If he fails to take it, he’s screwed, if he takes it and fails, he’s screwed. There’s only one win scenario; to take it and pass.

    Hope he can.

  40. Did you catch the Huntsman endorcement at the end?  That alone is one to keep to beat Erik with every time he acts up. 

    That said, I worry about his prediction on Cain going down in Iowa.  Because if he loses women over this that is a real risk. 

  43. Murkowski gives the lie to how boldly independent Alaskans are. Take Uncle Sugar’s stimulus package away, and both Dems and GOP cry harassment.

  45. “I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period.”

    I haven’t followed Cain closely enough to know, so I’ll just ask: Is that kind of statement typical of his public self-appraisals?

  47. Eric: Cain’s quitting the primary race gives Obama the all-clear to play the race card. It’ll be GOP is all racist all the time from the minute Cain gives up until November 2012.

    Cain, for better or worse, must see his campaign to its electoral end.

  50. Heh.  I once saw a sign that read: “Sexual harassment will not be reported.  However, it will be graded.”
     

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