We're nearing the part of the presidential campaign where Herman Cain was supposed to drop out and collect on his modest name recognition by going on a book tour. But something's gone terribly wrong: He's somehow the frontrunner, now? So he'll abandon his campaign for a month to go on a book tour anyway.

NBC News reports today that Cain, with only a few months left until the Iowa Caucuses, will be "going on a book tour for much of October" and is "not scheduled to be back in Iowa until mid-November." Those terrible cynics at the Christian Science Monitor follow up, suggesting that this whole presidential run might be something of a scam!

When you take yourself off the campaign trail just to flog a book, it raises the question: Why are you still around, Herman Cain? And what's the real motive behind this run?

Let's all calm down. Plenty of candidates leave the trail for long periods of time. Newt Gingrich left for a couple of weeks to go on a Mediterranean cruise, and no one questioned the legitimacy of his campaign, did they?

[Image via AP]