A little over a week ago Politico published a piece bringing to light two sexual harassment settlements that Herman Cain was involved in during the 1990's. The report states two females that worked for the restaurant association Cain headed were given settlement packages and agreed to not discuss the event at any time in the future.
Immediately all of the sub-stories surfaced: Who leaked the story to Politico, is the mainstream media creating another Anita Hill scenario against a conservative black man, Cain has raised over a million and a half dollars since the story was released, when will Mark Block get axed. But the one story that seems to be the elephant in the room that is not even being mentioned: Do these guys think we're stupid. Ironic since Cain authored a book entitled "They Think You're Stupid".
Politico informed the Cain campaign (or book tour advisers) ten days prior to publishing the story they were working on the piece. Still, when the story broke Cain's response was unprepared and avoided addressing the situation. This is the real story, a man running for President of the United States paid two women settlement packages to leave their job and not ever talk about it after alleging they received unwanted sexual advances,everything else is simply distraction. Sadly, distraction is all we require these days to stay entertained and we no longer care to have honest dialogue about any subject.
I'm not a fan of Cain for President, just my opinion. However, I still have the ability to assess different circumstances and form honest conclusions that aren't based on my personal preference. I can completely imagine a scenario, even two, where employees came forward with these claims and the best option for the association was to settle and move forward. This happens all of the time. The action of settling has little to do these days with guilt. Each case has its own merits and sometimes the settlement looks fishy, yet other times it's easy to see a settlement was easiest and probably the most efficient way to handle the situation. The guilt of the accused can't be determined simply by the fact a settlement occurred.
This is why it is so troubling to me that we can't all just act like adults that care about real issues and focus on the most pressing matters. When someone is running for the position of the presidency and something of this nature surfaces the reality is we're going to have to address it. But it doesn't have to drag on and on and we don't have to get side tracked talking about everything but the incident at hand.
There is no way anyone running for this position doesn't have some skeletons in their closet. It would almost be strange if they didn't. We've even come to expect it as a part of the process. We know something will emerge and then we'll see if that thing makes the campaign sink like an anchor or press on and gain credibility for surviving the vetting process. That is why Cain's handling of this issue has been so disappointing, he seemed so unprepared and then employed the duck and weave tactic and now asks us to get lost in the distraction of it all and forget about acquiring the real answers we need so we can move forward.
A good friend gave my a framed picture of a Chinese saying that deals with misfortune several years ago. Basically the message to be conveyed in the phrase is there is opportunity in every crisis. When W. Bush had to address his party days he tackled it head on. He manned up and said this is me, more importantly that was me and this is me now are you going to be o.k. with that. Isn't that what we expect? Romney, known as a flip flopper, has had to address two main issues in abortion and Obamacare being drafted after Romneycare in Massachusetts while campaigning. It would seem Romney, in my opinion, has taken these perceived negatives and explained what he was and what he is and why that makes him the person he is now and is comfortable with letting us decide if we accept that. That's all one could do in such a position. However, Cain has decided to play us for the fools we are so proud to be and use nothing more than the "look, squirrel" approach on us.
When it comes to being asked about how much money these women were paid Cain doesn't really know he tells us. Still, a large chunk of the conservative party is cool with him being in control of the nation's economic policy. Odd. He has zero political experience, something most conservatives pointed out as a weakness last election cycle toward Obama. Strange. His personal position on abortion is confused in a party where there is no room for such ambiguity. Interesting. And he's totally black, Obama's only half and that seems to be a point of contention. Funny (not funny "ha ha" but funny like "odd" or "strange" or "interesting").
In the end none of this really has much to do with Herman Cain for me. It has more to do with all of us and how we process information. We develop habits that dictate how and what we think about things. Facts should dictate our thoughts. When it comes to the sexual harassment incident I just want the facts ma'am. The people that vote strictly on party lines could care less about the actual incident, they are going to vote for their guy no matter what. It is the people that actually entertain the idea of voting for the best person on the ballot that are making up their minds about the contenders and their antics. Treating me like an idiot by completely dodging the question and worrying more about who leaked it than simply tackling it and moving forward is insulting. More troublesome than be insulted is the realization that I'm in a small minority of people that actually recognize the insult. We are a strange creature.
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