Herman Cain faces battle to shift attention away from sex scandal

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain will try to shift the focus of his increasingly beleaguered campaign back to policy issues tonight and away from explosive claims that he had a lengthy extra-marital affair with an Atlanta businesswoman. Cain is set to give a speech at Hillsdale College, Michigan, tackling foreign policy, but few observers expect that will dampen the intense speculation around the former pizza magnate's private life. Cain, who has also faced multiple accusations of sexual harassment from his time as head of the National Restaurant Association, has denied Ginger White's claims that the two had a consensual on-and-off sexual affair that lasted 13 years. A campaign spokesman has said Cain is staying in the race despite the controversy. Cain took the extraordinary step of breaking the news of the allegations himself during an interview with CNN in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the story which was about to be broadcast by a Fox affiliate station in Atlanta. "Here we go again. I didn't do anything wrong," Cain said as he denied the allegations that the two had had sex. That swift response and attempt to knock down the story is in marked contrast to more ham-handed and slow reactions to previous claims of sexual harassment against Cain by a variety of other women. In denying those allegations Cain endured a storm of criticism for changing his story and being slow to respond at a time when his campaign was riding high in the polls and challenging Mitt Romney for the position of Republican frontrunner. But Cain's denial of White's version of events appears unlikely to kill the story. On Monday White told Fox 5 Atlanta that the affair between her and Cain had ended shortly before he began his run for the presidency. She described a "fun" relationship in which Cain even bought her plane tickets so that they could meet in California. "It was something that took me away from my sort of humdrum life at the time. And it was exciting," she told the TV station. She detailed an affair that began when Cain invited her up to his hotel room after an NRA event and said she was coming forward now because she had been disturbed by the treatment of the women who had accused Cain of harassment. "It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of, they were treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them. I felt bad for them," she said. Later, White told the Associated Press that Cain was lying when he denied their affair. "What I said in the interview was true," she said. Cain's lawyer, Lin Wood, however, issued a statement to the TV channel that appeared to go some way towards acknowledging the possibility of a relationship and – unlike Cain's statements on CNN – contained no outright 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. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official should be questioned about his or her private sexual life," the statement said. White showed journalists from the TV station phone bills that had 61 calls or texts from a number that she said belonged to Cain. When reporters texted the number, Cain called back. Cain has admitted that he knows White, but only that he considered her a friend that he was helping out because she did not have a job. Since becoming embroiled in the numerous allegations about his sexual behaviour, Cain's poll numbers have taken a tumble. In the vital early voting state of Iowa – which officially kicks of the GOP nomination race in early January – the latest poll had Cain at just 10%, way behind Newt Gingrich at 28% and behind both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul at 13 and 13% respectively. A poll in Iowa earlier this month had Cain on top of the race at 20%. Cain has also suffered from a series of other gaffes and mis-steps, including apparently getting China and Iran's nuclear programmes confused and a muddled answer to a question about Libya that went viral on the internet. Given that Cain is set to be addressing foreign policy issues tonight at his speech in Michigan, his aides will no doubt be hoping for a smoother performance in an area that has previously been a marked weakness for the controversial candidate.