Well, he could have started off by admitting he knew about it, he could have stopped having to acknowledge things piecemeal, he could have remembered that he discussed the matter with his advisors (as he now admits) back in 2004 during his other failed run for office, and he could stop attacking people for asking him about it and he could stop blaming his rivals for the whole thing.
He is “handling” it exactly the way Clinton “handled” the Monica problem, even though it sounds like there was far less there to worry about in the first place. Why didn’t he just admit it, say that settlements had been made, and humbly say that he regrets any impropriety or even appearance of impropriety? It would all be over by now.
But this is definitely ending in an ugly way. I think not only has he damaged himself, he has damaged all the other candidates in the race too.
Clinton was not 12 to 15 years away from his sexual dalliances. No one has suggested anything other than verbuage that made them ‘uncomfortable’. There were no court cases. At least one had a small payout of severance as she left the association. Cain has handled this the way that any ordinary citizen would have if asked about something that happened over a decade ago.
For example, what were you doing 11,7,2001? We have reports that you were involved in something very bad. Do you deny it? Why not?