Herman Cain Scandal: Smear job?
I'm not sure.
Somebody did some digging on this because the one thing we know is that it didn't come from the Cain Campaign. (If I'm wrong on this, then Mr. Cain gets the brass balls award of the year...)
Was it the team at Politico digging into Cain's past that came up with this? Were they tipped off by a rival campaign? Did the Obama Administration have anything to do with this? Was it, in fact, a smear job?
Let's start with the last question first. According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, "smear" means a usually unsubstantiated charge or accusation against a person or organisation - often used attributively <a smear campaign> <a smear job>
For this to be a smear job, it would have to be totally fabricated. Even the Cain organisation now admits there was an investigation, a finding of some unknown determination and a payout of an uncertain amount. Given the confidentiality agreements in place, which prevent the two women from telling their side of the story, its obviously lacking details. Which is quite different from not existing. Something Herman Cain did while head of the National Restaurant Association offended two different women, proved substantial enough for the organisation to conduct an internal investigation and resulted in cash settlements for the women in question to sign confidentiality agreements and leave the company.
So, this matter has not been fabricated...
It may have been small beans. It may have been the most innocent of gestures or comments and the Association chose the absolute most conservative path to end it quickly and move on. A cash settlement from a business hardly equals a finding of guilt.
Its very difficult for me to buy that Mr. Cain knew nothing of the arrangement, as he suggested at the national Press Club luncheon Monday afternoon. As the hours passed, Mr. Cain's memory improved and he then did remember something about a settlement after all. Again, no proof of guilt, just that cash had changed hands to make this go away. As the chief executive officer of the NRA, its more likely than not that he was presented with a set of options, signed off on the cash settlement in exchange for the two women to leave the company.
Its impossible for me to think Cain could've actually forgot about this event. If he truly did forget, then he is not fit for office. Further, reports suggest that the Cain campaign had been dealing with requests for comments on this matter for up to ten days or so. Conversations were held. Questions, blunt ones, I imagine, were asked of the candidate. For his response to undergo the transformation it has from Monday lunchtime to Tuesday evening is a stunning example of how not to handle a crisis. Every shift from his original response is a shift of weakness. It makes him look clumsy and incompetent. To some, it may make him look guilty.
The investigative team at Politico is at the tip of the spear on this story. Breaking it Sunday evening, everyone else seemed to report on the Politico story instead of some other version available. Politico basically scooped the rest of the media on this. What methods they used, I have no idea. Did they follow ethical information gathering techniques or did they cut corners? Again, who knows? But the story and the claims within seem to be more fact than fiction at this point some 48 hours later. Surely, there's more to come...
Did another campaign play a role in this story? Possibly, but that means another candidate would've purposefully tried to inflict harm on not just a rival candidate, but potentially on the entire party at the same time. No political party wants a scandal during the run-up to primary season. I don't think the Huntsman, Santorum, Bachmann or Paul campaigns would've been behind this. Huntsman and Santorum are playing for the post election jobs bonanza and would'nt likely mess with any of the top candidates. Michelle Bachmann might be capable of this sort of tactic, but I think its a stretch. Plus, given her money issues, this info didn't didn't come for free. If she'd paid for it, I think she'd have held onto it ala Rick Perry holding onto the illegal landscaping contractors he dumped on Mitt Romney. No to Bachmann. Newt Gingrich? That's very interesting to think of but I say no for the same reasons Bachmann didn't do it. Nor was it Ron Paul. Paul has no shot and creating a sideshow at Cain's expense isn't a game changer of any sort for Mr. Paul.
That leaves the other two frontrunners. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Things are, overall, going very smoothly for the Romney campaign. He has tons of cash, is performing steadily in the polls, etc. Herman Cain will not be the reason Romney doesn't win the White House, should Obama beat him in the general election next November. Which brings us to Rick Perry. Perry has had a rough time in the debates and has had a hard time explaining his higher education funding for illegals. Financially, he's comfortable and could've afforded to bankroll this type of opposition research. However, I don't think for a second Perry really thinks Herman Cain will beat him out for the WH in '12. Its Perry and Romney and everybody knows it. I say no other campaign had a role in this story.
The Obama Administration has its hands full trying to nudge the economy along, bring down unemployment, deal with the debt, move legislation along one way or the other. I highly doubt they really care who they go up against. No matter who it is, they will run against Obama's first four years. They all want to repeal healthcare reform, they all want to repeal Dodd-Frank, etc., etc., etc. The contrast will be quite clear once we get down to the two candidates. There's just no point to go after Cain right now given the risk of being caught. While they may be enjoying the sideshow, it wasn't the current team in the White House pulling the strings on this.
This was, it seems, good old fashioned journalism and nothing else. For those voices on the right, its only a smear job if its proven that nothing whatsoever ever happened. Unless the National Restaurant Association agreed to pay money out for no reason at all, which I really doubt, something happened. The RW talk show guys can scream and holler all they want, but its just a game. Keep repeating that the Left is out to get Herman Cain and destroy the Country and sooner or later a certain group of professionally gullible people will buy it.
Don't blame the reporters that found the story, don't blame the other campaigns and don't blame President Obama or the White House. There's just one person to blame for this mess and that's Herman Cain. To willfully ignore the heads up Politico gave them will prove damaging over time. In Cain's own words, "We could have been better prepared. ... Mea culpa for not being better prepared."
Sources:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smear
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67194.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67392.html
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