(ThyBlackMan.com) He may not yet have the name recognition of Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney, but pizza magnate Herman Cain has something others in the Republican presidential field do not _ his race, and escalating buzz.
Cain, an African-American entrepreneur with an impressive corporate resume, has come out of nowhere to become the Republican candidate to watch since the party’s first presidential debate earlier this month in South Carolina, where those in attendance declared him the hands-down winner.
A survey released Wednesday by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling suggests Romney is leading the pack among Republicans in the key state of Iowa with 21 per cent in support. But Cain has surged from the bottom of the heap to tie with Palin for second place, with each of them at 15 per cent.
In a Gallup poll last week, Cain also ranked highest in the survey’s “positive intensity score” among Republican voters.
In an interview on Wednesday, the 65-year-old Cain said his popularity proves there’s no need to raise millions to run for president if there’s grassroots support.
“We don’t have to raise the most amount of money,” he said on CBS.
“We just need to raise enough money to be competitive, because there’s an element going on in this campaign that money can’t buy. The fact that my message is resonating so well, our ground game, our grassroots development is far exceeding a lot of the other candidates.”
And yet who is Herman Cain?
He remains a mysterious figure who has yet to face much criticism _ not from the media nor from a Republican establishment that has aggressively taken aim at potential candidates like Palin and Donald Trump.
He’s rumoured to be a favourite of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire libertarian brothers who have helped bankroll the Tea Party movement.
He’s a stage 4 cancer survivor, based in Atlanta but born in Tennessee to a mother who cleaned houses and a father who worked as a chauffeur.
He’s pro-life and wants to defund Planned Parenthood. He has called Social Security a “scam” and sharply criticized welfare, saying: “Programs today are designed to make people more dependent rather than less dependent.”
He also says he would not appoint a Muslim to a cabinet position if he was president.
Cain’s candidacy has renewed questions about that little-understood facet of American politics _ black conservatism, a perplexing phenomenon if only because the vast majority of African-Americans vote Democrat.
“The black conservative is almost always someone who’s supposedly achieved all of their successes all on their own _ there’s always the claim that they did it all by themselves, they didn’t need affirmative action, they didn’t need welfare, they didn’t need handouts, so why should anyone else?” Toni-Michelle Travis, a professor at George Mason University who specializes in race politics, said Wednesday.
“They hold themselves up as proof that the American dream lives. It’s all very patriotic and pro-business.”
Cain hasn’t hesitated to bring up race in his run for president.
In a new musical video that serves as a biographical introduction to his candidacy, Cain says his popularity among Tea Party adherents proves that the movement does not harbour a shameful secret about its distaste for U.S. President Barack Obama.
“To all of those people who say that the Tea Party is a racist organization, eat your words,” Cain, clad in a black cowboy hat, says in the video that also features an African-American female supporter.
“When people ask me about the Tea Party, they ask me if it’s about colour, and I say: ‘Yes it is, it’s about red, white and blue,'” she says.
Cain has also implied he possesses bona fides as an American black man that perhaps Obama does not.
“My great-great-grandparents were slaves, and now I’m running for president of the United States of America,” he says in the video. “Is this a great country or what?”
Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton University, points out that Cain is attempting to get two messages across with those words.
“He is extolling American triumphalism and suggesting that the nation has conquered its ugly, racist past,” she wrote in a piece on The Nation website on Wednesday.
“That’s for the Tea Party. But he is also reminding us that Barack Obama is not, after all, descended from American slaves. That’s for the black viewers.”
Travis agrees.
“The issue of whether Obama is black enough is never going away,” she said. “In the year when we’re marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, Cain is probably smart to make the suggestion and some people are going to pay a lot of attention to that.”
But she adds that Cain has had a relatively easy ride from the media, with few questions being asked about his business dealings or who’s backing him, and those days are likely numbered now that his popularity is swelling.
Critics will likely emerge soon to point out that Cain _ described as a true “son of the South” in the video _ owes much of his success to the civil rights battles fought a generation ago in his home state of Tennessee and other jurisdictions, Travis said.
“Whether it’s Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or black legislators, it’s just a matter of time before they come out to point out that he didn’t get where he is today on his own, he didn’t make it because he was necessarily brilliant, he had help that allowed him to move forward just like anyone else,” she said.
“The criticisms are going to come.”
Written By Lee-Anne Goodman
AND ON MY WAY OUT LET ME JUST SAY. MITT ROMNEY IS A WHITE DEVIL. THE MORMON CHURCH IS PREJUDICE AGAINST BLACKS. THE MORMON RELIGION IS UNGODLY AND MORMONS WORSHIP A MAN NOT A GOD. I TRUST THE BLACK CHURCH . I TRUST AFRICAN AMERICAN CHRISTIANS ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY. DO NOT BELIEVE ONE WORD OUT OF ROMNEYS MOUTH. HE IS AN UNHOLY FOOL. AND IF IT EVER CAME DOWN TO MITT ROMNEY AND BARACK OBAMA I MUST SAY……..OBAMA WOULD GET MY VOTE BECAUSE ATLEAST HE IS NOT AN INTENTIONAL LIAR!! HERMAN CAIN IN 2012.
