The big story in the GOP race for the presidential nomination for the last couple months has been Herman Cain. From his meteoric rise to the top as Conservatives were quickly disenchanted with Rick Perry, to the wall-to-wall coverage of sexual harassment allegations; Herman Cain has been propelled into the public consciousness. So let’s take a look.

Cain’s background is impressive. Born during a time when racial prejudice was the norm, to a mother who worked as a cleaning woman and a father who held down three jobs (janitor, barber and chauffer) just to make ends meet, Cain applied himself to education and earned a degree in Mathematics. Yes, Mathematics – not political science, sociology, or Liberal Arts. The man understands MATH. Probably a good idea for one who seeks the presidency at a time of trillion dollar deficits and massive debt!

From there he went on to earn a Masters Degree in Computer Science. He understands technology – another good idea for one aspiring to lead the nation in the age of tablet PCs, smart-phones, Facebook and Twitter.

Parts of his business career are well known. His legendary leadership of Godfathers Pizza, where his stint as CEO saved the company; and his term on the board of directors at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank are fairly common knowledge. His suddenly controversial time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association is also becoming well known.

Lesser known, perhaps, are his service with the Navy, where he designed Fire Control Systems; a time working for Coca Cola, and his Vice Presidency of Pillsbury. He also has a radio program and writes as a columnist.

Cain’s prowess as a businessman is undeniable. He understands markets, economics, problem solving, power delegation, responsibility and accountability. His leadership skills are unassailable.

Political wonks may remember, but it bears pointing out to the public at large that during Herman Cain’s tenure as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, he attended a televised Town Hall meeting where Bill Clinton was defending his proposed healthcare reform, later to be known as “HillaryCare.” Clinton was claiming that his reform would not harm American business owners. Cain spoke up, saying, “Quite honestly, Mr. President, your calculations are incorrect. In the competitive marketplace, it simply doesn’t work that way.”

Cain’s words resonated through the nation, and Newsweek later credited him as the “primary saboteur” of HillaryCare.

Unlike Mitt Romney, Cain has a long history of standing up AGAINST government healthcare. This took place in 1994.

So what of these harassment allegations?

Only Herman Cain and the accusers know exactly what took place. but we can look objectively at what we do know and try to make sense of it.

The allegations were made in 1998. The Restaurant Association settled with the 2 women with one getting around $30,000 and the other around $45,000, according to the Politico. This represented a year’s salary. No civil action was ever brought against Cain personally.

To anyone familiar with business or with the legal system, making a settlement payout, especially one so small – relatively speaking – is certainly not prima facie evidence that an allegation has merit! It’s nuisance insurance. Companies will often settle such claims rather than invest time and expense in fighting off spurious complaints and allegations. It’s part of the cost of doing business and if you investigate any company of size, or any CEO of prominence, you’ll probably find somewhere, sometime, that they settled a meritless claim against them!

But let’s leave aside the he-said, she said for a time. It is much more interesting and telling to analyze the REACTIONS to these allegations coming to light.

Here we see Herman Cain, a successful black CONSERVATIVE man, and a rising star politically who could very well take a position of power a year from now.

Black conservatism is on the rise, and threatens the very fabric of the Democrat demographic. Successful black conservatives run counter to the narrative that empowers the Left: that blacks are oppressed and unable to achieve apart from white liberal beneficence! That blacks need liberals to “take care of them.” Blacks are indoctrinated to believe that success is impossible – unless that success comes from pimping the very dependence and victimhood that empowers the left, like Jackson, Sharpton and Obama! But let a black man apply conservative principles and attain success, and he will become a target. While no black man CAN succeed on the Democrat’s plantation of enforced dependency, no black man may be allowed to succeed if they’re OFF that plantation! Especially if that success leads to prominence, public attention, or worse – political power!

Hearken back to the mid 90s and Clarence Thomas!

Remember that the Anita Hill allegations were based on little more than a coke can – and a hair described as “pubic” but which could easily have fallen innocently off the head of a black man. Coarse curly hair may have a “pubic” association in the white mind, but could be found on the bathroom sink of most any black man who combs his hair or trims his beard in front of a mirror!

Still, the Left and their willing accomplices in the media did everything they could to turn this allegation into the “borking” of Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court. Not because it had any bearing whatsoever on his character, but because they saw it as a weapon to use to derail a black conservative on his way to a position of power and influence.

The duplicity and hypocrisy of the left is astoundingly striking when it comes to such allegations as those leveled against Thomas and Cain.

On such flimsy evidence as a Coke can or a hand gesture and comment about one’s height, the entire character of a man is held in question, yet water was carried for a John Edwards until the NATIONAL ENQUIRER did the journalistic job the mainstream press WOULDN’T do and presented incontrovertible evidence that finally proved his downfall. And the left went so far as to REDEFINE SEX in defense of Bill Clinton, when there was a stained blue dress as evidence of his misdeeds in the very Oval Office!

The attempt to derail the Cain Train with these allegations may well backfire, as the American People are seeing through the dirty politics. Some free advice to those who oppose a Cain presidency (whether on the left or the right): If you find fault with his policies, platform, plan or proposals, then debate those issues on their merits. But the politics of personal destruction has seen its heyday and it has come and gone. The American people are tired of it, and will punish the purveyors of it with their votes.

Copyright C 2011 by Doug Edelman

Doug Edelman is a conservative political analyst and commentator, writes for the St Louis Examiner, at http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-st-louis/doug-edelman and was a contributing editor for The Conservative Voice. His work has appeared on ChronWatch, Western Front American, Small Government Times, Western Journalism, News By Us, The American Daily, The Post Chronicle, New Media Journal, Capitol Hill Coffee House and more. Mr. Edelman is also an IT Consultant/Contractor and owner of a Computer Services Business. He has taught PC Maintenance & Repair and Networking at his local Community College, and maintains a blog at http://starboard.blogtownhall.com.