Herman Cain made clear to reporters this weekend that he is moving on and trying to move past news coverage of past allegations of sexual harassment. For now, Cain may have the upper hand in that battle with the news media.
"Don’t even go there," Cain said when reporters asked him about the story after an issues forum with Newt Gingrich in Texas.
"We are getting back on message," Cain said flatly.
While it became very clear last week that Politico’s basic story about the existence of sex harassment allegations in the late 1990's was true, none of the women involved wanted to go public and challenge Cain over his version of events.
And without that kind of media focus, the story just doesn't have legs, allowing Cain to make clear over the weekend that he’s ready to re-focus on campaign issues even if reporters aren't ready for that.
As for the GOP campaign, this week brings the first of five debates in the month of November, as the major Republican hopefuls will gather in Michigan on Wednesday night and again on Saturday in South Carolina.
While all the heavy hitters will be there, Mitt Romney’s campaign served notice last Friday that their candidate may not show up at all five debates slated for this month, raising questions about a November 19 debate in Iowa and a November 30 forum outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry had taken some flak for floating the trial balloon idea of not playing in all of the upcoming debates – we’ll see if Romney gets any flak – or if he gets a pass because he is one of the GOP frontrunners along with Herman Cain.
Some recent polling has shown the numbers bubbling up a little for Perry, and maybe a little more for Newt Gingrich, who joined Cain in an unconventional two-man forum over the weekend in Texas.
A new poll out on Sunday from Iowa again showed strong support for Cain, as he led Romney 30-15 in the Hawkeye State with Gingrich in third at 12%.
That kind of result again goes against the standard game plan for Iowa, which is that you have to visit the nation’s first caucus state repeatedly in order to gain a foothold with the voters.
But Cain has only been to Iowa for one day since a debate in Iowa in mid-August.
Have the rules changed? Has the internet made this a different campaign? We’ll see. Iowa is eight weeks from tomorrow.
