LADIES’ MAN:Gloria Cain (left), the wife of Herman Cain, is leading the new Women for Cain campaign, whose Web site initially featured four women flashing thumbs-up signs. But the gals’ apparent enthusiasm was not for the GOP candidate — the image was found to be a stock photo. (
)
WASHINGTON — After weeks of watching women come forward with damaging accusations against him, Herman Cain launched a bizarre “Women for Cain” Web site yesterday featuring female testimonials in an effort to shore up his stalling campaign.
The site claims the project is being overseen by Gloria Cain, his wife of 43 years, who is described on the site as “the very special woman who Mr. Cain devoted his life to many years ago.”
The damage-control effort came as Cain prepared to fly to Atlanta to meet with his wife face-to-face for the first time since Georgia businesswoman Ginger White came forward to allege she and Cain had carried on a steamy affair for 13 years.
“Tomorrow in Atlanta, I will be making an announcement. But no one is gonna get me to make that prematurely,” Cain said yesterday in South Carolina.
“I am reassessing because of all this media-firestorm stuff,” he added. “Why? Because my wife and family come first. I’ve got to take that into consideration.”
Gloria Cain has been mainly absent from the campaign trail, except when the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO launched his bid and when she appeared on Fox News to defend him against sexual-harassment charges.
A banner on the new purple-hued Web site initially featured a photo of four youthful, smiling women giving thumbs-up signs.
But they are not rabid Cain supporters. Internet searches revealed that the picture is a stock photo that has been used for other purposes, including a Web site for au pairs and a South African sugar company.
The Post found that the photographer who took the shot lives in Cologne, Germany — raising the possibility that the four women actually live on the other side of the Atlantic.
The campaign ditched the photo yesterday afternoon after media inquiries.
But women on the site uploaded photos of themselves with comments to buck up Cain, who has fallen from atop the polls since the accusations surfaced.
“I don’t believe any of these vicious lies. Please, don’t drop out, because our country needs both of you. Stay strong during this trial and know God will prevail,” Linda Aceto of Norwood, Pa., wrote to Cain and his wife.
Another woman on the site attacked Cain’s latest accuser as a “moneygrubbing, lying woman.”
The site is described as “an online national fellowship of women dedicated to helping elect Herman Cain as the next President of the United States.”
A new Des Moines Register poll shows Cain’s support tumbling to 8 percent, after it was as high as 23 percent in late October, when he led the GOP field.
Cain said he would open his Atlanta campaign office today and meet with top donors and advisers to decide whether to continue his presidential bid.
One source close to the campaign said Cain’s announcement could happen there.
“It could be the grand closing as well as the grand opening,” the source said.