Cain: I Will Talk To My Wife About My Affair Before Deciding What To Do

I have never questioned Herman Cain's intelligence. He's obviously got a fair amount of gray matter if he was able to graduate from prestigious Morehouse College, worked as a mathematician in ballistics for the U.S. Navy developing fire control systems, and then made millions by building a pizza empire.

What has been clear from the outset of Cain's improbable "campaign," which I put in quotes for obvious reasons, is that he never took running for the Republican nomination seriously. Never developed a campaign staff. Never seriously considered policy positions. Never did the heavy lifting requisite in growing as a candidate for national office. And as is sadly typical of many politicians, was so self absorbed that he never considered the consequences of his actions.

And so we have the sad spectacle of Cain denying that he had a 13-year affair with a woman while saying that he would have to talk to his wife about the affair before deciding whether to drop out of the race.

Cain already is losing the backing of key conservative advisers who were providing him with free positive press and were fundraising conduits. These powerful voices -- ranging from Mike Huckabee to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham -- are privately expressing great concern about a man they once praised, although less because of the sexual harassment allegations against him than repeated flubs on Libya and other foreign policy matters that have revealed him to be an ignoramus even if he once was a rocket scientist.

I took some time looking closely at the photograph above of Cain's family. (No, he did not adopt Greta Van Susteren, who is on the far right in more ways than one.)

What a lovely wife and beautiful children. Yet Cain had a zipper problem and repeatedly broke his marriage vows, which would be okey-dokey if he didn't promote himself as a devout Baptist. He certainly has deeply hurt his wife, whom despite her reluctance to make public appearances he put on television to defend his reputation, as well as the rest of his family.