Visual source: Newseum
Nia-Malika Henderson:
[Sharon] Bialek, a Chicago homemaker and single mother, laid out in graphic detail an alleged encounter with Cain more than a dozen years ago, and her words effectively changed Cain’s strategy. The Republican nominee said he watched the press conference with his staff in San Francisco.
“We watched it because we didn’t even know that this whole thing about woman number 4 was going to even come out, so that was a surprise,” he said, in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live that aired early Tuesday morning. “At least it wasn’t one of the many that have the first name anonymous. This one actually had a name and face. We are dealing with it. We are taking this head-on.”
"It." "This one." Nice way to refer to your female accusers, Mr. Cain (they number five now, for the record). I don't know if "head on" is the right phrase to use when a woman is accusing you of this:
A woman says Republican presidential contender Herman Cain reached under her skirt for her genitals and pushed her head toward his crotch in July 1997.
On to the punditry!
The Los Angeles Times:
Herman Cain and Arnold Schwarzenegger don't have a lot in common, but there is this: Both were hit with allegations of serious sexual impropriety in the midst of their campaigns for high office. Voters forgave Schwarzenegger, who was easily elected governor in 2003. The same could still happen to Cain, but that might be more likely if the GOP presidential contender borrowed a page from Schwarzenegger's crisis-PR script. [...]
The charges against Cain aren't as well documented as those against Schwarzenegger, but they may be uglier because he is accused of making unwanted advances toward women who worked for him at the National Restaurant Assn., which if true would be a gross abuse of power. Of course, only the participants know whether the claims are true, and if they aren't, Cain has nothing to apologize for.[...]
For the sake of his own campaign, and because Americans deserve better than the race-baiting, blame-shifting, conflicting explanations Cain has offered to date, he should stop stonewalling, answer hard questions and seek to release his accusers from their promises of silence. Candidates' consensual sex lives are nobody's business but their own, but when there are harassment or assault victims involved, it's everybody's business.
Tod Robberson:
To Cain and other Bialek doubters: What woman would go before a national audience like this and publicly lie about such humiliating details unless it was to serve a greater good? This helps explain why the three other women accusing Cain of sexual harassment are not coming forward: It's humiliating.
This is another case where Cain doesn't appear to understand the difference between right and wrong. He doesn't seem to understand what is appropriate or inappropriate. All he seems to understand is that Herman Cain is a dynamic, forceful, charismatic person, therefore, Herman Cain not only deserves to be president but deserves to treat women, power, the truth and basic morality as his playthings to do as he pleases.
Am I convicting him in the media? Perhaps. I've now heard enough to declare my personal verdict as a member of the thinking public: Herman Cain must end his presidential campaign and, for his own good, seek treatment. His presidential campaign is a sham because this man does not belong anywhere close to the levers of power in any government.
Jules Witcover:
In more recent years, the political problem with such "scandals" has not been so much a question of morality as it has been of willful deception. What has harmed politicians caught up in allegations of sexual harassment or abuse has been the attempted cover-up, when candor at the outset may have taken much of the sting out of the accusations.[...]
Tell the truth was advice that Nixon rejected, had he ever heard it at all. Mr. Clinton received the same advice as well, but he lived up to his reputation as "Slick Willie" and was saved only by fellow Democrats in the Senate who, holding their noses, voted for his acquittal.
Mr. Cain faces the same challenge now, to get the full story out and live up to his reputation for candor whatever the consequences. Vindication could keep his political fortunes alive if indeed his side of the story is told and holds up in the light of day.
Sarah Bigler:
Bialek is the first to put a face to the allegations. All four women are under confidentiality agreements that they signed when Cain financially settled their cases more than a decade ago. Not only is this is a quintessential accusation of sexual harassment; it's a legal accusation of sexual assault.
Here's where Cain's intelligence really shines. According to some Harvard experts, as reported by ABC News, Bialek was only able to step forward because Cain commented on the specifics of some of the cases in interviews early last week. He broke the confidentiality agreement, not Bialek, leaving her legally able to publicly comment without repercussions from Cain or his legal team.
The Star-Ledger Editorial Board:
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain won’t admit it yet, and maybe he can’t even see it, but his 15 minutes are up. [...] This accuser will be hard to dismiss. She told her boyfriend, a doctor, about the incident immediately after it occurred. And she told a businessman who was a mentor. Both of them have signed statements verifying that.
Cain can dismiss one or two women as liars, but not a chorus. And if this is a pattern of behavior for Cain, as it is starting to appear, then No. 5 will step up to the microphone soon.
Cain is refusing to discuss the issue. But if he thinks he can become president without answering these charges, he is more nuts than he seems.
Gary Stein:
Not surprisingly, conservatives and my good buddies in the tea party remain on Cain's side. Cain has raised $2 million in campaign contributions in the past week since the allegations surfaced. I guess sexual harassment allegations and avoiding answering questions means nothing to some people. And Cain does have virulent right-wing firestarter Ann Coulter on his side. That really tells you all you need to know.
If Cain wants to maintain any shred of dignity, he'll drop out now.
I'm pretty sure any "shred" of dignity was left in the scene of the crime car back in 1997.
Sofia Resnick:
With the nation’s attention focused on Cain’s old sexual harassment charges, scrutiny of Cain’s infamous “9-9-9″ Plan is stalled for the moment. [...]
Joan Entmacher, vice president for Family Economic Security at the National Women’s Law Center, where she works at promoting policies aimed at improving the economic security of low-income women and their families, told TAI that Cain’s tax proposal appears to affect women worse than the other candidates because his plan is “much harder on lower-income Americans” in the way it would raise taxes on low- and middle-income earners.
Under Cain’s plan, millionaires would get a 17.9-percent tax rate, or a 22-percent boost after taxes. But a single mother earning between $20,000 and $30,000? Her tax rate would be 24.9 percent. In other words, a single mom making $25,000 a year will have to give 25 percent of her income, or $6,250, to taxes.