Herman Cain: Campaign suspended. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, http://flic.kr/p/awTeRE
Embattled Herman Cain has officially suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The pizza magnate once led the GOP field, but he was derailed by allegations of sexual harassment and an extra-marital affair, as well as an apparent inability to understand foreign policy. So now Cain is all but out of the race, where does this leave the remaining Republican presidential hopefuls?
Hoping for Cain support. “The Republican presidential candidates were competing on Sunday, openly or more subtly, for the backing of former supporters of Herman Cain,” wrote Brian Knowlton on The New York Times’s Caucus blog, suggesting that GOP hopefuls were aiming to woo Cain’s former backers by expressing sympathy for his situation. Knowlton reported that Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul have already said they expect to pick up votes after Cain’s departure.
Herman Cain announced the suspension of his campaign in a speech that also referenced children’s favorite Pokémon. Mashable published a round-up of the best Twitter responses to the speech, including a tweet from @anamariecox: “Not to be outdone, Rick Perry just put out a press release citing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
Cain to endorse Gingrich? As speculation mounts as to which candidate Cain will endorse, it seems the pizza magnate may already have thrown his weight behind Newt Gingrich: Fox 5 Atlanta quoted an anonymous source as saying Cain plans to go with the former House Speaker.
Gingrich ahead – for now. Two recent polls put Gingrich ahead of closest rival Mitt Romney, but after analysing the results, Reid J. Epstein argued on Politico that the former House Speaker is still vulnerable: “The NBC/Marist poll asked Iowans it would be acceptable for the GOP nominee to have earned ‘earned millions of dollars advising Freddie Mac,’ as Gingrich did. It found 56 percent of Iowa Republicans surveyed said no,” he wrote. Indeed, Epstein said the Romney campaign is so far “unfazed” by the polls, given how quickly the situation can change.
Democrats worried? According to The Washington Post, there is concern among Democrats that Gingrich would prove a greater challenge to President Barack Obama than Romney: “Some Democrats believe that Gingrich, a hero of the conservative movement, would excite the party base more than a former liberal-state governor with a history of centrist views.”
What about Huntsman? Most media attention has focused on a Gingrich-Romney showdown. But Time’s Jay Newton-Small turned his attention to former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, one of the only candidates not to have led the GOP field at some point. Newton-Small was pessimistic about Huntsman’s chances of truly engaging with the fray: “He’s yet to show in his campaign schedule that he even really, truly wants the White House.”