The Herman Cain campaign is pushing back at the widely held view his remarks about “reassessing” things might mean he is considering leaving the race. Cain’s manager Mark Block spoke out during the evening, saying, “no way he’s dropping out.”
Reassessment, Block explained, never meant that Cain was contemplating dropping out; instead, it was a reference to reconsidering their strategy given their resources at this point in the race. There are only two things that could push Cain out of the race now, Block finished: “Mrs. Cain, and if we show up to do events and no one is there.”
Cain ended the day Tuesday on the same note. After several embarrassing foreign policy gaffes over the last few weeks, Cain tried to correct course with a foreign policy speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan. After the speech on his foreign policy vision — which raised eyebrows for the careless policy brief that accompanied the rollout of his foreign policy position — Cain spoke with the Hillsdale College paper about the future of his campaign. On the subject of his reassessment, Cain told the paper: “Stay in, but with a modified strategy given everything that’s going on…That’s the reassessment that we are doing — reassessing the strategy.”
Whether or not Cain was really considering dropping out or not, the impression that he was thinking about making an end of things dominated Tuesday’s news cycle. Perhaps with a nod to this, Cain ended his interview at Hillsdale by saying that wouldn’t influence him: “The reassessment isn’t based on what the media wants, or what the establishment wants, but what the people want…I listen to the people.”
