Herman Cain and his wife’s permission
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, with his wife Gloria in the background, salutes the crowd before announcing the suspension of his campaign. AP/David Tulis
In the end, Herman Cain’s wife, the diminutive woman he said held the key to his future as a presidential candidate, was a case of misdirection.
For days, Herman Cain had told the friendly faces on cable TV that he would head home to Atlanta for a face-to-face discussion with Gloria, his spouse of 43 years – the woman he first romanced with a movie date at Lenox Square, but who had declined to become part of his political quest.
Without her support, Cain said, his Republican campaign would collapse in the face of a new allegation that he had engaged in a long-time affair with another woman – a charge that he had denounced not just as untrue, but unproven.
So on Saturday, a very specific question hung over the new state headquarters for the Cain campaign, a storefront operation close enough to I-85 in DeKalb County to catch the breeze created by the traffic. Would Gloria Cain be there? Several hundred Cain fans were given two hours to mull the situation over.
Kay Godwin and Pat Tippett drove more than five hours from south Georgia to be there. If you are a politician in Georgia interested in winning a statewide race, you know that the two women are the fulcrum for thousands of Republican votes below the gnat line.
Godwin has known Cain for 20 years. She thinks the sexual accusations against him are hogwash, a creation of a fearful Republican establishment and the liberal media. But on Saturday, during the waiting, she also declared that she thought that Cain had been ill-served by his national staff.
“Pat and I have the 1st Congressional District. We have 26 of our 29 counties already organized. We have a conference call with them every Tuesday night,” Godwin said.
Cain supporters in south Georgia had come to two conclusions. “No. 1, if he doesn’t get rid of [campaign manager] Mark Block and those people surrounding him, he’s going nowhere,” the GOP activist said.
That included Atlanta lawyer Lin Wood, who, in Cain’s defense, had issued a letter declaring that what two consenting adults do behind bedroom doors is nobody’s business.
Demand No. 2, Godwin said, was for Cain’s wife to be by his side that afternoon. “We can stand behind him and know he’s telling the truth if his wife stands behind him,” she said. “If she’s not going to be there – I’m driving five and a half hours from south Georgia up here for somebody whose wife isn’t going to cross town to stand by him?”
At 1:30 p.m., the bus with Herman Cain’s face on it pulled close to the headquarters. The candidate was the first out. He held out his right hand, and helped his wife down the stairs.
“Gloria! Gloria!” the crowd shouted, their hopes lifted by her presence, as she and her husband came to the stage. Block, the campaign manager with the famous cigarette habit, stood silently in the background, holding Cain’s trademark black cowboy hat.
The candidate spoke of the remarkable distance he’d traveled from his birthplace, on Pelham Street in Atlanta’s old Fifth Ward, the son of a maid and a Coca-Cola chauffeur.
He was one of a trio of men in line, on the Republican side, to become the most powerful figure in the world. Add President Barack Obama for good measure, he said. “I’m in the Final Four. We’re in the Final Four.”
But Cain admitted that the last few days had caused irreparable damage. “That spin hurts. It hurts my wife. It hurts my family. It hurts me. And it hurts the American people, because you’re being denied solutions to our problems,” he said.
But he wanted the crowd to know this: “I am at peace with God.” And then Cain pointed to the woman behind him. “I am at peace with my wife. And she is at peace with me,” he said.
The hopeful chants began again. “Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!”
“That being said,” Cain continued – and finally pulled the rug out from under the grand opening of his campaign headquarters. He would suspend his campaign, he told a stunned and befuddled crowd.
As it turned out, Gloria Cain’s permission wasn’t the key to continuing his candidacy. Her husband admitted that, in the wake of five weeks of scandal, his contributions had dried up.
But his wife’s presence was absolutely essential to Cain’s ability to retire from the field with his reputation intact – so that he might maintain his influence as a Republican player.
For Cain, Plan B is something called thecainsolution.com, a place on the Internet where he can still push his “9-9-9” plan. The Stockbridge entrepreneur will follow the lead of Sarah Palin, and attempt to become a political persona who operates outside the political process – as his campaign tried to do, but failed.
“One of the reasons that I ran for president of the United States was that so I could change Washington D.C. from the inside,” he said. “Plan B is that we’re going to have to change it from the outside.”
