Herman Cain: Sexual behavior shouldn't be a major factor in judging fitness for office

Some political veterans doubt that eager throngs will flock to hear his words of wisdom. “He’s not done in his head yet; he thinks, ‘I’m still going to have big crowds,’” Rollins observes. “In about a week, he’s going to see that there are no crowds. After you’re out, you become totally irrelevant in the political process. They don’t care.”…

In suspending his campaign, Cain cited the adverse impact on his family of charges that he committed sexual misconduct in the workplace and had a 13-year affair with Ginger White. Although he denied any sexual impropriety, he admitted giving money to White without the knowledge of his wife. Cain says she has since recovered from the upsetting effect of those scandals. “Today she feels fine,” he says. “We know what the truth is.”

True or not, Cain believes such issues shouldn’t play a significant role in assessing a candidate’s fitness for office. “I think that focusing so much on someone’s personal, sexual, or marital affairs is a distraction,” he says. “It’s a matter of degree; if it’s above a certain point, yes. If you have someone who has lived a polygamous life, that would raise questions about their character and ability to obey the law. But the fact that somebody had been divorced and remarried—so what? Infidelity? If people want to put that into their evaluation, they have the right to do so. But the first thing I want to assess is your ability to lead and solve problems.”