Herman Cain is blaming liberals for the recent sexual harrassment allegations against him. I guess that's the thing to say if you're running for the GOP nomination, but obviously it would be dumb timing for any actual liberal to hand a bad story on Cain to the media right now. If you're a liberal, you'd sit tight and wait until Cain is the nominee to start dumping stuff on him. (I think Cain is extremely unlikely to be the nominee.)
This looks like the work of one of his GOP competitors. My top suspect would be the Perry campaign, just because it makes sense for them to do it -- they certainly don't want this Cain surge lasting any longer.
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I think you shouldn't fall for the intellectual trap of blaming this on some political interest or another. Politico is perfectly motivated to find any sensationalist scoop about the campaign that they can.
I think you nailed it Neil. This has rat-fuckery all over it, and Rove is working with Perry.b
I'm with Mark on this, because (at a cursory glance) this looked like it involved obscure enough stuff to be the work of an oppo researcher rather than Politico on its own.
The Politico story gave away where the original lead came from, I think. It said that one of the women told her current employer about the settlement because of Cain's new prominence, to warn them about what might be coming. This obviously proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but whether her current employer is a Romney or Perry fan is unknowable at this point.
Democrats definitely don't have any interest in seeing Cain dissolve. I think the only thing Obama would like more than facing Cain in the general election would be if Cain ran as a third-party candidate, which I think is quite a likely possibility if (when) the party elites coalesce around Romney. The Tea Party will be looking for a spoiler and Cain is a star who the GOP establishment has absolutely no leverage over.
I thought Rove was working for Romney on the down-low. I'd heard that Rove can't stand Perry.
Right, Rove and the rest of the GOP establishment has jumped on the Romney bandwagon, and who can blame them? Its like Mitt's Chuck Yeager and the rest of the field is John Kennedy Jr by comparison.
I'd go so far as to argue that anytime a prominent Republican says positive things about Cain (like Haley Barbour a couple weeks ago), the subtext is undercutting Rick Perry. So yes, Team Perry is the obvious suspect here.
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