Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
The latest allegation swirling around businessman Herman Cain — that he conducted a 13-year long extramarital affair with a woman named Ginger White — could well amount to a political death blow for his already-reeling presidential campaign. And that’s bad news for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. 
  
  
  
 Businessman Herman Cain listens as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney speaks during the Republican presidential debate on national security November 22, 2011 at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) 
  
 Meanwhile, a parade of would-be rivals — Donald Trump, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Cain -- have risen rapidly and fallen just as quickly. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is the latest to try to seize that mantle. 
  
 While the vast majority of the media coverage has focused on the ups and downs of the anti-Romney candidates, that glosses over the fact that the former Massachusetts governor hasn’t been able to win over large swaths of conservatives — remaining almost entirely stagnant for months. 
  
 Take the CNN poll. In the last four national polls — the first in early September, the last just before Thanksgiving — Romney has won 21 percent, 22 percent, 26 percent and 24 percent. 
  
 (Gingrich, by contrast, went from 7 percent to 8 percent to 11 percent to 22 percent in those same surveys.) 
  
 What those numbers suggest is that Romney’s best (only?) path to the nomination is if conservatives, who seem to have decided they won’t be with him, fracture among several candidates rather than unify behind a single one. 
  
 That reality is true on the national level but equally true in early voting states like Iowa and South Carolina where Romney seems to have a solid 15 to 25 percent but hasn’t moved much beyond that number. A Bloomberg News Iowa survey showed Romney at 18 percent — bunched with Cain, Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. 
  
 (That’s not true in New Hampshire, where Romney’s geographic proximity and the close attention he has paid to the state make him a clear frontrunner.) 
  
 The latest allegations regarding Cain, when coupled with the dead-in-the-water candidacies (at least for the moment) of one-time conservative alternatives Perry and Bachmann, make it increasingly likely that Republicans looking for a Romney alternative will view Gingrich as the only viable option. 
  
 That could spell trouble for Romney — particularly in Iowa and South Carolina — as he goes for a quick and decisive victory in the early days of the primary race in hopes of spending his attention and money on President Obama and the general election. 
  
 Gingrich targets Romney: Gingrich is starting to go after Romney, saying Monday that he is more conservative than the former Massachusetts governor and suggesting he is also more consistent. 
  
 Gingrich said on a South Carolina radio station that he was “a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney.” He also said that “it’s wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one electorate, because then people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time?” 
  
 If that’s not talking about Romney, we don’t know what is. 
  
 Gingrich is perhaps the only emergent frontrunner who has shown both a willingness and capability to attack Romney. We’ll see how it pans out. 
  
 Nelson poll shows him leading: Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) appears to be benefitting from the more than $1 million that the Democratic Party has spent on ads for him this year, according to a new poll conducted for his campaign. 
  
 The Hickman Analytics poll shows Nelson leading all three of his most likely GOP opponents. After trailing state Attorney General Jon Bruning and state Treasurer Don Stenberg in a previous poll by his pollster, he now leads Bruning within the margin of error, 47 percent to 45 percent, and he leads Stenberg 49 percent to 43 percent. 
  
 Nelson’s personal numbers have also improved, with 54 percent of Nebraskans rating him favorably, compared to 47 percent in February. His net favorable rating has gone from -2 to +14. Bruning’s numbers, meanwhile, have declined, as his campaign has stumbled a bit early on. 
  
 The poll is particularly good news for Democratic Party officials who are wooing Nelson away from retirement. In a state like Nebraska, he may be their only hope of holding the seat. 
  
 Proposed map in Florida: We have the first proposed redistricting map in Florida, courtesy of the state Senate. 
  
 The map creates one new Democratic district — the 27th — in Orange County south of Orlando and a GOP district in northern Florida, between Gainesville and Tallahassee. (The latter district is actually labeled the 6th, but GOP Rep. Cliff Stearns lives in the new 26th and may run there. Both are strong GOP districts.) 
  
