A new Rasmussen Reports poll may portend bad news for Herman Cain, the Republican presidential contender who has been dogged in recent day by allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior in the 1990s. The poll also paints a pretty dismal picture of political ethics in general.
“Most voters now say that the sexual harassment allegations made against Herman Cain may be both serious and true,” according to the pollster. “At the same time, two-thirds believe Cain’s ethics are at least as good as most politicians.”
The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted this week, found that 51 percent of voters nationwide agreed that the accusations against Mr. Cain — whose problems continued to pile up Monday when Sharon Bialek, a former employee of the National Restaurant Association, which Mr. Cain once headed, charged in a high-profile press conference that Mr. Cain made an unwanted pass at her in 1997.
Mr. Cain pushed back in a press conference on Tuesday, dismissing all the allegations against him as “baseless.”
