Herman Cain: pizza boss, radio host, ballistics expert, minister. President?
However, unlike previous rightwing darlings such as Texas governor Rick Perry and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, wealthy businessman Herman Cain, 65, can claim to be cut from a very different sort of cloth from the average Republican candidate.
First, he is not actually a politician. Cain, whose CV includes being a radio show host, a navy ballistics expert, a Baptist minister and a Federal Reserve official, has never held elected office in his life. His most famous job was as chief executive of the fast-food firm Godfather's Pizza.
Yet none of that seemed to matter to the cheering crowds at the Values Voter Summit in a Washington DC hotel late last week. There was much to celebrate. A Zogby opinion poll had just boosted Cain into first place in the race, with 38% of the vote, compared with 18% for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Perry trailed in third place with 12%. The study even showed Cain beating President Barack Obama in a match-up by 46% to 44%.
Cain's strong debate performances have propelled him forward in the polls at the same time as he has hit the TV networks. He won the Florida straw poll and suddenly pundits are taking him seriously. They are even raising the prospect of 2012 being a fight for the White House between two black candidates. "Cain versus Obama in 2012 – It's Not Just a Fantasy," blared the headline on a Fox News story written by black columnist Juan Williams.
That may be going a little too far. Many experts believe Cain is simply the latest beneficiary of a conservative distrust of the presumed frontrunner Romney. Many Tea Party activists and the religious right distrust Romney for his actions on healthcare reform and his policy flips on issues such as abortion.
The nomination race so far has been marked by the rise and fall of a succession of conservative heroes, beginning with billionaire Donald Trump and cycling through Bachmann, Perry and now Cain. "It is like going to the fridge when you are hungry and opening the door and not being able to decide which particular thing to eat. That is what conservatives are doing. They want to pick someone who is not Romney," said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California.
Yet Cain is now faced with a remarkable and unexpected opportunity. He began the race as the sort of unknown candidate that rapidly becomes the butt of late-night TV comedians. His background in the pizza business certainly provided a natural punchline to scores of gags. But now serious Republican figures understand that he can capitalise on his current position. "He has caught the attention of the Republican party. But now he has to hold on to it for the next 100 days," said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant and campaign manager for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. Reed said Cain had to use his high polling numbers to raise some much-needed money and build a "ground organisation" in key early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Currently Cain is concentrating more on selling his latest book than spending endless days in those tough first states. But he faces a much harder task than simply pressing the flesh with voters: he has to survive the coming media onslaught. "When the spotlight gets brighter you have to be able to handle it. That is the place he is going to go now," said Reed.
It is not likely to be a happy place for Cain. His polling numbers will now justify the sort of intense scrutiny of his past statements and business dealings that have proved difficult for previous figures like Trump, Perry and Bachmann. There is a lot of material for journalists to get stuck into – Cain is notoriously outspoken and once had his own radio show. His off-the-cuff remarks on numerous subjects could get him into trouble; he has already drawn the ire of many for comments that Muslims could be banned from building mosques and warning that Sharia law might be implemented in the US.
But that outspokenness is also key to Cain's appeal. His blunt talk and excellent comic timing when making spontaneous remarks have endeared him to many. "Herman Cain is a bright guy that connects intellectually and emotionally with the voters. As we get closer and closer to voting, Cain is likely the last real opponent for the anti-Romney part of the party: the people who want to find anyone else," said Republican consultant Steve Mitchell, chairman of Mitchell Research and Communications.
Born into a poor household in Tennessee, he was the son of a car driver and a cleaner and during his childhood Cain experienced firsthand "whites only" water fountains and being forced to ride in the back of public buses. His family moved to Georgia and he went to Morehouse College in Atlanta. From there he eventually joined the Navy before going into the business world.
He rose to be chief executive of Godfather's Pizza, where he slashed costs at the troubled chain and closed scores of stores, but dragged the group back into profitability. By the mid-1990s he was working as an official for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City but getting increasingly involved in politics. He advised various politicians on their campaigns – he even ran for president in 2000. "That's an impressive rise. He was born in the segregated south. We can only imagine what he went through as a kid," said Bowler.
Almost everyone wrote Cain off as a joke when he began his latest campaign, but Cain made no secret of his ambitions: " America has problems. I'm a problem solver. That's why I'm running."
source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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