Cain Suspends Presidential Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain on Saturday, Dec. 3, suspended his campaign amid allegations that he carried on a 13-year affair with a Georgia businesswoman and sexually harassed several other women while head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

"I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction and hurt caused on me and my family," he said as his wife Gloria stood by his side.

Cain also criticized the media for promoting what he repeatedly described as false allegations that he said sidetracked his campaign. "The voice of the people is more powerful than the media," he said. "Message is more powerful than money."

Georgia Woman Alleges 13-Year Affair with Cain

Here we go again!

An Atlanta television station on Monday, Nov. 28, aired portions of an interview with a Georgia woman who claims she had a 13 year affair with Herman Cain.

“It was pretty simple,” Ginger White told WAGA reporter Dale Russell in an interview that the television station said took place over Thanksgiving weekend. “It wasn't complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”

White went public with her claim less than a month after several women alleged that Cain sexually harassed them while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. The former Godfathers Pizza CEO categorically denied the women's allegations, and lawyer Lin Wood issued a statement shortly after Cain himself told CNN that WAGA was about to broadcast its interview with White.

"This appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public," said Wood. "No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door."

Will this latest revelation mark the end of the Cain circus once and for all?

Poll: Romney Gains More Ground in N.H.

A new poll shows that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to gain more ground against his challengers in New Hampshire.

The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, found that 42 percent of likely Republican primary voters would vote for Romney, compared to 15 percent who said they would back former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Texas Congressman Ron Paul received 12 percent, while 8 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would vote for former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Only four percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would support Herman Cain.

With less than two months until the primary, the poll also found that nearly 60 percent of New Hampshire voters remain undecided.

Poll: Romney, Gingrich Lead Among Republicans

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney remains the frontrunner among the Republican presidential candidates, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continues to gain momentum over his rivals.

Twenty percent of Republicans who responded to the poll between Nov. 13-17 said Romney is their first choice, while 19 percent said that they would choose Gingrich. Sixteen percent of GOP voters said they would vote for Herman Cain, while only eight percent named Texas Gov. Rick Perry as their top choice.

Is Romney the Nominee-in-Waiting?
Romney's campaign received a boost over the weekend when New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte endorsed the former Massachusetts governor. New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass will officially endorse Romney later on Monday, Nov. 21. It appears increasingly likely that Romney will become the Republican presidential nominee at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa in August, but the voters of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other early caucus states will soon have their say and anything can happen between now and then.

Stay tuned...

A Fourth Woman Accuses Cain of Sexual Harassment

A fourth woman has come forward to allege that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her.

Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred at a Manhattan press conference earlier on Monday, Nov. 7, Sharon Bialek alleges that Cain made an unwanted sexual advance against her after they had dinner in Washington, D.C., in July 1997. Bialek said she had contacted Cain, who was then head of the National Restaurant Association, in hopes that he could help her find a job.

"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said, as reported by the Associated Press. "He also pushed my head towards his crotch."

Three other women have accused Cain of sexual harassment and other inappropriate conduct while he headed the lobby group in the 1990s. Politico reported on Oct. 30 that two of the women accepted five-figure settlements from the lobbying group after they came forward with their allegations.

The former Godfather's Pizza CEO categorically denied Bialek's claims. Cain has also dismissed the three other women's allegations as fabricated.

Will Allegations of Inappropriate Conduct Derail the Cain Juggernaut?

Will allegations of inappropriate conduct against two former female National Restaurant Association staffers derail Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s improbable campaign?

Politico reported late on Sunday, Oct. 30, that the women accepted five figure settlements from the lobbying group in the 1990s after they complained that Cain, who was then the head of the trade association, had demonstrated inappropriate behavior towards them. Sources whom Politico did not identify said the reported incidents included sexually suggestive conversations that took place at conferences, at association events and in the organization’s offices and inappropriate physical gestures that made the women uncomfortable.

Cain topped a new poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers that the Des Moines Register released on Saturday, Oct. 29. These reported allegations come on the heels of the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO’s controversial comments on immigration and the release of an unconventional campaign video that features his campaign manager smoking a cigarette.

“Fearing the message of Herman Cain who is shaking up the political landscape in Washington, Inside the Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain,” the Cain campaign told Politico in a statement. “Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before – a prominent conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics.”

Presidential campaigns are certainly not for the faint of heart, but will these reported allegations prove the straw that broke the Cain juggernaut’s back?

Stay tuned.

DNC Chair Blasts Cain for Asserting Homosexuality Is A Choice

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Tuesday, Oct. 4, blasted Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for asserting during an appearance on "The View" earlier in the day that homosexuality is a choice

"It’s shockingly out of touch and insensitive for him to suggest—outdated, ancient—and sends a terrible message to gay kids, to gay Americans that somehow they should be treated differently and that we don’t recognize that sexuality is simply a matter of the way you were born," said the Florida congresswoman after she spoke at an Immigration Equality fundraiser in Washington, D.C.

Wasserman Schultz conceded that she had not heard that Cain had made the assertion until this reporter asked her to comment on it.

"I totally disagree with Herman Cain," she said. "Homosexuality is not a choice, it is something that occurs through birth. It’s hereditary."

Rick Perry’s Race Problem

Texas Gov. Rick Perry remains on the offensive after the Washington Post reported on Sunday, Oct. 2, that a rock at the entrance of a hunting camp that both he and his father once leased contained a racial slur. Perry’s campaign moved quickly to downplay the article, but Herman Cain described the offensive sign as “a sign of insensitivity” during an interview with Christiane Amanpour on “This Week.”

Presidential hopefuls subject themselves to an exceedingly harsh spotlight that often exploits unflattering details of their personal lives—news of then-presidential candidate George W. Bush’s 1976 arrest for driving under the influence near his parents’ vacation home in Maine broke less than a week before the 2000 presidential election is one of the myriad of notable examples of this predictable phenomenon. Race and politics remain a combustible mix in this country. The question remains, however, whether this controversy will prove more than another tempest in a highly polarized tea pot.