Monday, October 31, 2011

Herman Cain & Sexual Harassment

Politico has suggested that Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment in the past, and that two women were awarded settlements as a result. Now it’s all over the news. I don’t know if he did it or not (he says he didn’t), and there aren’t any specific details. But I can’t help but wonder, what might it have been like had he done it?

When he worked for Burger King, could he have gotten in trouble for saying his pants were the “home of the whopper”? When he ran Godfather’s Pizza, could he have made someone uncomfortable by saying he had some “extra sausage” for them? While working for Pillsbury, might he have caused offense by asking someone to poke him and make him giggle like the dough boy?

Since there are no details available, all I can do is wonder. But somehow, I think making us use our imaginations might end up being worse in the long run than if we knew everything right now. Because then at least we wouldn’t be leaping into speculative flights of fancy, like the above “wild” guesses. Because after all, it’s a lot more fun imagining what might have happened, if anything, than it is imagining nothing happened.

It’s odd that this whole thing came out on Halloween, because it’s both a trick and a treat: a trick for the Cain campaign, and a treat for the news. And it’s like free candy for the millions of American scandal fans! Oh, and it also probably feels like a horror movie for Herman Cain.