The presidential candidate who shot himself in the foot

Let me say right from the get go—I have no problem seeing a black man as the president of the United States. Blacks per se are just as capable leaders as are whites. But I do draw the line on stupidity. And Herman Cain straddled that line time and time again in his political career.

Finally, after keeping everyone in suspense, he had some semblance of common sense to announce that he was suspending his Presidential campaign—effectively dropping out of the race.

According to his statement in a news conference in Atlanta, he said in part; “I am making the decision because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt, caused on me and my family by recent sexual harassment allegations. I am at peace with my God. I am at peace with my wife and she is at peace with me.” He added that he will soon be announcing his endorsement of another candidate.

Whatever Cain is, he is not a pedophile but if he was, would you as a presidential hopeful want Cain to endorse your candidacy? Of course you wouldn’t. However, he has been accused of sexually harassing women and until it is established that he is innocent of such allegations, any candidate that Cain is considering endorsing, should seriously decline Cain’s offer.

Let’s look into those allegations.

It appeared as if the worst might have been behind the Herman Cain campaign. There had been no new allegations of sexual impropriety in weeks and the candidate’s polling numbers, while waning, were not yet toxic. Then Ginger White came upon the scene; the woman who claims to have carried on a 13-year affair with Cain, one that continued until relatively recently. Cain, for his part, acknowledges a personal relationship with White, but insisted in an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN that it was purely platonic. For those who don’t know what a platonic relationship means; it is a relationship in which there are no sexual relations going on between the two parties. If there was no sex between them and he was paying some of her bills over the years, he had to be one of the worst salesmen in history. Thirteen years and no sex? Either both of these two are lying, or Herman Cain is the worst deal closer in the history of extramarital affairs.

Are you wondering why he broke off that relationship after he decided to run for office? Well for sure he knew that everywhere he went; the news media would be sure to follow.

I am aware that former presidents Clinton and Kennedy cheated on their wives and yet they did their jobs as presidents quite satisfactorily. Further, I am convinced that before President Eisenhower was president and was the Commander in Chief of the Allies in Europe near the end of World War II, he was having an affair with his private secretary even though he had a wife and yet that didn’t make him any less a commander.

However, what does concern me is Cain’s denial that there was no sexual relationship going on between him and Ms. White. If the allegations of him sexually harassing other woman are true, then his denial of having a sexual relationship with Ms. White is highly suspicious.

Cain would not discuss how much he gave Ms White. He said he believes someone offered her 'a lot of money' to make the claims. Has he proof that she was paid money by a third party to destroy his campaign? Of course he doesn’t have proof. He merely said it so that the black paint in the bucket representing his character may have some white drops of white paint dropped into the bucket so that his character doesn’t appear to be totally black.

Appearing on CNN, Cain's attorney, Lin Wood said in part; “He's not obligated to come out and tell you the details of that (relationship) and violate the privacy of people he's helped.' As we all know, privacy was not a problem that Ms. White was concerned with but as sure as God made little apples, it was certainly a problem that concerned Cain.

In any case, Mr. Wood sent a letter to a lawyer representing Ms. White, asking that Cain's campaign be provided with a document showing calls and text messages between them. Hey! I thought Cain didn’t want to violate the privacy of people he helped.

With Cain’s presidential bid hanging in the balance, Cain's team decided to demand that Ms. White show them the cell phone records that she claims prove the two were carrying on an affair. That was a big mistake. Never ask for particulars when you have no idea what info is in them.

As proof of their lengthy relationship, Ms. White offered her cell phone, which has Cain's private number. Ms. White also showed mobile phone records dating back four months that have 61 phone calls and text messages to or from Cain as early as 4.26 am and as late as 7.52 pm. Remember, their relationship wasn’t just four months old. I can’t even imagine how many phone calls they made to one another over a thirteen-year period.

Further, I don’t know what was in those text messages but the mere fact that there were so many of them, I hardly think Cain could say that there wasn’t some sort of an affair going on between him and Ms. White even if it wasn’t sexual.

Elaborating on her claims of an affair, White said; "This was not a consistent love affair that went on every day for the last 14 years. So he is correct when he made that statement.' But Ms White also said Cain gave her gifts and money consistently over the last few years, although she claimed the relationship wasn't a matter of 'sex for cash.' As far as providing further proof of her story, she said: ‘You really don't enter into something like that holding on to receipts, holding onto gifts or notes or anything like that.' According to Ms White, she took several trips with Cain, even attending a boxing match between Mike Tyson.

I am forced to ask this rhetorical question. Why would any man who is married, choose to pay some of the bills of anther woman, shower her with gifts and take her on several trips to watch boxing fights and at the same time, not expect to be rewarded with some sexual favors?

Cain's lawyer said in a statement; “This appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public.” The statement, however, did not explicitly deny the affair.

He said that the media has no business inquiring about the relationship between Cain and Ms. White. He is wrong. If all he did was on a few occasions giver her some money to tide her over some difficult financial times out of the goodness of his heart, then I agree with what the lawyer said. But texting her a great many times, giving gifts to her and taking Ms. White on trips with him—well that is definitely gist for the mill. The man is married to a woman who apparently is a good wife so cheating on her tells you something of his character.

