Part one is here. In it, I said that Herman Cain was using the goat defense to meet the rising, well, chorus of voices claiming that he was guilty of sexual harassment. (I am not going to repeat the goat defense here; you will just have to go to the earlier post to read about it.)
Candidate Cain had a press conference yesterday to clear everything up. In his dreams. Jennifer Rubin -- of all people -- wrote this about the presser in the Washington Post:
There’s really no way to adequately describe how downright weird Herman Cain’s news conference was today. There was Cain referring to “Herman Cain,” a throwback to Bob Dole’s frequent use of self-referential third person. There was the part where he told us that there may be other allegations --- but those will be false. Memorable, too, was his insistence that the claimants are all anonymous, when in fact two women have been identified by name. Then there was the ranting and raving about the media, although Sharon Bialek came forth with no media filter. I sorta liked the part where he conceded that there was no “definitive” — definitive in the sense of “any” — proof that he was the victim of a conspiracy.
In a way, this was a fitting downfall: The slick ex-talk show host undone by his own rambling. He was no longer charming. He was desperate and entirely unbelievable. Forget the presidency. Forget becoming a conservative icon. Cain succeeded only in leaving the impression that he may be a bit off his rocker.
It is fascinating to watch Herman Cain self destruct. It is even more fascinating to watch the goat defense in action.
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