Cain Down for the Count

The Republican field of presidential candidates was more fun with Herman Cain in the running, but in the end his sexcapades brought him down. Now Newt Gingrich may benefit.

The days of the amusing candidate Herman Cain and the many affairs and sexual harassment incidents he claimed never happened are now past history: Cain has abandoned his candidacy.

Less than four weeks before the Republican primary race enters its next round, Newt Gingrich is the new front runner for the American right.

The leader of the conservative revolution of the 1990s and former speaker of the House of Representatives says of himself, “I’m going to be the nominee.” With Gingrich running, the Republican primaries will become more contentious because Gingrich has knocked Mitt Romney, already unpopular with the tea party base, down to second place.

It took five women to force Herman Cain to throw in the towel. Four of them accused him of sexual harassment and the fifth went on television to declare that she and the already married Cain had had a 13-year affair. Cain denied everything, claiming the women were confused or were motivated by money to make the accusations. Meanwhile, one after the other, he accused his competitor Rick Perry, the Democratic Party and the media of waging a defamatory campaign against him.

At the end, he retreated into the role of victim, saying the “accusations” would damage him and his family and would be a distraction from the important issues on which he needed to work. On Saturday, at the Atlanta location he intended to christen his campaign headquarters, he instead announced he was suspending his campaign. His wife, Gloria, who had not been closely involved in his campaign, stood a few paces away from him.

The former CEO of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, and later lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, was the only candidate to provide the Republican primary race with a personal touch. His wit and intelligence were well received. The simplicity of his 9-9-9 taxation plan and the fact that he was a Washington outsider who hadn’t previously held office helped him attain great popularity with the Republican Party’s right-wing base.

The previously unknown Cain was the Republican’s favorite for weeks. The that fact he was unaware China had been a nuclear power for decades and that he had little knowledge of Uzbekistan or Libya didn’t damage his image in the least. Cain’s star only went into decline when the first women, through their attorneys, went public with charges that Cain sexually harassed them when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

Cain naturally denied wrongdoing but had to change his version of events almost daily, and he became less believable when it was revealed that several women had made similar charges against him and had received relatively large settlements from the National Restaurant Association. Cain suffered the worst damage when he was finally accused of carrying on a lengthy extramarital affair, a charge Cain again denied. But a few days later, he explained that he had made regular and recent payments to his accuser for reasons of friendship and because he was a generous man. He also acknowledged that he did so without his wife’s knowledge.

In the end, the media focused almost exclusively on his private life and his strange defense strategy but ignored his policies.

Additionally, the unspoken motto among Republicans — “Anybody But Romney” — still held fast. The conservative base still didn’t trust the man who as governor of Massachusetts introduced a healthcare reform program that later became the basis for Barack Obama’s national plan. The conservative base considers Romney to be an opportunist who changes his political policies to suit different audiences.

Gingrich, on the other hand, is a horse of a different color. The “speaker” shoots in all directions. He accuses President Obama of suffering from cognitive dissonance; he attacks party colleagues like Paul Ryan for “social engineering” with his economic plans; and he suggests that children from poor families should be punished by putting them to work.

During a speech last week, he claimed that such children and their families had no exposure to a work ethic and didn’t know what to do with money. The current front runner suggested that such children be employed as “janitorial helpers” who could be used to mop floors and clean toilets.

Up to now, the Obama campaign as well as the rest of the Republican field has been directing their fire at Romney, who has remained self confident of his primary victory and who has been receiving the lion’s share of political donations. But Romney has long been stagnant in public opinion polls.

With Herman Cain’s departure the cards will now be reshuffled in the Republican camp. Cain’s backers come mainly from the right-wing tea party movement. Most of them will probably now switch to Gingrich’s camp.