Allegations that do, allegations that don’t

Posted by on . 3 comments.

National Review (11/29/11):

In a conference call this morning, Herman Cain told his senior staff that he is “reassessing” whether to remain in the race. He will make his final decision “over the next several days.

[...]

Now, with this latest one, we have to do an assessment as to whether or not this is going to create too much of a cloud, in some people’s minds, as to whether or not they would be able to support us going forth,” Cain said.

So the previous allegations of sexual harassment left him unphased, but new allegations of a supposedly consensual affair are an immediate cause for dropping out of the race?

Comments

  1. Jay says:
    November 29, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    I suspect that maybe his wife suspects something now. This one is probably also true and is getting at him. A failed pass and a long term affair with another women are entirely different things to lie about.

    He still has 15% in most polls. Him dropping out would not be insignificant.

  2. Mark says:
    November 30, 2011 at 9:45 am

    As unsuprising that it is that Cain is dropping out, part of me is going to miss him. You can’t deny, the man is entertaining.

  3. nathan says:
    November 30, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    Jay, I think you’re right about that. Though what I was trying to get at with this post are some conflicting societal values that we hold about sexuality, that have explicitly revealed themselves through Herman Cain’s campaign. On one end, sexual harassment perpetrated by men against women is given a pass. Meanwhile, the idea of adultery is highly condemned. In both cases, whether the relationship was consensual or not makes little difference.

    For sociologists and feminist/gender theorists, this episode in american politics quite literally displays (1) the manifestation of male privilege and (2) the power of marriage as an institution and the renunciation of non-monogamy.