How the ‘Hermanator’ could be the Republican to challenge the first African-American president
He is a former pizza chain magnate, the son of a chauffeur and a cleaner, a conservative African-American — and, to just about everyone’s surprise, a strong contender in the Republican presidential race.
As other leading contenders have begun to falter, Herman Cain has surged into second place in Republican ranks, buoyed by his fiery oratory and impressive debate performances, a radical tax plan – and a background in business, not politics.
All that, plus the plain-speaking appeal of a man who calls himself “The Hermanator”, has suddenly pushed Mr Cain’s candidacy into a national spotlight as some Republicans now believe that this is the man to challenge Barack Obama in 2012.
“The American people are signalling that they don’t want another politician nominated as their candidate or in the White House,” he said last week, in the booming voice and Southern cadences already well known to congregations at the Atlanta Baptist church where he is an associate pastor and gospel singer.
“I am a problem-solver and what distinguishes my campaign from that of my rivals is that I talk about specific solutions to the challenges we are facing.
“I don’t fit the traditional model of what a politician looks like but I fit the model of what the American people are looking for.”
Mr Cain, 66, was talking to The Sunday Telegraph after addressing a private meeting of New York financiers, a hard-headed crowd that gave several ovations to the bespectacled former boss of the Godfathers pizza franchise.
Long viewed as a rankoutsider because of his unconventional economic policies, lack of political experience and incendiary views on Muslims in America, he has unexpectedly emerged as a strong standard-bearer for many fiscal and social conservatives.
Over the last few days, Mr Cain has overtaken Rick Perry, the Texas governor whose campaign has stalled as suddenly as it once soared, in the polls. And in a new survey for CBS News, he tied long-time front-runner Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, for first place with 17 per cent each — a clear indication that the contest to challenge President Barack Obama is wide open.
As several key states bring forward their early primaries and caucuses — meaning that Republican voters in Iowa could cast the first votes to select a candidate as early as December — his surge could not be better timed.
He recently came top of a straw poll of Republicans in Florida, a result that has dramatically shaken up the field. It reflected both his strong showing in a candidates’ debate in Orlando but also the weaknesses of the two presumed top names — Mr Romney, who still fails to enthuse many Republican faithful, and Mr Perry, whose campaign has suffered a series of recent missteps.
Mr Cain was born in Tennessee and raised in Georgia by working-class parents in an era when everything from buses to water fountains was still segregated in the South.
He graduated from the predominantly black Morehouse College in Atlanta with a mathematics degree in 1967 and then took a postgraduate computer science degree at Purdue University in Indiana, while working as a civilian ballistic weapon analyst for the Navy department.
After college, Mr Cain began his business career with the Coca-Cola company, working his way up through the managerial ranks, before being hired by the Pillsbury food empire. There he turned around the then ailing fortunes of America’s fourth largest pizza chain, Godfathers, which he took over in a managerial buy-out.
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SOURCE: The Telegraph
Philip Sherwell
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