UPDATE: Cain: I didn’t seek nomination for the sake of it

ATLANTA — In an e-mail to supporters, Herman Cain said he “did not want to become president just for the sake of being president.”

In recent weeks, Cain, a Stockbridge resident and one-time GOP contender, has faced a spate of allegations from women, ranging from sexual harassment to a long-time affair with a Dunwoody Woman. On Saturday, Cain announced he was suspending his bid for the GOP nomination.

“I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve accomplished in my life and I don’t need the ego boost,” Cain said in the e-mail. “Rather, I sought the presidency because our nation has some big problems to deal with, and it’s clear that our political class has neither the will nor the ability to solve them.

“For that very reason, I was not surprised that I was viciously attacked once I rose in the polls. I was surprised by the nature of the attacks,” Cain added. “Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they’d come up with that one. But I knew the establishment would not like the idea of my success, because I will not get along by going along like so many do. I will not kick the can down the road to the next generation of leaders, because our problems are serious and they need to be solved now.”

Cain, a former businessman and talk radio show host on WSB-AM in Atlanta, announced his presidential bid in May before a crowd of 10,000 at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta.

Cain has never held public office and lost a 2004 bid to serve in the U.S. Senate from Georgia, a seat Johnny Isakson ultimately won.

” I am disappointed, there are more than a few silver linings to doing this work outside the context of a presidential campaign,” Cain said. “The process by which we choose our nation’s leader is ridiculous.

“There is little focus on policy substance and even less on candidates’ governing skills,” Cain added. “If you’re not warding off some wild accusation, you’re explaining away a “gaffe,” which is usually the sort of slip of the tongue that anyone can make, but because some reporter heard it, it turns into a news-cycle narrative with a shelf life of six or seven days.”