MANCHESTER — A small group of supporters and a horde of media got unclear answers Wednesday night whether Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is staying in the race.
During a gathering held for core New Hampshire supporters at his campaign office on Lowell Street, Cain told the group: “They keep coming after me. After that firestorm, people thought I was finished. Well, just like Yogi Berra said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and I’m not finished yet.”
But, during a five-minute press conference held after the appearance, he said he was still “reassessing” his campaign.
“As a businessman, that’s what I do,” he said. “I don’t make a kneejerk reaction.”
He said he would make a decision “about the campaign” within the next few weeks after he evaluates the impact the campaign is having on his family, his supporters and on fundraising.
“During this hit, fundraising went down. I admit that,” he said. “But fundraising is starting to go back up.”
But he never said during the meet-and-greet with supporters or during the press conference if he is considering dropping out. His political advisor, Bo Harmon, said Cain planned to keep an appointment [Thursday] with the New Hampshire Union Leader for an interview. . . .
Tonite was a great “teachable moment” in how the MSM can make anyone appear in a bad light — all it takes is an uppity attitude, a whiny voice, a TV camera, and a pre-determined narrative.
But nothing in Mr. Cain’s actions on Wednesday suggested that he would halt his campaign as he engaged in a whirlwind day of campaigning around Ohio and in New Hampshire. “They want you to believe that we can’t do this,” he told a few hundred supporters gathered in a hotel ballroom in Dayton on Wednesday morning. “They want you to believe that with enough character assassination on me, I will drop out!” The audience shouted, “No!” and “Don’t go!”
Mr. Cain seemed delighted. “Well, the American people have a different idea,” he said. “The American people are going to raise some Cain in 2012!”
Longtime Cain enthusiast Chris Barron (who remembers when this blog was just about the only place on the Web regularly covering the Cain campaign) makes his case: “Why Herman Cain Should NOT Drop Out.”
The Herman Cain campaign today released a new online video focusing on job creation and economic issues:
A press release (see full text below) from the campaign called the video a “new Iowa ad,” although the length — 51 seconds instead of 30 seconds — would make it incompatible with standard broadcast requirements. The statement from campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon did not include any specifics about when or in what venues the video might be aired.
** TEXT OF CAIN CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE **
Cain Releases New Ad in Iowa;
Campaign Moves Forward
It’s time to draw a line in the sand.
While the Obama Administration sits on the sidelines, and Congress gets nothing done to help end this crippling recession, Republican candidate for president, Herman Cain, is traveling the country, spreading his vision to jump-start the economy and create a climate where businesses can grow and produce.
Take a moment and watch the Cain Campaign’s latest video, shot in a factory, in which Mr. Cain lays out a clear and concise message on how to get the manufacturing sector in this country back on track, generating millions of new, high-paying, private sector jobs.
It’s no secret that the Democrat Party and their surrogates in the mainstream media are out to derail Herman Cain’s candidacy, and the only way for them to succeed is to destroy him personally.
How can we expect good conservative “candidates of the people” to stand up against the “establishment” and run in the future if we abandon Herman Cain now?
It’s time to tell it like it is: Herman Cain threatens the Democrat Party like no other candidate, and because they cannot defeat him on the battlefield of ideas, they must resort to the desperate strategy being played out in public now and fueled on by the liberal media.
Don’t let it happen. Watch Mr. Cain talk about what’s really important: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Then send the link to your friends and help them learn about the “9-9-9 Plan” and Jobs. Jobs. Jobs
For More Information:
J.D. Gordon, Vice President of Campaign Communications
Friends of Herman Cain, Inc.
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says a woman who claimed to have had an affair with him was among “many people” to whom he has provided financial assistance, and that her accusation was “out of the blue.”
“I have helped many people financially . . . She’s not the only person I have helped,” Cain said in an appearance today on Neal Cavuto’s Fox News program. Cavuto asked the Atlanta businessman about the claims of Ginger White, who has produced phone records showing more than 60 texts and conversations with Cain’s personal cell-phone number.
“That by itself doesn’t tell you the whole story,” Cain told Cavuto, explaining that his campaign has not had access to the records White showed to an Atlanta TV reporter. He said he had no warning that White was prepared to go public with her claims.
“Boom! Out of nowhere. . . . This was totally out of the blue,” Cain said, describing the accusations against him as “character assassination” because he was “doing so well” in his campaign. “As long as I was low in the polls, this stuff didn’t come out.”
Cain’s poll numbers have dropped substantially in the past month, as he has battled accusations that he sexually harassed women during his tenure as president of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
Cain told Cavuto that he is concerned about the impact of the accusations on his family, especially his wife, saying the charges were “having an emotional toll on her . . . she gets upset.”
