Alright, what's going on? This guy who went from a nobody and a longer than long shot came from nowhere and dethroned the Powerhouse Governors Romney and Perry (combined) to win last weeks P5 Florida Straw Poll.Then Monday we saw shock headlines from Zogby showing that Cain had leaped to the lead.
Then this morning we were shocked again by headlines showing Cain polling within 5 points of Obama.
Now, just breaking, a FOX News poll has him diffidently in the top tier.
Romney 23%
Perry 19%
Cain 17%
Gingrich 11%
Paul 6%
Huntsman 4%
Bachmann 3%
Santorum 3%
Who is this guy? The first I heard of him was his tea party speeches. I don't know anyone who has spoken at as many tea party events as he has.
Then he came to speak at a presidential candidate forum for homeschoolers that I helped organize. One of the things I had to do was write the bio to be used when he was introduced. He's never been elected before by a vote of the people, but his record is still impressive.
He worked for the navy as a professional mathematician (don't ask me what that means...). Then he entered the business world. There he climbed the ladder like a fireman. He worked for a half dozen restaurants as a business executive before he finally took the reins of a dying company, Godfather's Pizza. As CEO he turned things around and it recovered remarkably.
After that success apparently everyone wanted him on their board of directors because he had to shed a huge number of boards before officially stepping into the ring and running for president. One of the boards he served on, by the way, was a Federal Reserve board. I imagine that the Ron Paul people will not like that, but he really understands finances.
Finally, he took a shocking foray into healthcare when he took on HilleryCare back in the nineties. In fact, he took on President Clinton on national TV (and won):
It would be nice to have someone this smart handling the national debt.
For the last several years Cain has been a conservative talk radio host in Atlanta.
Edit: You can find a summery of his policy positions, here. (HT: Andrew)
If someone asks you who THE HERMAN CAIN is, now YOU know.
If someone asks you who THE HERMAN CAIN is, now YOU know.
-Jeremiah Lorrig
So my question is... do you think he actually IS a serious candidate now? How much weight should be attributed to a jump in polls? (My instinct is not to trust polls too much, but this does get him a lot more attention all of a sudden.)
ReplyDeleteAlso: any serious chance he could beat Barack Obama? That's the question I'm still puzzling over with any of the Republican candidates actually....
He seems to be a good candidate, but he has some very poor affirmative action views. Could it be that he has a slight hint of prejudice that overrides his pro-business view.
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