by Winston Lee

Created on: November 11, 2011   Last Updated: November 12, 2011

When elected officials are found guilty of sexual misconduct, the damage that it does to their credibility almost certainly marks the end of their political careers. This is not specific to any one political party, because as we’ve seen as of late, when these elected officials are exposed for their heinous acts, the campaign to force them out of office quickly ensues.

There have been a few exceptions of course to this rule but typically sexual misconduct is rarely something a politician can escape. Sadly for Herman Cain, at a time where he’s riding high in the polls the accusations of sexual harassment he faces will almost certainly hurt his campaign bid for the White house. 

Allegations of sexual misconduct do not simply go away with the passage of time, and perhaps Herman Cain’s biggest mistake was not getting in front of this issue once Politico broke the story.

In a speech during a National Press Club luncheon, Herman Cain chose to respond to the allegations and without question strongly denied any knowledge of any allegations or settlements reached by the National Restaurant Association on his behalf.  

However Cain’s denial of any settlements later became an awareness of an agreement by the National Restaurant Association but splits hairs on the differences between an agreement and a settlement. The contradiction to Cain’s denial of awareness continues as he speaks of a huge settlement that the lawyer of one of the accusers were demanding in response to the sexual harassment allegations.

In response to his actions, although he sternly makes it clear that he has never sexually harassed anyone, he does leave room for pause when he points out that perception of sexual harassment depends on the person.

Then Cain’s handling of these allegations begins to shoot in all directions. Race is inserted when he chose to use a phrase coined by Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings, by calling the allegations, “high tech lynchings”.  And Cain responded in the affirmative when asked by Charles Krauthammer whether he thinks these allegations somehow are racially motivated, something Herman Cain can't prove.

Perhaps the Rick Perry campaign had something to do with these allegations by trying to sabotage Cain's run for the primary since he is the front-runner, or maybe Rahm Emanuel somehow leaked the story to the press.

And finally, perhaps the reason the story came out in the first place is because the son of one of the accusers actually works for Politico, the media outlet that broke the story. This claim has since been proven false, which once again attacks the Cain campaign's credibility.

If Herman Cain is guilty of one thing, it would be his poor handling of these allegations. Without question the allegations and the evidence surrounding them are truly disturbing. Undoubtedly Conservative voters will take another look at Herman Cain but for the most part his supporters are fiercely trying to counter the negative effect of this scandal. Here’s the deal, in its purest form, allegations are not convictions and therefore Herman Cain has not been convicted of sexual misconduct. As it stands, the sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain should not cost him the GOP nomination.

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