Cain to make decision on bid

Herman Cain is still campaigning for US president. But by most measures, allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year extra-marital affair have all but ended the White House bid by the former pizza company executive.

His standing in polls, where he was battling for the lead just weeks ago, is falling. Supporters are wavering, if not fleeing. Fundraising is suffering.

On Fox News last night, Mr Cain said he will make a decision before Monday on whether to continue.

He has said he will make that decision only after speaking face-to-face with his wife of 42 years, most likely today.

“This whole series of accusations is going to leave a little cloud of doubt in a lot of people’s minds for a long, long time,” he told Fox News.

These days, Mr Cain is more the butt of late-night TV jokes than a serious candidate.

Hecklers interrupted him during a talk at Middle Tennessee State, with one man shouting: “Sexual abuse is unacceptable.”

“We have freedom of speech. Some people simply abuse it,” Mr Cain said after the protesters left. “That’s why I didn’t get rattled.”

But some of his supporters have been shaken by the numerous allegations.

“His chance at winning the presidency are effectively zero,” said Dave Welch, a Republican strategist.

The main beneficiary of Mr Cain’s fall has been former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who has risen steadily in polls nationally and in early voting states.

Mr Gingrich has emerged as the main challenger to fellow front-runner Mitt Romney in the Republican race to take on President Barack Obama next year.

Mr Romney aimed for the Republican base by meeting with former President George H. W. Bush in Texas.

Only four weeks remain before the January 3 Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating fight, and Mr Romney is counting on his superior campaign organisation, which is designed to keep him in the race for the long haul by winning significant numbers of key convention delegates, even if he loses in a particular state.

Mr Obama’s aides privately say they see Mr Romney as the Republican most likely to win the party’s nomination.

For Mr Cain, Ginger White’s allegation of an affair overshadowed another day of campaigning.

He told the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper that his wife, Gloria, did not know he was providing the 46-year-old businesswoman with money for “month-to-month bills and expenses”.

Mr Cain said his wife did not know of what he called a friendship with Ms White until she said publicly that she had a 13-year affair with Mr Cain that ended about eight months ago.

Mr Cain’s campaign already has been rocked by allegations by other women of sexual harassment.