The Other McCain

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HERMAN CAIN PRESS CONFERENCE UPDATE: Video, Headlines, Reaction

Posted on | November 8, 2011 | 105 Comments

UPDATE 6:05 p.m. ET: The Lonely Conservative has video:

UPDATE 6:51 p.m.: A quick sample of major media headlines:

Herman Cain: I’d take lie detector test
to rebut Sharon Bialek claims
— CBS News

Cain on dropping out of presidential
race: ‘Ain’t going to happen’
— Daily Caller

Cain denies harassment claims
— USA Today

Cain Says Alleged Groping
‘Simply Did Not Happen’
— Wall Street Journal

It is too early to analyze or evaluate the long-term impact. The immediate reaction toward Cain’s press conference has been generally positive. If he didn’t “hit a home run,” as they say, he at least got a solid stand-up double. And his vow that he will continue the campaign, without regard to his accusers or their accusations, is perhaps the most important thing he said during the press conference.


UPDATE 5:58 p.m. ET: Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints is profoundly skeptical of Sharon Bialek. Allahpundit is poll-watching:

Finally, here’s the latest from Gallup showing some movement in Cain’s “positive intensity” score since the allegations first started flying.

What counts, really, is the results of the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, now just eight weeks away. All the polling in the world at this point is just a wild shot at a moving target. It’s been nine days since these accusations first surfaced, and we have many more news cycles to go through before we’ll know how the voters in Iowa view this.

UPDATE 5:40 p.m. ET: The press conference is over, and I think anyone who watched it will agree that it went well for Herman Cain. His lawyer’s opening statement might have helped put the press on notice to treat the candidate respectfully. The post-press conference panel discussion now on Fox News seems favorable toward Cain. I’ll be aggregating reaction and adding commentary in a moment.

UPDATE 5:27 p.m. ET: ABC News asks about former employee Karen Kraushaar, now a spokeswoman for the IRS, and Cain says her accusations were determined to be “baseless.”

UPDATE 5:23 p.m. ET: “In no way am I trying to minimize sexual harassment in the workplace. . . . It’s very serious.”

UPDATE 5:20 p.m. ET: The floor is opened to question, CBS reporter asks him if he would take a lie-detector test. He says yes.

UPDATE 5:16 p.m. ET: “We will get through this.” Makes frequent references to “the American people,” talks about his wife, Gloria.

UPDATE 5:14 p.m. ET: Any suggestion that he will withdraw from the campaign “ain’t gonna happen. . . . I will not be deterred.”

UPDATE 5:12 p.m. ET: Herman Cain says he wants to “take my message directly to the people. . . . I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period.” He says, in essence, he doesn’t know Sharon Bialek from Adam’s housecat.

UPDATE 5:08 p.m. ET: We’re live! Cain’s lawyer talks about his own experience in representing victims of harassment and sexual assault. They didn’t act like Sharon Bialek, he says. Herman Cain is now being tried “in the court of public opinion.” Lawyer, he seems pretty pissed.

* * * PREVIOUSLY 4:49 p.m. ET * * *

Scheduled to begin in Phoenix at 3 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. ET. It will be liveblogged, summarized, aggregated, et cetera. A sample of headlines:

Cain accuser has history of
financial troubles, legal squabbles
— Chicago Tribune

Jobless & shameless gal going for gold
— NY Post

Cain Camp Questions Bialek’s Background
— National Review

GOP senator says Cain should
quit if allegations are true
— CNN

The GOP Senator? Lisa Murkowski. Yeah, right.

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Scandal

Comments

105 Responses to “HERMAN CAIN PRESS CONFERENCE UPDATE: Video, Headlines, Reaction”

  1. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 9th, 2011 @ 9:42 am

    You KNOW that nobody but the blogs will touch it, and even most blogs won’t go there. You’ll not see anything negative about Obama in the media, that’s for sure. It’s technically a rumor & you can read about it a HillBuzz, but under the new standards of media and politics, all rumors are totally true unless proven otherwise. I don’t see any proof that Obama did not have that affair or have those gay ex lovers killed. 

  2. Bob Belvedere
    November 9th, 2011 @ 9:45 am

    Zilla, Knauer is just a Leftist troll.

  3. ThePaganTemple
    November 9th, 2011 @ 9:54 am

    There’s a big difference though. That one gay man who accused Obama actually come out and made the charge. So far, I’ve never heard anyone say anything about Kal Penn and Obama who would be in a position to where they could legitimately claim to be “in the know”. It’s just people talking without any real evidence to go on. Now if Penn was to come out and make such a statement that would be cool. Or even if some low level staffer came out and claimed they saw them sneaking a kiss, or something like that. But just saying “that job Penn got was suspicious, he and Obama must be gay lovers” doesn’t meet any reasonable criterion.

  4. Zilla of the Resistance
    November 9th, 2011 @ 10:06 am

    “Reasonable” left the room many years ago. Unless someone can prove that Obama is NOT a love ’em & kill ’em gay serial killer, he is.

  5. It’s Morning in Vanuatu Again : The Other McCain
    November 10th, 2011 @ 2:19 pm

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