Herman Cain ends 2012 bid
December 13, 2011 Category :News Off
(Reuters) – Former pizza magnate Herman Cain dropped out of the presidential race on Saturday after accusations of sexual misconduct overwhelmed his bid to win the Republican nomination as an anti-Washington tax reformer.
Cain’s departure set off a competition amongst other candidates to win over his conservative supporters with voting to begin next month within the race to figure out the Republicans’ presidential pick for 2012 to oppose President Barack Obama.
Cain, a former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive, told followers in his hometown of Atlanta that “false and unproved” sexual accusations had forced him to suspend his White House bid.
He stated he would endorse another candidate, successfully ending a roller-coaster campaign that saw the African-American businessman go from total outsider towards the rising star of Republican conservatives inside a few weeks over the autumn.
Cain held a Friday night meeting with his wife, Gloria, who has stayed largely silent as a number of ladies accused her husband of sexual harassment and an Atlanta businesswoman this week stated she had carried out a 13-year affair with him.
Gloria Cain appeared at his side on Saturday and smiled throughout.
Cain’s departure shapes the wide-open Republican race more clearly into a matchup in between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and surging rival Newt Gingrich, former speaker with the House of Representatives.
Reuters/Ipsos poll data released this week showed Gingrich and Romney would benefit most if Cain quit.
Support for Romney and Gingrich would rise by three percentage points every, against the 1- or 2-point bumps Cain’s departure would give some of their rivals for the nomination.
Gingrich, a fellow Georgian, said he would meet with Cain subsequent week.
“I don’t anticipate anything,” CNN reported Gingrich as saying. Cain has to “make up his own thoughts,” Gingrich said.
Romney said in New Hampshire he sought backing from Cain supporters. “I hope as they evaluate the numerous candidates, they conclude that I’m the leader they require,” he said.
Suspending his campaign rather of quitting altogether lets Cain continue raising money that he could use to spend off any debt he had run up.
CLOUD OF DOUBT
Cain, 65, said a “cloud of doubt” had settled over his campaign. He insisted that accusations he sexually harassed several women and had an affair with Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White were simply not accurate.
“I am suspending my campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt,” Cain said at an event that had been planned as the grand opening of his campaign headquarters in Atlanta.
Cain won attention for his 9-9-9 strategy to reduce the tax code to 9 percent on earnings, sales and corporate taxes.
Following jumping into the front-runner position two months ago, Cain had been in a totally free fall in the past month. His support in Iowa, which holds the first U.S. nominating contest on January 3, stands at 8 percent.
Cain spoke of getting made mistakes but didn’t elaborate. His campaign also suffered from a number of stumbles that included a long pause when he tried to answer a routine question about Libya.
“I’ve produced errors professionally, personally, as a candidate, when it comes to how I run my campaign. And I take responsibility for the errors that I’ve made. And I’ve been the very first to own as much as any mistakes I’ve produced,” Cain stated.
Supporter Kristen Keating, 35 of Decatur, Georgia, wept following Cain’s announcement.
“I think in his strategy and his vision for leadership and his solutions for very serious problems which are way beyond his own private life,” she said. “His plan was so clear. I comprehend it. ”
She has not decided what candidate to support for president now.
In Iowa, the Cain campaign’s state chairman, Steve Grubbs, told Radio Iowa he was not shocked by Cain’s decision.
“My counsel would have been to remain the course and see it through, but clearly he thought a different way and I’ll be at peace with that,” he said.
What do you do with 3,000 yard signs? Grubbs said. “You recycle.”
(Additional reporting by Kay Henderson in Des Moines, Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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