Gingrich Rebounding As Cain's Problems Grow

As much as I hate to admit it, I may have been wrong about Newt Gingrich. Several months ago, I declared his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to be dead. His campaign staff had deserted him and he was polling in the very low single digits, In addition, he was having a hard time raising money. I just wondered why he didn't accept the obvious and quit. However, now it looks like his troubled presidential campaign may be rebounding.

It is tempting to say he is benefitting from Herman Cain's recent sex scandal allegations. That's a story that seems to have some legs, even though Cain is doing his best to minimize it and is now refusing to discuss it at all. But the story won't go away. A couple of days ago we learned about a third woman who was accusing Cain of sexual harassment, and yesterday a fourth woman came forward.

The fourth woman, Sharon Bialek, has not signed a confidentiality agreement and was not afraid to reveal her name or appear in public -- and her story may be the most compelling of all. Here is how the BBC describes her story:

Ms Bialek is the first of the accusers to speak publicly.

She told a news conference in New York that she had first met Mr Cain when she was seated next to him during a meal at the association's annual convention. She described him as "warm and attentive" towards both her and her boyfriend at the dinner.

A month later, she was sacked from her job as a manager at the association's education foundation.


Ms Bialek's boyfriend suggested that she should contact Mr Cain to help her find other employment.


She said that Mr Cain had agreed to meet her in Washington DC in mid-July 1997, where he upgraded her hotel room.


The alleged groping incident occurred after they had dinner and Ms Bialek asked Mr Cain if he could help find her work at the state-level of the association, she told reporters.


"Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," she said.


"He also pushed my head toward his crotch."


Ms Bialek appeared to struggle to maintain her composure as she told journalists that she had asked Mr Cain what he was doing, to which he allegedly replied: "You want a job, don't you?"

To combat charges that she is just making this story up years later, her attorney (Gloria Allred) reports she has two written statements, from Bialek's boyfriend and from one of her friends, saying she told them of Cain's inappropriate actions many years ago (when it happened). And this may be the most serious charge, since jamming his hand up her dress is more than just harassment, it is an assault (a misdemeanor crime).

Whether this latest revelation will sink the Cain campaign is unknown. While the stories of the other women caused his approval rating to drop about 9 points, most Republicans are writing the story off as a "liberal media conspiracy" or simply don't care. This wouldn't be the first time they ignored the sexual indiscretions of a Republican (while screaming bloody murder about the same behavior from a Democrat).

A very recent poll shows that Herman Cain maintains a lead in Iowa, but that lead is anything but a strong one. It is obvious that the teabaggers, who control the party in Iowa, are still fumbling around looking for a candidate they can support -- and they are still not flocking to Mitt Romney as many predicted they would finally do. Romney not only has a religious problem (with fundamentalists balking over his mormon religion), but the teabaggers just don't trust him. They believe he has changed his mind on too many positions just to get their votes -- and will change again once he has the nomination.

Gingrich seems to be benefitting from both of those things. Cain's sex charges and skin color aare keeping many teabaggers from climbing on board his campaign, and Romney's flip-flopping keeps them off his bandwagon. But the teabaggers are running out of options. Huckabee and Palin have declined to run, Bachmann and Perry have been tried and found wanting, Huntsman is too moderate, Santorum is a lightweight (in brains and ability), and Paul is too nutty even for the teabaggers (which is hard to do).

That leaves Gingrich as the only available alternative. In the latest few polls, Gingrich has clawed his way back up to double-digits, and in the latest Iowa poll he has actually jumped over Mitt Romney into second place. Can Gingrich become the newest teabagger favorite? It's possible, since there are still 8 weeks before the voting season kicks off with the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd. But time is running out and the teabaggers have yet to pick a real favorite.

Here are the results of the latest Iowa poll. It is a We Ask America Poll that surveyed 864 Iowa Republicans on November 6th, and has a margin of error of 3.3%. It says:

Herman Cain...............22%
Newt Gingrich...............18%
Mitt Romney...............15%
Ron Paul...............11%
Michele Bachmann...............11%
Rick Perry...............4%
Rick Santorum...............3%
Jon Huntsman...............2%