Admittedly, I did say that some presidents cheated on their wives but they still did the job they were elected to do. Cain on the other hand is a wannabe who hasn’t shown anyone that he is capable of being the president of the United States.

Cain has been accused of sexual harassment by four other women, two of whom have come forward publicly with their allegations. However, to this point, the only accusations were about inappropriate advances or comments. Ms White was claiming that he cheated on his wife for more than a decade.

The former pizza company executive was becoming less a serious candidate than the butt of late-night comedy jokes after a string of accusations of sexually inappropriate behaviour were hurled at him.

For example, four women accused Cain of sexual harassment and two of them complained when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association. That organization settled the claims of those two women. One of the other four women claimed Cain groped her when he was interviewing her for a job and another woman claimed Cain tried to force her head into the area of his crotch.

Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway said it rather well when she said; "It's the daily dose of the wince-and-cringe factor that leaves people wondering what could be coming next."

What came next was a statement of this buffoon in which Cain vowed during campaign stops in Ohio that he would not be pushed out of the race by 'character assassination' by his critics. Pushing him out of the race was so easy considering the skids his campaign was sitting on were greased. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, the skids got even that much more greasier. His comments were so slanted; his critics didn’t need to push him out of the race. Gravity alone would have been sufficient.

Cain is an opponent of the legalization of marriage for same sex couples in the United States. He supports the Defense of Marriage Act. He would seek to reinstate the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Some comments made by Cain regarding Muslims have caused controversy. For example, he said that he was "uncomfortable" when he found that the surgeon operating on his liver and colon cancer was a Muslim. He later explained: "based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them." He was right about one aspect of his statement. He knows little about the Muslim religion.

He had also spoken of his distrust of another doctor when his name "sounded too foreign", telling the audience at a Biblically-themed amusement park, "My mind immediately started thinking, wait a minute, maybe his religious persuasion is different than mine! She, the nurse could see the look on my face and she said, 'Don't worry, Mr. Cain, he's a Christian from Lebanon'”.

He was asked in March 2011 if he would feel comfortable appointing a Muslim to his administration, or as a judge. Cain responded: "No, I will not. There's this creeping attempt, there's this attempt, to gradually ease Shariah Law, and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government." Cain also campaigned for Muslims to be banned from building an Islamic Center at a site in Tennessee, claiming that it was "an infringement and an abuse of our freedom of religion" and "just another way to try to gradually sneak Shariah law into our laws". Cain declared that communities in the United States had the "right" to ban mosques.

Those of us that were alive during the great depression in the 1930s are aware that Hitler had the same attitude about Jews and we know what he did to the Jews in the 1940s.

Cain defended his foreign policy knowledge. "I'm not supposed to know anything about foreign policy. His ridiculous statement on policy issues was clear evidence that at least he told the truth when he said he implied that he knew nothing about foreign policy. God Almighty! Did he really believe that the people of the United States want a man sitting in the Oval office who knows nothing about foreign policy?

Cain said, "I could see myself freeing all Gitmo detainees for one American hostage.” He later abandoned this position. Well, well. There is some sign that some of his brain cells are working when he realizes that something he said doesn’t sit well with Americans.

Cain advocates the use of capital punishment in the United States. When asked if the death penalty should be thrown away when evidence (of innocence) comes into question, he replied "No. If you do away with it; that will only brainwash people into thinking that they can do whatever they want and get away with it." He is obviously not aware that many states in the US are replacing capital punishment with natural life in prison because of the overwhelming evidence that many people who were on death row were later found to be innocent.

Cain supports a constitutional amendment stating that children born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. are not U.S. citizens. Cain has also said that he does not support changing the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all persons born in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.

In the early 1990s, following the Clarence Thomas hearings, Cain as the then-CEO of Godfather's Pizza expressed concern about laws making it easier for women to sue their supervisors for sexual harassment: “This bill opens the door for opportunists who will use the legislation to make some money....I’m certainly for civil rights, but I don’t know if this bill is fair because of what we’ll have to spend to defend ourselves in unwarranted cases.” It’s obvious that he was thinking of the alleged sexual harassment accusations made against him.

It’s not my intention to go into all those issues mention in this article except to say that when he shot himself in the foot, he used a double barreled 12-gage shotgun. Has he any idea how many people he offended when he made that statement?

If this buffoon had been elected the president of the United States, I shudder to think what would happen to the people of the United States and people in other countries such as Canada. For one thing, I am sure he would never permit Muslims to enter the United States and eventually, he wouldn’t permit gay couples entry also. Then he would order all children born of illegal immigrants, children who are now adults and who work and pay their taxes and play an important role in society—to get out.

Fortunately for all Americans, the media trashed this buffoon so that he could slip away and hopefully never, ever come to the surface again with ambitions of running for political office. I wouldn’t even want to see him run for the office of dog catcher. If he got that job, he would look for ways to decide whether or not the dogs are Muslims, gay, undocumented immigrants or whether or not they should be euthanized, even if there is evidence that they have done no wrong.