And with that, the Saturday crowd began to drift away, perhaps to their TV sets. The Bulldogs were still an undefeated possibility.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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308 comments Add your comment
Tiberius
December 4th, 2011
11:33 am
U.S Air Force, 1978-1982.
County commissioner, 2004-2008.
Don’t wait up for me. Some of us have real work to do.
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
11:34 am
@Look before I leap…
It was “Meet The Press” with David Gregory. Time tick around 7:00 on the video. I must correct myself though, I stated wrongly that he ‘didn’t know Palin from Eve’. He actually stated that he was one of the few who actually knew anything of her (from his work with Governor’s Assoc.). But again, he clearly stated that he basically did what he was told for the team, as if he is now trying to distance himself from the action.
Fact: Herman Cain will NOT be the Republican nominee. (LOL)
Look before I leap...
December 4th, 2011
11:43 am
Tiberius
December 4th, 2011
11:09 am
“You are simply not entitled to use the corporate assets of a publically traded company to pay off charges of personal misconduct. ”
And yet, it doesn’t appear that the National Restaurant Association is a publicly traded company. Ooops!
A distinction you failed to make in your earlier post (8:21) when you dismissed Buckhead Boy in a rather cavalier fashion.
Ooops!
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
11:45 am
There is absolutely NOTHING extreme about any of what you submitted on its face (even though it is empty rhetoric. I could decrypt all those messages for you if you’d like, all three statements basically say the same thing. That would require a history lesson though, and as we know not a lot of people like history, too much truth in it).
Here is what is “extreme” though, when your “concern” for such things lie DORMANT while irreparable damage is being done, and you only unleash such “concern” and moral outrage when someone who you do not like (for whatever reason) is in the driver seat. That is what makes you look “extreme”, because reasonable people with the ability to THINK CRITICALLY
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
11:46 am
…clearly see the hypocrisy.
Look before I leap...
December 4th, 2011
11:51 am
Tiberius
December 4th, 2011
9:49 am
Chunichi, do you actually believe that someone can continue to run a viable campaign for President while these allegations are hanging over their head? If you were falsely accused by people for doing things such as this, wouldn’t YOU want to clear your name?
Clinton did…and if I recall correctly, won.
Wonder how long before someone hauls out the tired ole wing-nut mantra of “liberal media” on that point?
double
December 4th, 2011
11:52 am
And some on here know TD is appealing for the black vote,by reminding us of the days gone by.Days as bad as they were,will continue to be better under the democrats.
Frederick Douglass
December 4th, 2011
11:58 am
td said @ 11:07 am
“We can not take a middle class prospective (msp.) when judging the spending habits of the rich. We can not even comprehend them”.
So are you in the habit of defending with every fiber of your being, something you cannot understand? Doesn’t your proclamation speak to the core emphasis of the OWS movement? The rich are maintaining their extreme Robber Baron lifestyles on the backs of an eroding middle class, and individuals such as yourself are merely hauling the coal as it were, for a furnace of lies and deceit that will never be sated. You sir are the epitome of conservatism, working feverishly for the rich, and against your own best interests.
wake up and smell the toast
December 4th, 2011
12:01 pm
he got out before the texts were released, and after paying people off. The texts at 4 in the morning would of been great sexting from a 65 year old beat up uncle tom who could not find Libya on a map, if that pizza place delivered there.
JustPlainOldBob
December 4th, 2011
12:04 pm
Herm. was not equipped to run this country anyway. Newt is the only one with the practical experience to do so. Obama has no experience, is self serving, is a clown, and has no leadership skills. Hopefully we will vote him out of office and he can be unemployed but richer for doing nothing.
rudikkingme
December 4th, 2011
12:11 pm
Obama will win a second term because the American People are used to having a leader. The GOP candidate, if picked from the motley group of traitors who comprise the field, will lose in a landslide that will rival Mondale’s lopsided loss.
And there’s no come back from this post. So don’t embarrass yourself, trolls. (and idiots)
honested
December 4th, 2011
12:18 pm
Now with hermie out of the way, a message to repugs,….
Please nominate the newt!!!
Give America the chance to show you just how far out of step you are with the Country you have pillaged!
