Talking to State of the Union host Candy Crowley on CNN this weekend, GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain blamed the sexual harassment allegations against him and voter confusion for his recent drop in the polls (he's at 17 percent, 18 points lower than his October number).

"Obviously false accusations and confusion about some of my positions has contributed to it," he said. "That was to be expected. In terms of the campaign itself, nothing has gone wrong in terms of our strategy of spending time in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida," Cain added.

Attributing backlash against his position on abortion and foreign policy matters to comments that were taken out of context, he added, "Some people are heavily influenced by perception more so than reality ... The good news is most of my supporters have stayed on the Cain train, as we say."

People who aren't aboard the "Cain train" might point to Cain's recent flub on a question about Libya as evidence that it's the candidate who's confused, not voters. But Cain seems convinced that anyone who really understood his views would get behind him.

Watch the full interview to hear him explain in his own words his positions on immigration ("The path to citizenship that's already there doesn't say anything about amnesty"), racial profiling ("Targeted identification" is the most sensible solution") and abortion ("Life from conception, no exceptions") and decide for yourself whether "perception" or reality is behind his decline.

Read more at CNN and watch the video at Mediaite.

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