Until you’ve been the subject of an attack like Cain and Palin you’ll never know how insidious and debilitating it is. It sucks the wind out of your sails no matter how much determination you have. Cain claims he’s still going to be an advocate for America. So has Palin in her way. Both had to remove themselves from the bullseye.
Unfortunately the psychological war conducted against Cain leveraged human weakness. No matter what we hear or read, subconscious factors kick in that affect our judgement. The age group polling demonstrated that. It takes someone who’s mentally tough to get past that stuff. Many cannot. Cain suffered as a result.
I think it was telling that so many people were demanding proof that he did not commit the deeds. On a post at another site, a woman went ballistic over the sexual harassment aspects. She was really pissed at Cain. There was no judgement there except a foregone conclusion and instant anger at the perceived offender.
I’ve seen that personally. Locally we have a woman predisposed to false allegations. I’ve seen her unfounded allegations trigger similar reactions in other women. I think women are very likely to have experienced harassment at some point. Society in advocating political correctness has blurred many lines. What may have been shrugged off in the past, now gets more attention.
Add to that a lack of critical thinking and you have an easily manipulated public. When the pack instinct kicks in the accused is dead meat.
First they came for Cain, and I said nothing because I didn’t support Cain.
Then they went after Newt, and I said nothing because I didn’t support Newt;
The Rats and their operatives have a lot of these women in the can for any Republican candidate, now it will be Newt’s turn.
Palin was not debilitated.
She laughed off the accusations against her no differently from how Obama and (Bill) Clinton did, because (as with those guys), the accusations were either false, unsubstantiated, or irrelevant in they eyes of a decisive majority of the public.
Palin CHOSE to move on to her media career rather than fight in Alaska, and she CHOSE to keep on her media career rather than run for President. Her choices in both cases were perfectly rational. Staying as Governor was costing her a lot and benefiting her little. Running for President would damage her media career and while being prohibitively unlikely to end up with her in the White House.
I agree with your assessment - it’s a double-edged sword against the candidate since there’s no good answer to “Have you stopped beating your wife?”, and it’s also unseemly for a candidate to attack the accuser (unless the accuser is Joe the plummer). Now that Herman’s officially a civilian citizen again, I hope he exacts a few pounds of flesh from the accusers.
“Add to that a lack of critical thinking and you have an easily manipulated [FreeRe]public.”
Lots of useful idiots here, aiding the Cain-haters. Next, their candidate will be the subject of attacks ...
And they think they are fit to lead the United States?