While the right may still be a ways away from pinning down their White House contender, they've at least narrowed the field by one. Herman Cain announced today that he would no longer continue his campaign for president. 

Of the potential GOP nominees, Cain has had one of the more turbulent runs. Not only has he premiered some of the more idiosyncratic campaign materials in Republican history (most of the right is rarely so eager to show off their singing chops), he also has stirred up more than his fair share of scandal. Too much, evidently, to carry the campaign to its finish.

While several women had come forth with accusations of sexual harassment against Cain, it was his alleged 13-year affair that seems to have done him in. Cain staunchly insists that every one of these sexual indictments is false and that he independently decided to suspend his campaign. Maybe they are indeed untrue and his decision was merely a practical one based on the assumption that even rumors, if propagated widely enough, can drive a candidate out of the running. Maybe the fifth accusation was the one that made it impossible for Cain to win. Or maybe they're true and he just didn't want any more dirt to be dug up.

Either way, it's interesting that it's the sexy stuff that most predictably knocks a candidate out of the race. Cain wasn't just a fringe contender. He was a popular and confident member of the lineup. Yet each emerging allegation hurt his numbers to a noticeable degree. Odd campaign videos and public speaking snafus passed the public's radar, but sexual rumors brought Cain down like a 16-ton weight. 

I guess the lesson here is that it's ok to misspeak or even demonstrate gaps in your constitutional knowledge just so long as no one accuses you of sleeping around. We've all seen the American people put disproportionate weight on the sex lives of politicians--remember the Clinton backlash?--even going so far as to value a candidate's private moral life above their political achievements. Like-ability is a fickle variable, but ultimately the most important one in securing the White House. And Cain seems to know his has dipped too low to be salvageable. 

I have the sneaking suspicion that the GOP race will start to look more and more like an elimination challenge than a clear competition. I wonder whose blunders will get them voted off the island next.