Unless you've been sheltered in an internet-less caccoon for the past month (which is not a bad idea), you've probably heard that Herman Cain was accused of harassing women, using his position of power to try to get women to perform sexual acts for promotions (an embodiment of the cliched line: "I'll give you a raise if you give me one"), and finally, was accused of having a 13-year-consensual affair, while being married to Mrs. Cain.
It is the last accusation that did him in, even though his numbers had been going down ever since the sexual harrasment allegations came out. Does this say something about American society's attitude towards sex: Namely, that sexual harrasment is tolerated in a candidate, but infidelity is not? Does it say that we still disbeleive women who claim to have been harrassed, whereas when a woman claims a consensual affair, we trust her, and finally get it through our heads that this man's been involved in sexual misconduct? Or does it say nothing - was it merely the cummulative effect of these allegations that punctured the balloon, and the consensual scandal happens to be the last domino to have fallen - had the affair come out, followed by the harrasment allegations, the same thing would have happened - namely, that he would have needed both types of allegations to destroy the campaign? But what does it say about our society that he needed both types of allegations, that the alleged sexual harrasment scandal wasn't enough to force him to quit, that he could still have a campaign for his ex-mistress to destroy?
Moral of the story: Don't have affairs or harrass people if you want to run for president. Actually, just don't have affairs or harrass people, period.
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