Isn't it pretty amazing just how quickly Herman Cain's GropeGate™ scandal disappeared? I mean, seriously, (yet!) another Rick Perry brainfart was all it took. I don't even think SNL did a signature Cain sketch this weekend.[1] Dude went from sugar to sh*t and back to sugar quicker than Michael Vick.[2]
Last week when I gave my unsolicited advice to Mr. Cain, I stated that then prolly might have been a good time to play the "Wife Card". You know what I mean. Trot out your wife when in the midst of a sex scandal to reconnect with female voters and let them know you're not some monster, just a clueless guy who occasionally can't keep it in him pants and whatnot. Heck, it's a cliche so American, and so pervasive that there's an entire TV show that revolves around this concept. If you aren't up on CBS' brilliant The Good Wife, you should get familiar. It's only the best show on all of television, period!!!
With all that said, Cain has essentially weathered the storm. That story is old news, thanks to the aforementioned Rick Perry and some really sick & nasty dude named Jerry Sandusky. America has moved on, and although Cain's poll numbers with female voters have suffered as a result of these allegations, he remains very much a frontrunner, which is simply astonishing on about 102 levels.[3] Still, Cain felt the need to drop the "wife bomb" now.
In the first televised interview that Herman Cain gave two weeks ago to respond to allegations that he had sexually harassed and settled with two women while he was president of the National Restaurant Association, he played “the wife card,” revealing that his wife, Gloria Cain, would sit for an interview.Part of me thinks this is bad, bad strategic timing.
Scheduled to air Monday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record,” (Fox News), the interview will add another voice, another layer, and another news cycle to a narrative that for two weeks has defined, yet not derailed, Cain’s quixotic campaign for president.
According to an early transcript provided by Fox News, Gloria Cain told Van Susteren that the allegations offer an unfamiliar and, she believes, inaccurate picture of the man she has known for 45 years.
Herman Cain and his advisers have insisted that the allegations are not only untrue, but that the swirling, he-said-she-said controversy has only helped his campaign. Recent poll numbers, and the $2.25 million that the Cain campaign has said it has raked in since the story broke, seem to back up their argument.
The roaring applause Cain got at the CNBC debate when he responded to the accusations also suggests some visceral support for Cain within the Republican base. He has become the lightning rod among hardcore Republicans, who believe he has been victimized by liberals and the media.
Yet as much as Cain and his supporters suggest that the allegations haven’t damaged the former Godfather’s CEO, there is clearly a fraying of support among Republican women. Cain currently has the support of 15 percent of Republican women, a drop of 13 percentage points since October.
Which is where Gloria Cain, potentially, comes in, serving as a kind of character witness for husband and validator for their marriage. But the ritual of a wife “standing by her man” is by now a cliche, and likely not as effective as it once was, Smith said.
First and foremost, I feel for Mrs. Cain. This looks like a perfectly good chuuuch lady who probably wants no part of this story nor the limelight. She and her husband probably agreed that he could use this sham of a campaign to boost his speaking fees and take his radio show national, so long as she didn't have to do any media appearances (she hadn't until now). She is also a registered Democrat (according to him) so I'm sure there's that conflict as well. Now, this poor woman has gotta go full blown Alicia Florick, is about to be paraded in front of cameras, is forced to lie about her husband not gropin' all those blondes (seriously, what did you expect her to say?) and I'm sure the opposition (#TeamPerry) is already looking into her background to see if there's any Jeremiah Wright-style preacher distraction looming.
Sadly, all of this could have been avoided had Cain just fessed up initially, but obviously blaming the media (and liberals) was a calculated move that worked. Which is why still parading his wife out there after the fact seems odd. What's there to really gain, other than putting a story most people have already forgotten back in the media cycle, and placing a bullseye firmly on this kind woman's forehead?
Nice move, Daddy Green. The really Daddy Green woulda never put Mama Green out there like that.
Question: Is this a bad tactical move by the Cain campaign? Ladies, if you were Mrs. Cain, would you stand by your man, or make that bama answer for his own BS? Do you watch The Good Wife?!?
[1] Sorry Kenan. I get the weird feeling that your time on SNL is limited.
[2] Uh, actually Vick might technically be back to sh*t mode right now. 3-6? Losing to the Cardinals' backup QB? Dang Philly, what's good?
[3] Seriously, think about it. Given this country's history, what's the likelihood that a mostly white electorate would side with a black man, who has essentially been accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a half dozen white women? I mean, seriously, what's the likelihood? This, is why I'm more convinced than ever that Cain will win the GOP nomination. And lose to Obama. Badly. Terribly. Epically.