Gee
December 4th, 2011
12:39 pm
This man is a total disgrace. I call him that- not just because he is a liar and misogynist- but because he is a complete, egotistical IDIOT. Mr. Cain could not come up with one word to answer to a question about Libya or any current event. If WSB-radio rehires this snake-oil salesman, they will hear from me and thousands of others.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
12:58 pm
hey CAIN u need to get of the republican plantation, oh never mind they kicked u off,lol. buh bye
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
1:09 pm
well the minstrel show is over. i think he’ll go lon FOX NEWS and bash black people to make the godfearing racists (GOP) feel good
dom youngross
December 4th, 2011
1:21 pm
‘pug Cain took over from ‘pug Perry and ‘pug Bachmann to last long enough for ‘pug Gingrich to come along and pump some hot ‘pug air into the ‘pug balloon that was sinking fast with ‘pug Romney in it as designated ‘pug leader.
Obama and all the ‘pugs. Keep em.
Ron Paul 2012. No more Obama. No more ‘pugs.
The latest indication that Paul has been right for the job all along:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html
rudikkingme
December 4th, 2011
1:54 pm
Cain must love the ‘cain.
snort much? he certainly acts like it. Did anyone notice how disappointed his mistress in Atlanta looked as she was forced to remember their trysts? Cocaine has that effect on the male schlong.
ew
Look before I leap...
December 4th, 2011
1:58 pm
wake up and smell the toast
December 4th, 2011
12:01 pm
he got out before the texts were released, and after paying people off. The texts at 4 in the morning would of been great sexting from a 65 year old beat up uncle tom who could not find Libya on a map, if that pizza place delivered there.
Well, after yesterday’s announcement by Cain, the only person who will be interested in the content of those text messages is Gloria’s divorce attorney.
Look before I leap...
December 4th, 2011
2:19 pm
JustPlainOldBob
December 4th, 2011
12:04 pm
Herm. was not equipped to run this country anyway. Newt is the only one with the practical experience to do so. Obama has no experience
What practical experience are you referring to?
td
December 4th, 2011
2:19 pm
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
11:45 am
I am sure your version of history will be totally different then mine.
“Here is what is “extreme” though, when your “concern” for such things lie DORMANT while irreparable damage is being done, and you only unleash such “concern” and moral outrage when someone who you do not like (for whatever reason) is in the driver seat.”
Talk about revising history. Did you happen to listen Sean Hannity or Rush in 2004 and 2005? They were on the radio almost everyday talking about Bush not following the conservative philosophy. How he was a really nothing more then a big spending liberal. Why do you think the Dems took back the House in 2006? When do you think the Tea Party movement started? I will give you a hint, it was prior to Obama taking office. True conservatives have been saying for years that we have a spending problem and the progressive Republicans have been ignoring us.
So your statement about being extreme is false on the evidence. The problem is most of far left refuse to look at others sources of information other than the “main stream” liberal media.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:24 pm
@td
more rightwing bs. the PEE PARTY started because OBAMA is black. u can spin it anyway u see fit. if HILLARY had won then there would be no PEE PARTY.
Hide-n-seek
December 4th, 2011
2:26 pm
Let me see if I got this right: White stated that this was not prostitution. She admitted that she received money. Is she saying that they did not have sex?
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:27 pm
i guess NEWTS the new golden boy now. i’d love to see the party of “family values” nominate this wh@remonger,lol. i guess they’d nominate a child molester if They think he could beat OBAMA.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:29 pm
HERMAN will be forgotten like a old christmas tree discarded after the holidays, since the GOP has no more use for him.
Look before I leap...
December 4th, 2011
2:30 pm
@td 2:19
Ya know, I agree we do have a spending problem in this country. But simply, we are not going to balance the budget on spending cuts alone and we certainly are not going to pay down the debt without increasing tax revenues.
The adherence to the tea-party (read Norquist pledge) concept of no new increases what-so-ever is not going to address the problem. It plays well for the Rushheads and Hannity Hysterics but it is unrealtistic unless you go after Social Security and Medicare and that simply is not going to happen.
td
December 4th, 2011
2:31 pm
honested
December 4th, 2011
12:18 pm
Now with hermie out of the way, a message to repugs,….
Please nominate the newt!!!
