Cain to Confer With Wife Over Campaign
Herman Cain said that his family is “number 1” and announced plans Wednesday to meet with his wife to determine his future in the 2012 race.
In what started as an upbeat, we-won’t-quit speech, Cain told New Hampshire supporters that he would be going home to discuss things with his wife of 43 years, Gloria.
“I have told people that over the next several days, I and my team – but particularly my family – we’re going to do a reassessment,” he told the crowd.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Cain acknowledged to New Hampshire supporters he is having little luck shaking off allegations of sexual impropriety. “They keep coming after me,” he said.
He told that crowd gathered at his Lowell Street headquarters he will return home to Atlanta Friday where he will meet “face-to-face” with his wife and then emerge the following week with a decision.
Cain attempted to minimize the significance of his decision to reconsider things as simply a wise business practice. His campaign has also told The Christian Post that Cain has been receiving lots of support from his followers.
However, he was more candid about the effects of the affair allegations in a Fox News interview.
When pressed to say whether or not he would hang up his campaign if speculation about Ginger White – who claimed to have had a 13-year affair with Cain – and others continued to swirl, Cain responded, “The answer is yes.”
White, a single mother and Atlanta businesswoman, came out this week to a local news channel about her relationship with Cain. She turned over phone records showing 61 recorded phone calls and texts from the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and alleged that their relationship had been a “physical” one up until eight months ago, when they allegedly ended the affair.
Cain acknowledged that White had been a friend whom he tried to help out of financial difficulties.
Background checks have revealed that she faced eviction numerous times including last month. White said she is unemployed with two children.
Before the allegation, Cain’s campaign was plagued with sexual harassment charges from four different women, including Sharon Bailek.
Bailek told reporters in a press conference that Cain groped her and “grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch,” saying, “'You want a job, right?'”
He told Fox’s Neil Cavuto that the continued claims have hurt his family and caused his wife to feel “disappointed and hurt by all of this stuff.”
Cain said his wife has demanded an explanation and he has told her the truth. But, he said, the story is still taking a “very damaging effect” and an “emotional toll” on her.
The stories have impacted poll numbers also.
Once a high-flying candidate in early primary states Iowa and South Carolina, he has dropped in the national polls to a distant third place (15.5 percent, according to Real Clear Politics) behind Mitt Romney (21.3 percent) and Newt Gingrich (23.8 percent).
Still, Cain told New Hampshire volunteers, in the words of baseball great Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, “It ain't over till it's over, and it ain't over yet.”
