Herman Cain’s supporters shocked by campaign’s end

Reporting from Atlanta —  Kerry Hobbs was one of the many Herman Cain supporters who absorbed the festive vibe at the candidate’s newly opened Georgia headquarters Saturday and couldn’t believe that the candidate would be showing up just to drop out.

There was bunting and barbecue and blaring pop music. A sign-up sheet for volunteers. Herman Cain golf shirts going for $50. Policy pamphlets for free. And hundreds of people who had gathered in the parking lot of this suburban Atlanta retail strip, to support their unconventional and beloved candidate despite the gaffes and the accusations that had waylaid his campaign.

“I really want him to stay in,” said Hobbs, 39, a registered nurse from Norcross, Ga., who put herself through school as a single mom. “If he’s going to lose, let him lose fairly—because the people like another person’s policies. Don’t let him lose over a character assassination.”

Hobbs said she didn’t believe the women who have accused him of sexual harassment, or the woman who more recently claimed she Cain’s longtime paramour. She suspected the women had ulterior motives.

And she expected something like a conspiracy: “Because Herman’s the target,” she said. “Because he scares everybody.”

The sentiment was a common one. Ashford Schwall, a 52-year-old financial analyst in a “Fair Tax” baseball hat, said the damaging accusations could be coordinated by a Republican – “But it has the smell of Chicago thuggery to me.”

It would be two hours after the advertised time that Cain would finally arrive, in a dark suit, yellow tie and dark shades, to tell the hushed and deflated crowd that he would indeed suspend his campaign. He called the allegations against him untrue and vowed to continue to fight for his conservative causes in a public space beyond the presidential fray.

For an effort doomed by alleged scandal, the Cain-for-President phenomenon in these final moments was, like the candidate himself, cheery in the face of adversity. The P.A. system blared a version of an old heavy metal hit, with the lyrics altered to praise the Georgia-born pizza magnate (“Here I am! Rock you like a Herman Cain!”). The crowd—mostly white, with a sprinking of African American faces--waved Cain’s Brooks Brothers-blue campaign signs and smaller ones that said, “Don’t believe the liberal media.”

A man in the now familiar getup of a tea party mascot, with tricorn hat and antique rifle, led them in occasional chants of “9-9-9.” Later, he read portions of the Declaration of Independence.

A number of conservative candidates in Georgia races spoke of their personal friendships with Cain, and vouched for his integrity.

Chris Vaughn, a candidate for U.S. Congress, reiterated a lesson his father taught him: “Until honor has been broken, you are loyal.”

Cain, Vaughn said, exhibited “sacred honor.”

The candidate finally appeared at the podium, with his wife, Gloria, behind him. It took a few minutes for Cain to get to the news that his run was over. But he preceded it with a lot of past-tense constructions.

The crowd was quiet enough to allow the whoosh of cars on the nearby freeway to bleed between the speaker’s words.

Afterward, Cain moved slowly along a barrier, shaking all the hands he could, as Neil Diamond, over the P.A. system, blurted, “They’re comin’ to America!”

“Love you long time, Herman!” a man cried, straining for Cain’s hand. “Love you long time!”

Some left angry: One man refused to shake a reporter’s hand. A woman broke up an attempted interview with a man she knew, screaming that the media should “stop the bias.”

Most, however, filed quietly out of the parking lot, signs in hand, shocked and disappointed.

“I just—I’m heartbroken,” said Hokey Sloan, 63, a restaurateur from Auburn, Ga. “He was the one candidate I could really agree with.”

Retiree James Hicks, 67, said the alleged sex scandals should have been a good chance for Cain to prove he could handle the adversity that being commander-in-chief would have thrown at him.

But the allegations themselves?

“I don’t think it’s relevant to the job—as Clinton argued,” Hicks said.