A Tough Go for Herm

Trey Smith

Republican [pretend] candidate Herman Cain has had a rough time lately. It seems like almost from the moment he surged ahead in the polls, accusations of one type or another have gone viral. The latest of these involves an alleged 13-year affair.

I don't want any of you to be confused; I am NOT a Herman Cain fan. I think the guy is about as loony as Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann. That said, I find it very, very interesting that all these alleged scandals popped up at the precise moment that Cain became the frontrunner.

If any of these allegations are true, why didn't anyone go public when Cain was mired in single digits in the polls? If you believe that Cain is a lech, why not get this stuff out in the open at the get-go? It would have derailed his candidacy almost before it began.

My sneaking suspicion is that a lot of the allegations against Cain are made-up -- manufactured out of thin air. It's not that I don't believe that Hermain Cain could be a lech in real life; the timing of the airing of the allegations is what bothers me.

Republicans -- particularly those in the Tea Party -- seemed to like the idea that they had a black candidate so long as he had no chance at securing their party's nomination. They could point to him and say, "See, we're not bigots after all. We have a black candidate too."

But the moment Cain's profile increased and his poll numbers shot up, I think the conservative big wigs became very nervous. I bet they were just as nervous as the Democratic leadership was in 2004 when Howard Dean became their party's frontrunner.

Do you remember what happened to Howard Dean? A crisis was manufactured to push him out of the way. His poll numbers fell through the roof in no time at all and the beltway Democrats breathed a big sigh of relief.

My suspicion is that this same type of scenario has befallen Herman Cain. The decision makers in his own party were not enthused with his popular support -- support I can't begin to fathom! -- so they manufactured several crises to convince the faithful to turn away from him.

I could be wrong. All the allegations against him may be true, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn (years later, of course, in some tell-all book) that not a one of them is.