The Herman Cain train that started rolling with a stunning victory at Florida's Presidency 5 straw poll was derailed within two months by a string of sex-charged allegations and an uncomfortable videotaped flub over Libya.
Speaking Saturday in Atlanta, the one-time GOP front-runner announced that was suspending his campaign.
"As false accusations about me continue, they have sidetracked and distracted my ability to present solutions to the American people," Cain told a modest gathering outside his campaign headquarters.
"There's been a painful price on my family. False and unproven allegations have created a cloud of doubt over me, this campaign and my family."
Switching to what he called "Plan B," Cain said, "The pundits would like me to shut up, drop out and go away.
"I will not be quiet and I will not go away. I will continue to be a voice for the people," he vowed, introducing a new "outside" venture, CainSolutions.com
Accompanied by his wife, Gloria, Cain said his family supported his decision to exit what he called "a dirty game."
Cain's meteoric rise to the top of the Republican field over the summer and his precipitous collapse this fall ranks among the quickest and quirkiest boom-to-bust stories in presidential politics.
Coming out of relative obscurity, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO began attracting a tea party following in the late spring as he appeared at smaller grass-roots events ignored by big-name candidates.
Cain's business-like bluntness appealed to Republicans turned off by political correctness and career politicians. He gained traction with conservative patriot groups by declaring that he would not appoint a Muslim to his Cabinet.
In August, still relatively unknown, Cain finished fifth in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll, garnering 9 percent. Michele Bachmann won 29 percent of the vote, topping Ron Paul's 28 percent.
As the 65-year-old businessman refined his skills at retail politicking, he set his sights on Orlando, for Florida's P5 straw poll in late September. Cain knew how to work a room, and he did so with gusto at hospitality suites around the Orange County Convention Center.
While his big-name rivals focused on the TV cameras at the Fox News and CPAC-Florida debates leading up to the straw poll, Cain flew under the media radar.
He was one of just three candidates -- Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were the others -- who stayed for the straw poll that concluded the three-day gathering.
Energizing the GOP base with a fiery speech, Cain garnered 37 percent of the 2,657 delegates at P5, winning more votes than Rick Perry and Mitt Romney combined. Gingrich finished fifth.
By coalescing around Cain, rank-and-file conservatives confounded mainstream media pundits and rebuked the GOP establishment, which were splitting between Romney and Perry. Significantly, tea partiers also bolted from Bachmann. The Minnesota congresswoman, who founded the House Tea Party Caucus, finished last.
Cain's Florida boomlet took awhile to build nationally, however. A CNN International poll conducted shortly after P5 showed Perry at 28 percent; Romney, 21 percent; Gingrich, 10 percent; and Cain tied with Ron Paul and an undeclared Sarah Palin at 7 percent.
But the field was about to turn upside down. TV producers had taken notice of Cain's showing in Orlando, and Cain began to get more air time nationally. The speech that Cain delivered so effectively at P5 -- one that the Florida delegates obviously preferred to Gingrich's address -- was going coast to coast.
Catching the wave, Cain laid out his "9-9-9" plan to flatten tax rates. The seeming simplicity of the plan became Cain's signature, and helped to separate himself from the pack.
Within a few short weeks, he vaulted to the top of the national polls -- a stunning achievement for a candidate with little money and less organization.
Inevitably, mainstream media outlets, which had all but ignored Cain, began to bear down on his 9-9-9 proposal. The devil lurked in the details.
Pressured to explain why his plan -- which included a 9 percent national retail sales tax -- would not impose greater burden on low-income households, Cain, for the first time, faced tough questions. After holding fast, and directing questioners to his website, the candidate fatefully began to tweak his plan.
Speaking to an audience in Detroit, the former member of Kansas City's Federal Reserve board announced that 9-9-9 was actually "9-0-9" for low-income earners. He pledged that they would pay no income tax. That ignited still more questions about the integrity of the proposal -- as well as the candidate himself. Was he starting to flip-flop like the others, conservatives wondered.