 Perhaps more interesting, the map dilutes firebrand Rep. Allen West’s (R-Fla.) already-tough south Florida district, moving it from a district where Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would have won 48 percent in the 2008 presidential race to one in which he would have won 44 percent. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Steve Southerland (R) and Tom Rooney (R) also get less safe and could have tough races ahead, but in exchange, Reps. Daniel Webster (R), David Rivera (R) and Sandy Adams (R) get considerably safer. 
  
 The Florida map is a tough one for the GOP, given that it already controls 19 of 25 districts and has so many incumbents to shore up. Complicating matters further are the new constitutional amendments passed by voters last year that aim to rein in gerrymandering. Democrats contend this could invalidate a GOP-drawn map that doesn’t create several new Democratic districts. 
  
 While this is far from the final product, the first draft is a good indication of where at least some Florida Republicans are hoping to go with the map. 
  
 Fixbits: 
  
 Romney gets the backing of three key Hispanics in South Florida — Diaz Balartand Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. 
  
 Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) campaign is encouraging college students to spend “Christmas Vacation with Ron Paul.” 
  
 The White House defends its many official trips (on the taxpayer dime) to states that just happen to be important in the presidential race. 
  
 The effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) is on pace to get well more than the required signatures. 
  
 Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) makes his Senate campaign official. 
  
 Must-reads: 
  
 “Family ties prove thorny for Tierney” — Jenna Russell, Boston Globe 
  
 “Texas asks Supreme Court to block federal judges’ redistricting plan” — Robert Barnes, Washington Post 
  
 “As White House candidates abandon public funding, Republicans look to end system” — Ben Pershing, Washington Post 
  
 Read more on PostPolitics.com 
  
 Cain reassessing presidential candidacy 
  
 Woman accuses Cain of having 13-year affair 
  
 Bachmann claims she never said ‘anything inaccurate’ during debates ||||| National Review's Robert Costa broke the news that Herman Cain told his senior staff on a conference call that he was "reassessing" whether or not to stay in the GOP presidential race now that a woman is publicly claiming she had a 13-year affair with the businessman turned candidate. Cain says the decision will come in the next few days and reminded staffers that he's remained in the race after prior travails. But it's worth exploring how the race would be affected if he did choose to exit. 
  
 The most popular theory is that Cain's departure would hurt Mitt Romney and benefit his chief rival at the moment, Newt Gingrich. The GOP electorate maintains severe reservations about Romney, so his strategy for winning has always depended on squeaking through as conservatives fail to settle on one alternative. If Cain were to leave, there would be one less candidate to carve up the conservative vote, thus complicating Romney's strategy. Though Cain has declined in polls over the last several weeks, according to the Real Clear Politics average, he's still at 15.5 percent nationally, 15.8 percent in Iowa, 7 percent in New Hampshire and 16.7 percent in South Carolina. Gingrich has been the beneficiary of Cain's recent slide, and would theoretically stand to gain ground if he were to drop out. 
  
 Yet there's also another way of looking at things that could play into Romney's hands. If Cain does end up dropping out over reports that he had an affair, it could lead to a greater focus on Gingrich's messy personal life, three marriages and extra-marital affair. Though Romney is unlikely to directly attack Gingrich on this, expect to hear a lot more about Romney's 42-year marraige to emphasize that this isn't an issue Republicans would have to worry about should he be the nominee. ||||| By Molly Ball 
  
 As the scandal-tarred Republican candidate ponders his future, a look at the implications for the remainder of the GOP presidential field 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 On a conference call Tuesday morning, Herman Cain told campaign staffers he's " reassessing " his candidacy in the wake of the latest allegation of sexual misbehavior against him. 
  
  
  
  
  
 Cain said he would stick to his schedule, including a speech at Michigan's Hillsdale College scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight. "We're going to continue until we complete our assessment over the next several days," he said, according to National Review's Robert Costa, who was on the call. 
  
