Some Republicans have too much invested in Cain to turn him loose...

[kentuck]

Primarily, the Tea Party followers of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. They put their money on a losing horse and they can't get their money back. Because if Herman Cain is driven from the race on sexual harassment charges, many of the Tea Party persuasion and many listeners to Rush and Sean will give up. They will not vote in the next election. That is what Rush and Hannity are afraid of... and they have every right to fear that scenario. They helped to create a situation that is about to blow up in their faces. They are about to lose a big portion of Republican voters. They have a lot invested in Herman Cain and they cannot permit the truth to be exposed. They will have to find a way to spin it in such a way that it is the media's fault. The liberal media hate black conservatives. It is nothing more than another "high-tech lynching". That is all that they have left.

[Mz Pip]

1. This is beyond the control of Rush and Hannity

They can rant and rave and demonize all they want but it won't change the facts. This ever growing list of women isn't going away and the longer it gets, the harder it will be to spin this as just some liberal attack on a black conservative.

Sometimes that vast liberal conspiracy doesn't have to do a damn thing.

[Fumesucker]

2. I think you're seriously underestimating the sheer talent for hypocrisy the Repubs have..n/t

[Mz Pip]

4. Not really

All the hypocritical spin in the world won't stop this train wreck. They can try but I think it is rapidly spinning out of control for them. Their rhetoric will get more and more outrageous and ridiculous and after a while only the true fanatics will be able to hang in there.

[Fumesucker]

8. I'm not sure there's many left that will vote in the R primaries who aren't "true fanatics"..

"True fanatic" kind of defines the Repub base actually.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I thought the same thing about Perry a month or so ago

Clearly, Rethug donors heaped many millions of dollars on his campaign. While the steady drip, drip, drip of scandal acid wears away Herman Cain's candidacy, the Repukes still have Newt Gingrich to turn to. He was very adept at conning Cain into that one-on-one debate the other night, I predict that Newtie is the next rodent to rear it's ugly head in the Rethuglican whack-a-mole game.

It's never good to peak too early, as Perry and Bachmann have found out.

[Mz Pip]

5. Or Palin.

She peaked a year too early. She's past her prime.

The trick is to peak at the right time - before people can dig up all that pesky opposition research.

[rustydog]

6. According to these accusations, he was turned loose quite a while back

This jerk needs to be shamed into private life.

[hughee99]

7. Cains just up front to take the slings and arrows for Romney

who they've already figured out is going to be their candidate. For now, Cain is something to keep the press busy. Yeah, the repukes are really going to run a black candidate :sarcasm: ?

The repuke talking heads LOVE this sexual harassment shit because it gives them the opportunity to call any Dem (elected or otherwise) who comments on it as a hypocrite and bring up their FAVORITE subject, Bill Clinton. When crunch time comes, they'll say all the right things about how they like Cain, but he just has too much baggage, and turn their money over to Romney.

[customerserviceguy]

9. You have to admit

Romney's people must be gloating their asses off for the last few months. No, their man hasn't picked up any support, but he hasn't lost it, either. Somebody else gets to wear the bulls-eye with the words, "Front Runner" on it, and be the explicit target of the others.

With the spotlight off of Mittens, he can float above the fray, while his competition self-destructs.

[kentuck]

10. But we have to assume that the supporters of Romney's competitors....

...will support Romney if he is the nominee. I'm not so sure of that? These people are nuts - they are not rational.

[hughee99]

11. Do you think repukes willing to support an African American

can't be brought around to support a Mormon? Yes, they are nuts, which makes it easier to manipulate them if you know the right buttons to push.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Do African-Americans

come around and knock on doors, asking if white people want to become black?

Fundies don't want to give LDS missionaries even another single talking point. If Mittens comes to the convention in Tampa with anything less than a first-ballot victory in hand, and walks out of there with the nomination, the snake-handlers will be super pissed about him "stealing" the nomination. They won't care what their fellow Republicons think.

That's why it's important to have multiple candidacies still alive by this coming summer. If Cain, Romney, and even Gingrich can have delegates in roughly equal shares, then there will be a brokered convention that will leave a majority of the GOP deeply hurt, and willing to get back at the candidate. If Hillary Clinton had wrested the nomination away from Barack Obama, do you think African-Americans would have supported her enthusiastically in the general election? I don't.

[customerserviceguy]

13. Yes, that is a problem

He has a lot of convincing to do, first of the tea partiers, and then of the fundies. It's a tall order, but Romney's people are coasting right now, they don't have to do a lot of damage control.

[opihimoimoi]

12. KnR #5