Thursday, May 5, 2011

Is Tonight Herman Cain's Chance To Shine?

Back in February, I wrote the post below on Herman Cain, Republican presidential candidate. With tonight's Republican Debate, the first of the 2012 season, Herman Cain will be one of five potential candidates on stage in Greenville, SC. The debate will be moderated by Bret Baier, one of the best news-people on tv, IMHO. There will be an Open Thread to coincide with the debate, airing at 9:00pm EST.

Other participants in the debate include former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty; former PA US Senator, Rick Santorum; Rep. Ron Paul from Texas; and former New Mexico Governor, Gary Johnson.

Conventional wisdom is suggesting that Herman Cain stands to gain the most from this debate, particularly because of the small field. It will allow people who are unfamiliar with him to get a sense of who he is, especially since the smaller field will allow for fuller responses to questions. Oh, and his Southern accent, unlike the current White House resident, is real. He is from Georgia, has a degree in Math from Morehouse College, and a Masters in Computer Science from Purdue.

Below the original post is a new interview with Herman Cain from this morning.


There is a potential presidential candidate for 2012, someone about whom you may not have heard. His name is Herman Cain, a wildly successful businessman from Atlanta, GA. He was the CEO of Godfather's Pizza, and currently has his own radio show.

Bret Baier caught up with Mr. Cain recently after Cain's CPAC speech:




I admit, I did not know much about Cain. I had heard of him, and knew he owned Godfather's, but I had not heard him talk much before that. He is an impressive person - smart, funny, and experienced. Not a bad combination, if you ask me.

The Tea Party crowd in Madison, WI, seems to feel the same way as Mr. Cain speaks out in support of Gov. Walker, and his leadership:



Indeed, the people seem to like him.

No wonder Cain is the target of brutal, racist attacks from the Left:



You have to hand it to Juan Williams - he nails it. These horrible assaults are the result of "crazy thinking." The sheer hatred of conservative blacks is breath taking, isn't it?

And yet, to hear Cain tell it, plenty of people in his community listen to him, but do not feel like they can say that in public. My bet is that the Alternet.org response is exactly of what they are afraid, crazy though it may be.

We have seen this before, though. This kind of bullying, of threatening to anyone who doesn't toe the party line. And by "party," of course I mean the Democratic one. We saw this with Rep. John Lewis, who was recently honored by the same man whose national co-chair in 2008, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr, threatened him (and other Congressional Black Caucus Members) with a younger competitor if he didn't throw his support behind Obama. Lewis had long been a Clinton supporter, but once the threats from Rep. Jackson, Jr. started, he caved. How Clinton slept with all of those knives in her back, I'll never know. But I digress. (Oh, Lewis lives in Atlanta, too, as an aside.)

This kind of racist vitriol is not new, but it sure seems to be ratcheting up now. If anyone can take it, it seems Cain can. I suspect we will hear more from him in the months to come.

UPDATE: As promised, below is a video from today with Herman Cain:

4 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

I like this guy! I never heard of him before, I hope I hear more about him and he makes a good showing at the debate.

I'd love to see Obama debate him. There would be no way that Obama can look down his nose at this guy without looking like an idiot. And what's he going to say when he can't play the race card?

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy said...

Exactly, ME - he cannot possibly play the race card with Herman Cain, who also went to a historically black college.

It will be interesting to see how things turn out tonight, won't it?!

Mary Ellen said...

Cain won that debate hands down! I never heard of him before this and I was amazed at how well he presented himself. Great job, had a lot of answers. I just hope you can get the backing to move him forward. Really refreshing!

Ron Paul is just nuts. Gary Johnson just is not Presidential material...I don't know how to articulate it, he just didn't do anything for me.

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy said...

It doesn't surprise me that this is your take on it (though in all honesty, we had company last night, and I need to go watch it today). The interviews I have seen with Cain demonstrate him to be a sharp man, quick thinking, and articulate without benefit of a teleprompter and $724,000 of our money to make him sound halfway decent (Obama has a consultant for reading the teleprompter, I kid you not, whom he pays with our money $100,000. I have to say, though, it was not money well spent when I watched his announcement Sun. night. He was terrible. Oh, and the other $624,000 is what he pays his speechwriters.).

I agree abt Ron Paul. What I have seen of Johnson does nothing for me, either. Pawlenty is, by all accounts, an excellent choice, though he needs more name recognition, too, like Cain...