Give America the chance to show you just how far out of step you are with the Country you have pillaged!
This is what you libs pray about all day long. Please, dear Lord make this next years election about anything but about the job Obama has done. It is the only way Obama can get re-elected. This strategy is going to difficult to Carry out and it will make next years campaign the dirtiest in modern history but who knows since Obama has almost a billion dollars of Wall street, unions, lawyers and the movie industry to spend. Let us not forget the media will be the good little helpers that the Dems need to bash the Republican nominee.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:37 pm
@td
yes the birthers will be out in full force,lol. come 2012
td
December 4th, 2011
2:39 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:24 pm
@td
more rightwing bs. the PEE PARTY started because OBAMA is black. u can spin it anyway u see fit. if HILLARY had won then there would be no PEE PARTY.
I am calling BS on you. Herman was one of the first and founding members of the Tea Party movement. He was being the keynote speakers at rally on Tax day (around April 15th) from 2006 forward. Go do a little research and stop the racist BS. I am sorry that you did not start paying attention to the world until Obama was elected but believe it or not there was a world out there.
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
2:50 pm
OK @td. I will engage in a little LIGHTWEIGHT “exercise”, because you are in fact a lightweight.
“When do you think the Tea Party movement started? I will give you a hint, it was prior to Obama taking office. ” (that was YOUR quote by the way)
FOR THE RECORD, the Tea Party Movement began WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK OFFICE! It was a culmination of much of the outrage and anger that resulted from various groups of people who (quite simply) just did not want to see the man as president. You know…this is when people started to show up to presidential speaking events carrying ASSAULT RIFLES talking about “2nd amendment rights”, when 2nd amendment has never even been a focus of this administration. This was during the time where I couldn’t even go to Walmart to purchase a single box of ammunition to go to the range because of all the looney tunes nutbags buying it all up in bulk for the ‘”SHTF” scenario, with their overly paranoid @$$ez! Now I will give you the chance to retract your claim with some text:
“leaders within the Tea Party credit Seattle blogger and conservative activist Keli Carender with organizing the first Tea Party in February 2009″.
Now please do not force to commence putting a bust down on that @$s by continuing on with the nonsense dribbling from your lips.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:54 pm
@td 2:39
so what if CAIN was the keynote speaker! whats that suppose to prove? the PEE PARTY was started because a black man is in the whitehouse. i dont care how many sambos ya’ll trot out to speak.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:58 pm
HERMAN is just aNOTHER hypocrite who preach family values but had little of it himself. his wife looked stupid and sad as she tried to look supportive yesterday. now the whole world knows her husband chased white women while he had a beautiful blk wife at home.
td
December 4th, 2011
2:58 pm
Look before I leap…
December 4th, 2011
2:30 pm
Did you know you can take every dollar made by the top 1% in a year and not even cover the deficit? This tells you we have a spending problem and not a revenue problem. Ever since the 1980’s people have been saying SS would run out of money when the baby boomers retire. SS, Medicare and Medicaid has to be reformed if you want to have anything left 20 years from now.
Hot Dog
December 4th, 2011
3:00 pm
Tiberius
I am curious. Where were you stationed in the Air Force and what county were you the commissioner for?
U.S Air Force, 1978-1982.
County commissioner, 2004-2008.
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
3:01 pm
…and furthermore @td (I wonder if that stands for too dumb by the way?), the democrats took those seats in 2006 primarily because of backlash aimed at a Republican party that was mired in multiple scandals (bridge to nowhere, Mark Foley, etc) as well as many Iraq and Afghanistan war vets who ran for political office on a platform of raising awareness about the true plight of our veterans and how they were being neglected by the Bush administration, ESPECIALLY considering they had been committed to a war that many of them believed to be unjust. Now, revise THAT “history”??
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:02 pm
pretty soon the GOP will drop CAIN like a bad habit. after all hes black and now he’s useless to them. he came out firing when he started campaigning by calling blacks brainwashed. that elevated him to cult status by racists(gop) .THE gop gets a nut when a conservative blk bashes other blacks,lol.
