“In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the national poll shows Romney the first choice of 28 percent of GOP primary voters and Cain the first choice of 27 percent of Republicans.

“They’re followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, and Paul and Texas Gov. Rick Perry tied at 10 percent. No other Republican gets more than 4 percent.

“A month ago — before sexual-harassment allegations first surfaced against Cain — the ex-Godfather’s Pizza CEO led the field at an identical 27 percent, with Romney at 23 percent and Perry at 16 percent.

“‘Mitt’s up, Perry’s down and Cain is steady in stormy seas,’ Hart said.”

“39% of those polled who have heard a lot about the allegations said they thought the claims were true, according to the Pew Research Center poll. Twenty-four percent said the claims were false and 36% said they didn’t know.

“The poll, which was done before a Monday news conference in which a woman alleged that Cain had groped her in a parked car, showed a majority of respondents were familiar with the allegations against Cain. 51% said they had heard a lot about the accusations, while 24% said they had heard a little and 23% said they had heard nothing at all…

“When asked to characterize the media coverage of Cain, 39% of Republicans and 51% of Democrats said the news media had been fair.”

“The Des Moines Register re-interviewed a dozen conservative Iowans who participated in the Iowa Poll two weeks ago, and 10 of them said Sharon Bialek’s detailed allegations about Cain groping her in 1997 are troubling enough to at least make them question the retired restaurant executive’s fitness for the White House…

“‘If there’s one allegation, that’s one thing. When there’s two, there’s smoke. And when there’s three or four then you’ve got a full-blown fire,’ said Sandvick, a tea party supporter. ‘Usually if you’ve got that many people coming forward, it’s got to be somewhat true somewhere along the line. They can’t all be in cahoots and say it’s a conspiracy.’…

“Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader, a conservative organization that promotes Christian values, said Cain needs to address these allegations head-on, or a ‘cloud of doubt will envelop his candidacy.’…

“‘I’m standing behind Herman Cain,’ Jorgensen said in a telephone interview. ‘Come forward with proven allegations. If it was proven in a court of law, that’s relevant. But this hearsay – no witnesses, he said/she said kind of stuff, that could go on forever and not prove anybody’s point.'”

“Four women are not an insignificant number. One or two anonymous charges, perhaps. Three anonymous charges (where, as I understand the story, Cain knows of at least two of the women) plus one woman who went very public and opened herself up to all manner of investigation are a lot. It is no longer insignificant. Neither is it insignificant that the Cain campaign discounted the charges in the initial stories, saying they were based on anonymous sources, only to make a mockery by blaming other campaigns with less substantiation than the original stories.

“If Herman Cain wants to be taken seriously as a public advocate for anything, never mind running for the chief executive and commander in chief of the most powerful and important and blessed country in the world, he needs to give a full press conference dedicated exclusively to this issue and these allegations.

“I have watched long enough and held my tongue long enough to give him the benefit of the doubt, but can no longer say this is a witch hunt, ‘a lynching’ to use his word, or any other euphemism. There are allegations out there that matter and they have stacked up. For we who led the charge against Bill Clinton on a number of related issues to continue to blame the media or other campaigns or say it simply doesn’t matter makes us the hypocrites as well.”

“Let me tell you what this means, because I happen to know what this is. Older conservatives mean the ones who have not caved. Older conservatives, and he mentions Coulter, me, the older conservatives. This is not an age thing. We are the conservatives who haven’t buckled. We’re the conservatives who don’t give a rat’s rear end what the leftist media thinks of us….

“So younger conservative means the conservatives who are concerned with being accepted by the liberal media, the younger guys, that’s the code. The older conservatives, people like me are not cowed by it. Not to pick on Lowry, but we talk about this a lot. There are members of the conservative media in Washington who live there, and we know what happens when you live there. It’s a town run by the left socially, politically, you name it. The elected Republicans, they’re hell-bent on making sure they get their message out through the mainstream media. They’re hell-bent on making sure the Washington Post, the Times and all that, like them. We older dinosaurs — he-he-he — yeah, we cannot be bent and shaped and flaked and formed and moved and watered down. We can’t be diluted. That’s what he means by that.”

“Herman Cain will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix to respond to today’s accusations”

Piers Morgan: Obviously the cynics, and there will be many out there, will say why have you waited 14 years to come out with these claims? Are you making any money from this? Do you intend to make any money. You’re not being paid for this interview, but do you intend to make any money from your revelation?

Sharon Bialek: Piers, that was never my intention from the start and it is not my intention to do it. I’m all about doing the right thing, about justice being served. I wanted to do this because those that know me, know I don’t back down from controversy and things. I felt I needed to do this for the other women that couldn’t or wouldn’t regardless of what happens And I know you’re right. There’s going to be a lot of backlash and I’m going to have to suffer through that. And I’m sure that I’m not going to be portrayed as you know, different things. So, um, I’m willing to handle it. I’m a tough girl.

Via the Daily Caller.

“I think for Cain, this is something that he may not be able to actually shake.” Click the image to watch.