Why Cain Will Weather The Scandal

While the rest of the media picks over the details of Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment, The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza takes the high road with some analysis of what the candidate’s frontrunner status says about the GOP. Lizza thinks Cain represents a new phenomenon in presidential politics: “the fringe frontrunner.” Presidential campaigns have always featured oddball candidates with slim résumés (see: Steve Forbes), but never before has one come so close to winning the nomination. This time is different, Lizza writes, because people are more inclined to welcome “simple answers to a tough set of problems.” No sex scandal can rob the 9-9-9 plan of its simplicity.