As doubts simmered about 9-9-9, a full-scale scandal was about to blow up the Cain campaign. Politico reported that two women who formerly worked with him when he was CEO at the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s had accused Cain of sexual harassment.
The charges were vague and the accusers were anonymous, per an undisclosed settlement, but Cain was on the defensive again. He denied the allegations, at one point implausibly declaring, "I have never acted inappropriately with anybody."
Though his sweeping pleas of innocence did not quell the enveloping firestorm, Cain's supporters stood firm ... for a while. Conservative media outlets pointed to a Chicago connection, in which one of Cain's accusers lived in a building owned by former White House adviser David Axelrod. Attorney Gloria Allred's involvement further stoked the conspiracy theories, which noted Allred's frequent, generous contributions to the Democratic Party.
Cain maintained his first-tier position in the polls, but there were signs of stress as reporters focused on sexual affairs, not policy positions. It wasn't long before Cain became fodder for late-night comedians.
Then came Milwaukee. Under the increasing glare of media scrutiny, Cain appeared at an editorial board interview with the Journal Sentinel newspaper. A question was asked about President Barack Obama's handling of Libya, and Cain stumbled badly.
After starting to reflexively criticize Obama, Cain stopped in mid-sentence and muttered, "No, that's another one." He then paused for more than a minute while fumbling for an intelligible answer that never came.
The taped interview went viral virtually overnight and appeared to confirm longstanding suspicions about Cain's thin political resume. It was the kind of incident that has tripped up many inexperienced candidates, and it gave new life to veteran politicians, notably Gingrich, who profess to be more astute on foreign affairs.
Then it was back to sex.
Last week, another woman stepped forward, this time to claim a 13-year sexual affair with Cain in Atlanta. This story, like the previous ones, had problems.
Like the earlier accusers, Ginger White had financial problems, including a bankruptcy and a string of evictions. Adding to White's intriguing tale, she allegedly was involved in a lesbian relationship at the time of her alleged affair with Cain.
Yet Cain's denials sounded less strenuous, and no more convincing. The former Baptist minister acknowledged giving the 46-year-old White small amounts of money, adding that he has given cash to many people over the years. White called it a "sexual relationship."
By now, many of Cain's supporters were cashing out. Seemingly random and politically motivated charges had morphed into a disturbing, if not irrefutable, pattern. At best, it was a mess.
Some erstwhile Cain fans pointed to avoidable missteps along the way.
Sarah Rumpf, a Florida-based Republican blogger and early Cain supporter, said she was "disappointed" in his national campaign team.
When the sexual-harassment stories broke, "the campaign's response was like they never saw it coming," Rumpf said.
"And what was with that Mark Block smoking ad anyway? It was like a merry band of pranksters masquerading as communications strategists," observed Rumpf, who now lists herself as undecided.
With his poll numbers plummeting -- falling back to single digits in Iowa -- Cain announced that he was "reassessing" his campaign. He returned home to Atlanta on Friday to counsel with his financial donors and wife Gloria.
According to press reports, the White revelations were news to Cain's wife of 43 years. Gloria Cain, inside sources said, was angry and adamant that her husband quit the campaign.
Florida Rep. Allen West, a fellow African-American and tea party favorite, appeared to speak for growing numbers of disappointed conservatives earlier this week when he called Cain a "distractor" to the GOP contest.
Iowa polls, which had Cain leading the field at 23 percent a month ago, showed him at just 4 percent, with support dropping daily.
Prior to the candidate's appearance Saturday, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Cain's campaign was effectively over.
Ultimately, the primary campaign was a battle that Cain -- a survivor of stage 4 colon and liver cancer -- could not win.
While not officially quitting the race, Cain's decision to suspend his campaign was clearly a prelude to a formal withdrawal.
"I am at peace with myself and with my God," he said.
Cain said he would be making an endorsement of a fellow Republican "in the near future."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or (772) 801-5341.