As for the motives of White, whom Cain acknowledges he has known since 1998, Cain suggested to Cavuto that “people . . . are putting her up to this . . . We don’t know who it is.”
Sources close to the Herman Cain presidential campaign in New Hampshire say that the candidate will be flying into a firestorm of trouble when he arrives in Manchester for events tonight.
Reporters for New Hampshire news organizations today contacted Cain campaign insiders in the state asking if they were aware that at least seven Republican members of the state legislature who had previously endorsed the Atlanta businessman were preparing to rescind their endorsements. These additional defections follow in the wake of reports yesterday that two GOP state legislators who had endorsed Cain had switched their support to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Meanwhile, some of Cain’s most enthusiastic supporters in the state insist that there must be major changes to the campaign. These supporters cited grievances that include what they call the incompetence of Cain’s New Hampshire state campaign director Charlie Spano, as well as widespread discontent among Cain’s supporters with his campaign’s national staff.
UPDATE: Cain is scheduled to arrive this evening in Manchester to hold a private meeting with his New Hampshire supporters at 7:30 p.m., and has scheduled a press conference for 8:45 p.m. ET.
WMUR-TV reported yesterday that two GOP state representatives, Sam Cataldo and William Panek, were switching their endorsements from Cain to Gingrich. Panek told CBS News that the Cain campaign’s “handling of [sexual accusations] does bother me,” and added: “It makes [Cain’s endorsers] look bad too because we’re supporting him.”
WMUR also reported that yesterday afternoon, a few hours after Cain told staff and volunteers on a conference call that he was “re-assessing” his campaign, Cain’s Manchester campaign office was locked, with an “out to lunch” sign on the door — at 2:30 p.m.
Cain is scheduled to return to New Hampshire Wednesday night and meet with supporters and the media at about 8:30 p.m. at his state campaign headquarters at 62 Lowell St., Manchester, said spokesman Charlie Spano. . . .
Cain spokesman [J.D.] Gordon told the Granite Status in an email that Cain still intends to appear at the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday for an interview. . . .
Spano said that he has heard nothing to indicate that Cain has changed his planned appearances elsewhere in the state on Thursday.
“This is a serious matter to have to deal with but at the same time, the New Hampshire staff is determined to go forward with the campaign and do what is necessary to compete and bring the message of economic revival through his ‘9-9-9 plan’ to voters,” Spano said.
Spano said the four members of Cain’s New Hampshire staff “believe in his integrity and that this is a man who was helping a friend and has helped friends in his life.”
UPDATE III: While Cain’s New Hampshire operations appeared on the verge of implosion today, the candidate made a scheduled appearance in Ohio, which does not hold its primary until June. The loudest complaints against the Cain campaign this year have been from supporters in early primary and caucus states — including Iowa and New Hampshire — that the candidate has not appeared often enough in those key states.
ABC News reported that, during his appearance today in West Chester, Ohio, Cain said he is a victim of “character assassination” and said he has gotten “a groundswell of positive support” in the wake of an Atlanta businesswoman’s claim that she had a 13-year affair with Cain, a claim he has denied.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Just moments ago our Jim Acosta got a very quick one-on-one with Herman Cain, the man who is debating whether to stay in the race for the president. Jim joins us on the phone right now.
Jim, what did he say?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Randi, you know, we only asked him a couple of questions. That’s all the time we had. He was doing the rope line inside a Marriott Hotel in Dayton , Ohio , after wrapping up a speech. And I just asked him very quickly, are you vowing to stay in the race? And all he would say is, we are reassessing and re-evaluating. And then I asked him again, does that mean you’re staying in the race? And he would — he only responded, we are re-evaluating and reassessing. And then I asked him, when will you have a final decision on your future plans? And he said within the next several days.
So, it sounds like Herman Cain is not going to drop out of this race today. It sounds that (ph) he may not drop out at all. We listened to his speech inside this hotel just a few minutes ago and he was very defiant, saying that character assassination would not drive him out of this race. But when we asked him specifically, on the record, on camera, whether or not he is going to stay in this race, he did not give us a straight answer, Randi.
KAYE: Jim, does he seem at all worn down or frustrated by all of this?
ACOSTA: You know, if anything, he looked emboldened. I have to say, he gave a very fiery speech here. It was basically his standard stump speech. It had most of the one liners that people who have covered him closely have heard before. But he really whipped up this crowd here.
He had a very large crowd inside this ball room just a few moments ago and they were eating it up. And they were shouting back to him, Randi, don’t get out of this race. Stay in the race. We need you, Herman Cain. So, the candidate was defiant and so was his audience.
KAYE: Jim Acosta, a nice get, getting a quick interview there with Herman Cain. Thank you for that reporting.
