Oh please. Romney’s not hurt by this at all. The people supporting him are liberal leaning or believe he’s most electable. The only time Romney bled his base was when Perry led intially because he was believed electable then.
The same 25% are going to stick with Romney. Dirty tricks by his campaign are nothing new and they are okay with it. And it’s not like Cain is above capitalizing on dirty tricks himself to boost his own campaign.
The only way this would hurt Romeny is if the rest of the 75% united around Cain defensively in reaction to the story but that in part you’d think would only happen if there was no truth to the allegations.
This is 0peration Chaos 2012.