Does he or doesn't he?

    There has been a lot of coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment charges. Really, a lot. The story seemed to overshadow important elections happening in Mississippi, Iowa and elsewhere last evening as well as the Occupy movement and all the rest. In fact, there seemed to be nobody other than Herman Cain on tv yesterday. We saw Herman Cain discuss the allegations (in the third person no less) and pundits cable-wide were caught up discussing not so much the did he or didn’t he but the will he or won’t he? Will his poll numbers go down because of this? Won’t he have to drop out of the race if women keep coming forward with these types of claims? (So far, the answer seems to be no).

   There are even polls about whether people believe the allegations, which I find a bit unsettling. There are also articles analyzing the breakdowns of those numbers across demographic lines. I may be a bit burnt out on this story, but at least it’s getting the serious media attention that it deserves.

    Except that it isn’t.

    For all the airtime and newsprint spent on the allegations against Herman Cain, the most serious question is not being asked. Aside from ‘did he or didn’t he?’ the question that remains to be asked is ‘does he or doesn’t he’? Does Herman Cain understand that sexual harassing one’s employees is completely unacceptable, that these allegations are extremely serious and, if true, reflect poorly on his character? The answer seems to be no.
    Judging by the way Cain has laughed off these charges—not just denying them but joking about them—I am forced to conclude that he does not. His defiant attitude says, to me at least, not “I’m innocent” but “so what?” This is extremely troubling. That the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination seems to see sexual harassment as a laughing matter is something we should be discussing.

    Cain has blamed Rick Perry, the Democrats and the media for what he sees as a witch hunt. Why he thinks this issue wouldn’t have come up in the course of a presidential campaign is really beyond me. It’s not as if a democrat would have gotten a free pass on this issue either. He seems to truly believe that this is not something he should be called to account for, which I take issue with. Anyone who believes he is well within his rights to abuse his authority that way, anyone who would joke about a female lawyer that there is “not a thing I would hire her for” – and not because she is professionally incompetent—is not someone who is worthy of the title of President of the United States.

    It seems like this story is going to be with us for quite some time. We might as well talk about the reasons why it matters.