Just got an e-mail from Cain campaign chief of staff Mark Block, acknowledging he had seen this article. The last time I saw Block was when we had a smoke together outside a Cain post-debate party in Spartanburg, S.C., on Nov. 12. I told him then, as I had told him many times before: Bring back Dan Tripp.
We were off the record, so I can’t report Block’s reaction, and I get paid to cover campaigns, not to offer campaigns unsolicited advice. But the word I’m getting out of New Hampshire — i.e., that would-be Cain volunteers have been kept at arm’s length by Spano’s hired staff in Manchester — suggests that the services of Tripp (or someone like him) could come in handy. Just sayin’ . . .
Say hello to competitive bodybuilder Kimberly Vay, whose photo I’m posting not just as eye-candy for muscle-girl fetishists, but because she is relevant to the Herman Cain campaign.
The female bodybuilder who once ran a bicycle business with latest Herman Cain accuser Ginger White says the Atlanta woman never mentioned the Republican presidential candidate, who she says was her lover for 13 years. “His name has never come up,” said Kimberly Vay, who told ABC News that she and White were former business partners.
But Vay, who filed and won a libel lawsuit against White, refused to comment directly when asked whether she considers White’s accusations about Cain credible. “When you see the details of my lawsuit,” said Vay, “they will speak for themselves.” . . .
According to Vay’s suit, which was filed in June 2011, White and Vay were partners in a fitness coaching business called No Limit Cycling, and held spinning classes inside the Martin Luther King Recreation Center, which is owned by the City of Atlanta. In November 2010, claimed Vay, White asked to end their partnership, with White continuing to operate No Limit Cycling, and Vay agreed.
On December 9, according to the complaint, White sent a “defamatory” note to a master email list of the company’s clients and to city officials. The email said that White’s business had “come tumbling down [on] the day I invited Kim Vay into my life and my business” and that Vay had turned her “dream” into a “nightmare.” According to the complaint, the email alleged that Vay, a competitive bodybuilder, injected veterinary drugs into her system prior to contests,” and also said that Vay preferred to date black men but had made derogatory comments about black women’s hair.
Vay’s complaint termed the allegation about drug use “false, malicious, defamatory” and “reckless,” and therefore libelous.
Does this exonerate Cain? Not necessarily. But it would seem to indicate that when White doesn’t get her way, she can be extraordinarily vengeful toward whoever she’s angry at.
Ginger White, an unemployed twice-divorced single mom who is nine months behind on her rent and made libelous accusations of racism and drug abuse against her ex-business partner.
Everybody keeps saying there’s an awful lot of smoke for there to be no fire, but each of these women has something in her background that tends to taint her credibility. A month into this, and we have no actual proof that Cain did anything wrong.
The 2012 campaign just keeps getting weirder and weirder. When this year began, I never imagined that covering a presidential campaign would compel me, as a professional journalist, to publish a photo of this bizarrely muscular woman who probably inspires perverse lust in your depraved hearts.
“Over the next several days, we are going to continue with the schedule as usual,” he said. “I’ve got a major speech tonight at Hillsdale College on national security and foreign policy and I will deliver it with vim, vigor, and enthusiasm. And then tomorrow we’ve got some media appearances scheduled. So we’re going to continue until we complete our assessment over the next several days.”
“But if a decision is made, different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know,” he said. “So until that time, I want to continue to thank you all for your support, thank you for your prayers. It’s taken an emotional toll, but the people in the audience tonight will never know it.”
So said Mrs. Herman Cain, when told of the allegations made by Ginger White. That quote was from Herman Cain’s appearance on Wolf Blitzer’s show, in which he made a flat denial:
“I have nothing to hide,” he said. “I did nothing wrong.”
Asked directly by Mr. Blitzer, “Was this an affair?” Mr. Cain responded, “It was not.”
But then Cain’s lawyer, Lin Wood, issued a non-denial:
“This appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults — a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public,” he said.
If I were a candidate for office accused of having an affair, and my lawyer issued that kind of statement, I’d need another lawyer to defend me against assault charges for trying to strangle the first lawyer.
But moving on, we find some curious facts about Ginger White:
Ms. White is an unemployed single mother. Before the interview, Fox learned that she had filed a sexual harassment claim against an employer in 2001. That case was settled. The station also found a bankruptcy filing nearly 23 years ago in Kentucky, and several eviction notices in the Atlanta area over the past six years.
The station also reported that Ms. White had a former business partner who once sought a “stalking temporary protective order” against her for “repeated e-mails/texts threatening lawsuit and defamation of character.” The case was dismissed, but it was followed by a libel lawsuit against Ms. White. A judge entered an order against Ms. White because she failed to respond to the lawsuit, Fox reported.
