Video: Trying to stay on message at an event Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain got testy with reporters asking him about sexual harassment charges against him during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association.
But like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick in the Peter Sellers film “The Mouse that Roared,” Cain found himself triumphant against all odds. “We are surprised we’re doing so well so fast,” he acknowledged to the business leaders in Tyson’s Corner.
But now, under the scrutiny that comes with being a top-tier candidate, Cain’s lark has become hard labor. The sunny candidate is now snarling and shouting, and obviously not enjoying himself in the least.
He arrived about 45 minutes after he was expected for his breakfast speech at the Ritz, and aides made sure to clear the hallway so that reporters couldn’t get within 30 yards of him. He wasted little time getting to his persecution complaints. “There is a force at work here that is much greater than those who would try to destroy me,” he said, “and that force is called the voice of the people. That’s why we’re doing as well as we are in the campaign thus far.”
There was silence in the room. “Y’all were supposed to applaud,” the candidate said.
At the Hilton, his campaign called off the “news conference” it had scheduled with reporters. Instead, Cain gave a few perfunctory words about health care while surrounded by people in white coats; they said they were doctors opposed to Obamacare, but there was no need to wear their white coats to the Hilton ballroom unless they were concerned about coffee spills.
To give the reporters the slip, Cain left the room through a service door, then used a service elevator to escape from the hotel. His chief of staff, the cigarette aficionado, was chased by reporters until he slammed the door of his chauffeur-driven Cadillac, which peeled out.
Next stop: a meeting to discuss health care with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where a media mob of more than 50 was waiting for him.
“Can you tell us why you lost your temper this morning?” Fox News’s Chad Pergram asked, as Cain and his entourage walked through the hall.
“Should a man whose company paid $35,000 for a woman to keep quiet be president?” asked NBC’s Luke Russert.
This time, Cain ignored them. As the party got to the meeting room, his bodyguard resumed his shoving and elbowing, blocking congressional staff and reporters from getting into the meeting. When challenged, the bodyguard explained himself: “I make the rules.”
Not anymore.
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