• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Is Cain still Able?

Share

Sorry about the pun. I couldn't resist. It's not exactly original, but then neither are Herman Cain's current problems.

Another politician doing something sexually inappropriate. It's become a cliché. Now a fourth woman has surfaced to accuse the presidential contender of misconduct.

Sure he denied everything at first. So did Clinton and John Edwards and so many senators and congressmen dating back decades it's not worth mentioning their names.

Presidents and those running for the Oval Office deserve mention, I suppose. When JFK was president his sexual escapades were not exactly secret but there apparently was a discretionary media etiquette in place at the time. Even Martin Luther King escaped the public outings so prevalent today.

Still, Clinton overcame even more serious allegations during his campaign and prevailed because voters liked him and his message enough to either overlook or not believe the accusations. Cain could do the same.

Obviously, times have changed. Cain supporters denounce the liberalmedia for pressuring him to answer their questions. I print liberalmedia as one word because that is how it is commonly referred to by conservatives when they don't like what they read or hear, which is why they have their own network in which to bury their heads. Liberals have, well, the liberalmedia I guess.

It wasn't long ago that all media had a picnic skewering Congressman Weiner. It appeared there was no bias then as both sides seemed to relish roasting Weiner, and all he did was tweet a bulge in his Fruit of the Looms. But to be fair, in Weiner's case there was hard evidence. Cain on the other hand is fighting allegations of sexual harassment and just because complaints exist, it in no way means he's guilty of them.

Perhaps it's time we, the voters, take a look at ourselves. We want our elected officials to be like one of us which is how they try and portray themselves when asking for our vote. Yet we expect them to be perfect human beings when none of us are. After all, we become better people by learning from our mistakes, hopefully.

And anyway, is offering employment for oral sex all that different from what U.S. Foreign policy has been? Whether it's paying billions to a country in exchange for military bases, trade agreements or imposing a Head of State that will do our bidding, it's all part of global business. From Somoza to Qaddafi to Mubarak to Hussein and so on, we haven't really cared about civil or human rights in other countries as long as it's worked out well for us. For 50 years we've been making life miserable for the Cuban people because we can, yet we mumble unintelligibly about human rights while kowtowing to China.

If those are the rules of the game so be it, or lets change it. In the meantime let's not blame the messenger every time the news is disagreeable.

Jim Black is a community blogger and is not a part of the Walworth County Gazette staff. His opinion is not necessarily that of Walworth County Today staff or management.