  
  
  
  
 "But if a decision is made different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know," Cain added. 
  
  
  
  
  
 Thus begins the deathwatch stage of the former pizza CEO's twisting presidential campaign saga. The vultures have been circling Cain for the last several weeks as the scandal has played out; Cain's blunders have only accelerated the slide. 
  
  
  
  
  
 Who stands to benefit if Cain does drop out? What's clearest is who doesn't: Mitt Romney. 
  
  
  
  
  
 As a flawed and unloved front-runner, Romney's best shot has always been against a fragmented field of subpar challengers. From Cain to Rick Santorum to Ron Paul, the more secondary candidates carve up the pie of voters who see Romney as unacceptable, the fewer votes he needs to achieve a plurality win in each successive primary. 
  
  
  
  
  
 The revolving-door nature of the race so far, with successive challengers peaking and then fading, has been Romney's dream scenario: Even as Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Cain have lost ground, they've each retained their hold on a small corps of followers, draining more votes from the anti-Romney pool. 
  
  
  
  
  
 As the currently surging Romney alternative, Newt Gingrich seems best poised to win over the votes freed up by a Cain withdrawal, though it's not a clear-cut transfer. The Cain fans who identify with the Tea Party might go to Michele Bachmann, while his evangelical supporters could flee to either Bachmann or Rick Santorum. Rick Perry looks like a plausible substitute on paper, but it's hard to overstate how completely GOP voters have written him off after his many problematic performances in debates and at other venues. 
  
  
  
  
  
 Though Gingrich is far more fluent than Cain on the details of policy, the two share a stylistic appeal: an air of authenticity, as well as a certain joie de vivre. Gingrich always seems like he's having fun and believes what he's saying. (And Gingrich's personal baggage -- garden-variety adultery and lack of marital commitment -- looks downright tame next to what Cain's been accused of.) And with his credentials as the architect of the 1994 Republican revolution and the GOP's scholar-in-residence, Gingrich has a plausible electability pitch. 
  
  
  
  
  
 Steve Deace, a Des Moines-based syndicated radio host, said whether or not Cain decides to soldier on, his time is up. 
  
  
  
  
  
 "Anytime you're not sure if that's the job I should take -- it's not. If you're not sure if that's the woman I should marry -- it's not. Any candidate who openly talks about whether they should be in the race at this stage, no, they shouldn't," he told The Atlantic. 
  
  
  
  
  
 But the successive candidate boomlets have proved that a large number of voters are determined to choose a nominee other than Romney. "Romney's only strategy is to be the John McCain of 2008 -- the last man standing," Deace said. "The fewer alternatives to Romney, the higher likelihood of galvanizing the anti-Romney sentiment, which is the majority of the Republican electorate." 
  
  
  
  
  
 Image credit: Getty Images/Mandel Ngan |||||
A:
The news that Herman Cain is "reassessing" his campaign in the wake of allegations of an extramarital affair has left pundits wondering which candidate would come out on top if the Cain Train came to a halt. A look around the blogosphere: Some of Cain's Tea Party and evangelical supporters may end up choosing Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum, but rising Mitt Romney alternative Newt Gingrich is best placed to benefit, decides Molly Ball at the Atlantic. Gingrich and Cain "share a stylistic appeal: an air of authenticity, as well as a certain joie de vivre," she writes. Cain's exit would be good news for Gingrich, and very bad news for Romney, writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. Romney's stagnant poll numbers suggest that his only chance of winning the nomination will be if conservatives "fracture among several candidates rather than unify behind a single one," he writes. Cain dropping out could actually work in Romney's favor, according to Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner. The spotlight could shift to Gingrich's "messy personal life, three marriages, and extramarital affair," he writes, and while Romney probably won't directly attack Gingrich over his personal life, don't be surprised if he starts mentioning his 42-year marriage a lot more often.