“Several eviction notices”? She is supposedly the mistress of a millionaire businessman, but can’t pay her rent? There would appear to be a contradiction involved here.
Beyond any question of whether Ginger White is telling the truth, however, the Cain campaign made at least three different statements Monday: First, there was Cain’s pre-emptive denial on CNN. Then, there was Lin Wood’s non-denial, which raised eyebrows at AOSHQ. Then there was the press release issued by Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon. So the “message discipline” was problematic.
TBogg’s racist black sexual stereotype slam on Herman Cain as a “jungle boogie black stud” who has “Sexed Up Every Woman In America Including Your Mom.” Racist TBogg spices up the post with some white go-go boot betties looking to go down on a big bad black Cadillac-drivin’ Shaft-style mofo.
Ginger White . . . has liens and civil judgments in Kentucky and Georgia dating back to 1994. Eleven of those liens have been filed since 2009, with nine in 2011. The owners of her apartment complex in Dunwoody, Georgia have sued her for non-payment of rent nearly every month since the beginning of the year.
White, a 46-year-old unemployed single mother who is at least twice divorced, was described by WAGA as an Atlanta-area businesswoman. . . . According to WAGA, she filed a sex harassment claim against an employer ten years ago, and the case was settled. . . .
In January, there is a scheduled court date in an unrelated civil suit filed against her by a former business partner, Kimberly Vay, who alleges that White stalked and harassed her and had sought a protective order. A judge has entered a default judgment in Vay’s favor.
Cain Attacked by Accuser; Will Not Stop His Effort to Renew America
Detractors are trying once again to derail the Cain Train with more accusations of past events that never happened. The Cain Campaign is not surprised that another female accuser has come forward due to the fact that earlier allegations were unable to force Herman Cain to drop his presidential bid to renew America.
“The American public is tired of dirty politics and smear tactics as evident of their tremendous outpouring of support for me, my family and my campaign this past month. I am running for President of the United States of America and the reality is that there are individuals out there that favor the status quo of higher taxes, more government and political cronyism and they are afraid of a Cain Presidency,” said Mr. Cain.
“I have spoken directly to the American people and have been 100% honest with them. My plan is to continue to spread my vision on how I would renew America and keep her safe. I will not fight false claims as it is not what America needs or wants,” continued Mr. Cain.
Mr. Cain has spent four decades climbing the corporate ladder rising to the level of CEO at multiple successful business enterprises. Mr. Cain is a proven leader and the type of leader America badly needs at this time in her history.
First saw the story at Ace of Spades HQ. It’s now all over Memeorandum. Shepard Smith just did 10 minutes about it on Fox News. But the press release is not posted on the Cain campaign’s Web site yet.
I was pro-Cain at the beginning, when Stacy McCain brought him to my attention and two good friends of mine started working for him. Dale Peterson endorsed him, and everyone I knew jumped on the “Cain Train.”
In fact I wanted to be on that train. Loved his speeches, thought he was witty, enjoyed meeting him at CPAC. I had all sorts of viral video ideas for him, back when he was a tabula rasa and no one knew who he was.
Then I tried to correspond with his team. One of them led me on for roughly five months. Eventually I discovered that someone else already had an exclusive contract to do all of his videos. I had been flat-out-lied to. Probably in order to keep me from working with any other candidate. When I called out this “Cain team member” about it, she was highly annoyed that I had the temerity to point out that she was lying to me.
For the past several days, in conversation after conversation, I’ve listened while friends told me what’s wrong with the Herman Cain campaign. Some of these friends are enthusiastic Cain supporters, some are not. And as I told several people who criticized the campaign’s handling of the sexual harassment allegations, “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. Any 24-year-old with a semester of Leadership Institute training could do a better job than they’ve been doing.”
The point is, complaints like these had been piling up for months and, because of my status as the first journalist to take the Cain campaign seriously, people kept bending my ear with this kind of stuff, as if I had some power to influence the decision-making process within the campaign.
What was especially frustrating was hearing stories like Ladd’s, from people who felt they had been “led on,” told that they were under consideration for employment with the campaign and then . . . nothing.
A campaign’s hiring process is necessarily opaque to those outside the inner circle. But Ladd isn’t the only person who has expressed frustration with the staff’s operations, and not all of those who complained were seeking employment. Just sayin’ . . .
The Fox affiliate claims it wasn’t White who approached them with this story but a tipster who knows her and who allegedly was shopping the story to national media. . . . [S]he has money problems and has been accused before by a business partner of stalking and defamation. . . . And who is that mysterious tipster running around talking to reporters anyway?
The stalking-and-defamation bit suggests the woman is what you’d call “troubled.” Without regard to the credibility of her accusations, it’s generally a good idea to avoid people like that. And she produced phone records that would seem to indicate Cain didn’t avoid her.