Hot Dog
December 4th, 2011
3:03 pm
Gloria Cain will NEVER leave Hermie even though she knows he loves WHITE and very fair women. She is too hung up on material possessions and her mode of living. Don’t think for one moment she did not know about Hermie’s philandering. She has her own hookup, spending his money!
td
December 4th, 2011
3:05 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
2:54 pm
@td 2:39
so what if CAIN was the keynote speaker! whats that suppose to prove? the PEE PARTY was started because a black man is in the whitehouse. i dont care how many sambos ya’ll trot out to speak.
2005 an 2006 were prior to Obama taking office and it is when the Tea party was started. I will give you that Obama being elected brought all the indiviual groups together and made it a national moverment but it was started prior to Obama taking office. The movement did pick up momentum when Obama took office but it had nothing to do with race. It had everything to do with Obama being graded as the most “progressive” Senator, Pelosi being the speaker and a super majority in the Senate.
Please stop the racist BS. It is not going to work any longer in politics and just makes you look stupid.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:06 pm
what would happen if OBAMA took a surplus and squandered it on 2 wars. what would happen to OBAMA if he couldnt protect AMERICA the way BUSH couldnt on 9/11? BUSH was tricked by a terrorist and repubs say this rube was strong on defense. what are they smoking? they hate to admit that a black man is doing a better job than BUSH could ever do.
Hot Dog
December 4th, 2011
3:09 pm
Goodby Hermie! Too bad you got caught up being PIMP DADDY! Now we can really get to the real choice of Republicans, Newt..The lying philander. I am sure that stamp tramp # 4 is waiting in the wings once his campaign gets under way. In the end, it will Mitt and Rick. Remember you read it here first! SO speaks HOT DOG!
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:11 pm
td
why do conservsatives hate progressives? i thought progress was good? conservatives want to keep things the same, which is impossible.
td
December 4th, 2011
3:18 pm
Sister Sarah
December 4th, 2011
2:50 pm
Thi is right off the Tea party website:
“There are many who would love to take credit for the birth of the Tea Party Movement, but the actual credit for the movement is still under debate. One version dates back to 2007 on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party when Ron Paul’s presidential campaign raised over 6 million dollars in one day and as a result, the Tea Party was born.”
The Tea Party came out of the anti tax day events and have been around for years. The movement was local and did not go into a national movement until after Obama was elected and money was pumped into organization by the Koch brothers and their political sub groups.
Hot Dog
December 4th, 2011
3:19 pm
Mrs. Hermie wanted the truth and he could not promise her that no more skeletons would not fall out of the closet. That’s the real reason he suspended his campaign. She has already been embarrassed by this buffoon. I say, if these women are lying, then why don’t he sue them for slander? I’m sure the truth will come to light and everyone will know what a lying scumbag he is!
td
December 4th, 2011
3:20 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:06 pm
By taking over total control of 18% of the economy makes the two wars we were in look very small in comparison.
td
December 4th, 2011
3:25 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:11 pm
Go back and trace the roots of the progressive movement? Look at how the socialist/communist in the 20’s and the 30’s took over the movement
Do you not hate communism? Do you not hate socialism?
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:27 pm
@td
the wars may be small to you, but not to the men and women who served and died in it. but you dont care about them anyway, do you.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:28 pm
@trd
u conservatives were calling MARTIN UTHER KING a socialist and a communist. i see ya’lls playbook hasnt changed.
td
December 4th, 2011
3:35 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:27 pm
@td
the wars may be small to you, but not to the men and women who served and died in it. but you dont care about them anyway, do you.
So this is how you libs revise real history by taking what people said totally out of context. Try to read my statement again and not give my words a distorted meaning.
Conservatives do not care about the military. I do not see too many code pink conservatives.
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:35 pm
conservatives like td was angry when OSAMA BIN LADEN was killed and OBAMA gave the order. they would have been glad if the mission failked so they could blame the failure on OBAMA. these hateful racists are so full of it, its pitiful
td
December 4th, 2011
3:37 pm
liberalefty
December 4th, 2011
3:28 pm
MLK was an admitted socialist and was a communist sympathizer.
Frederick Douglass
December 4th, 2011
3:38 pm
Who said there’s no life after politics? Herman Cain has just secured an endorsement from Bojangles chicken on Old national Hwy. in College Park. He’ll be doing a slow shuffle and singing “Mammy” in the parking lot, just drop your donations in the ten gallon hat when he takes his bows.