OBAMA NEVER RAN ANYTHING IN HIS LIFE. NOT EVEN A LEMONADE STAND. OBAMA KNOWS HOW TO WALK THE STREETS WITH A STAPLE GUN THATS IT. POSTERS HERE…POSTERS THERE. COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. WHAT IN THE HEL IS THAT??? HERMAN CAIN HAS RUN A MAJOR CORP. HERMAN CAIN WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES JUST LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS. YEAH YOU REMEMBER??? WHITES ONLY… N—–S GET OUT ETC ETC. MAINLAND AFRICAN AMERICAN WERE LOOKED UPON AND SPAT ON LIKE DOGS. OBAMA WAS IN INDONESIA AND HAWAII. NOT IN MISSISSIPPI OR ALABAMA. SO SHOVE IT UP YOUR A– IF YOU GET MAD OVER WHAT I JUST SAID!!! I AM NOT BLACK. BUT I KNOW THE TRUTH AND REV WRIGHT SAID HILARY NEVER BEEN CALLED A N—-. WELL GUESS WHAT OBAMA WAS NEVER CALLED THAT EITHER. AND CHICAGO IS A LONG WAY FROM SELMA. I HOPE HERMAN CAIN WINS SO HE CAN SAVE THE BLACK NAME.
HERMAN CAIN TURNED AROUND A MAJOR CORP AND HE WILL TURN THIS COUNTRY AROUND BY HIS BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP.VOTE HERMAN CAIN AND LETS ALL CELEBRATE A MAINLAND AFRICAN AMERICAN WHO IS A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF A SLAVE TO RUN THIS COUNTRY AND SAVE US ALL FROM THIS HELLISH ROAD WE ARE ON. CAIN 2012 GOD BLESS THIS MAN. GOD HAS SAVED HIM FROM CANCER FOR A REASON AND THIS IT. HERMAN CAIN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012. SAY WHAT YOU WANT IN FRONT OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS BUT WHEN YOU WALK INTO THAT VOTING BOOTH AND CLOSE THE DRAPES ,,,,,JUST REMEMBER OF THESE LONG AND HARD 4 YEARS AND CHECK HERMAN CAIN AND SEND OBAMA HOME TO CHICAGO. IF NOT FOR YOU FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO COME.
I assume you’re correct; the criticisms will surely come, and sooner rather than later. What I find ironic, however, is those very same criticisms NEVER came when Obama ran. He was the anointed one, and the media gave him a free pass. The good news is, Herman Cain is not only a successful business man, but he’s an accomplished radio personality who’s used to thinking on his feet, and he’ll do well in a match-up against hostile media.
Check out this video compilation showing the differences between Herman Cain’s eloquent competence, and Barack Obama’s stammering amateurishness. If they ever meet on the debate stage, one gets the feeling that Herman Cain would take Obama to the woodshed, much like a stern uncle to a chastened teen.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Hollywood4Cain
It is unfortunate for the Republican Party that they are having a real tough time finding a legitimate candidate to run against Obama. During the last election, people questioned whether or not Obama had enough experience to run for the office. From all indication, he was qualified. Now with Cain, what experience does he have in running the country never having been an elected official. I believe they are going to run a candidate and sacrifice him or her for the 2012 and find a candidate to run in 2016 since Obama will not be running. Was McCain/Palin sacrificed in 2008? What would the country be like today if McCain/Palin won? Could Palin handle Biden’s job? Fortunately for the Democrats, they have many qualified candidates for 2016.
Run, Sarah run. Sarah Palin was so successful as a governor, she graduated early “Bitter Quitter”, she real is a “Dan Quayle” in heels. She clearly loves “dishing it out” but real can’t take it because she loves playing the victim card. Poor thing she fail as a VP candidate (her lie that her daughter was engaged was such a farce), her stand-up comic fiasco on the Jay Leno Show, please, her TV show canceled after declining rating, I guess her perpetual run for the White House is the only thing she can look forward to, but since she is a coward she will only throw small minded rocks, poor thing. Since we already had an idiot “W” that caused our current economic debacle, America knows not to trust the GOP fools who flaunt the idiocy.
You know what this current crowd of GOP liars want is to turn the United Sates into China, where only a few giant corporations run things, they own the factories, that apartments, the grocery stores, the gas stations, the newspaper and magazine publications, the radio stations, the television stations and you pay them and they get all the benefits, and if you do not like it go jump off cliff. Well some Chinese workers seeing that as individuals that they cannot progress have done just that by committing suicide. The current crowd of GOP liars want to abolish Medicare from the elderly, they want to abolish a woman’s right to choose and have control over her own body, they want to abolish collective bargaining rights, and on top of it all they want to blame the poor, the middle class and the public sector workers for a recession that the GOP created, while their beloved “Fat cats” continue to pay themselves exorbitant salaries, bonuses, fringe benefits. Yes this is the GOP “Radical Right-Wing Social Engineering” that they dream about. The win in New York was the beginning but the next will be Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and later the other states of our nation. So run, Sarah run.
I hear Charity… Nice blog you have there by the way…
Staff,
ThyBlackMan
I found this via Google search and have to tell you that I found it very fair and well-written. I enjoyed the post.
As a conservative, living near Atlanta, I’m very fond of Herman and hope that the other conservatives give him a fair shot at this run. I’m donating, I’m supporting, and I’m hopeful. I’ve listened to his show (by accident at first), before I knew what color he was, and loved him. He has good business sense and a plan to get us where we need to be.
Race has no place in politics. Religion has no place in politics. Perhaps one day we shall have a Gay black woman for president and I’d vote for her if I agreed with her politics. I don’t care about the planned parenthood issue… this should be a local issue rather than a federal one. There are so many issues that our country tries to fix at the national level, but that is what we have our state governments for.
Thanks for the great work! Go Herman!