There is no ‘good’ way to handle this crappola. It is like trying to convince people you have quit beating your wife.... What we should be doing is excoriating the media cycle jerks who promote this stuff. They treat everything like it is Kim K’s wedding/divorce news...breathless, all important, and can’t repeat enough rumor.
There may indeed be no “good” way to handle this, as you say, but you can’t argue that Cain couldn’t have done a better job.