By now, the public knows a fair amount about the Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination, or at least they do about Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Businessman and presidential candidate Herman Cain is often absent from the mix from the press reports on the array of candidates. However, last week, he grabbed headlines by giving a strong debate performance and won the Florida straw poll.
While this debate and straw poll are one of many throughout the primary season, this one is particularly telling because its history. Three of the four other times that the straw poll has been conducted the winner has gone on to be the nominee. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole all won in the years they garnered the Republican nomination.
Nonetheless, Cain still faces an uphill battle. According to The Washington Post, Cain can be a loose cannon. He has said communities should be able to ban mosques and that he would not appoint a Muslim to serve in his cabinet. He also has said Planned Parenthood exists to “help kill black babies before they come into the world.”
While some of these statements may resonate with conservatives and Tea Party voters, they will most likely alienate the center — the voting bloc that wins elections.
Should Cain win the nomination though, this would set the stage for a historic election. It would be the first time in the history of the country that two black men faced each other in the race for the Oval Office. Part of President Barack Obama’s meteoric rise involved his intriguing biography. Herman Cain has a compelling story to tell as well.
The two men’s stories could not be more different. Obama was born in Hawaii and raised by his mother and grandparents, graduated from elite institutions and became a community organizer.
Cain’s parents raised him in Atlanta. His father worked three jobs and his mother one. They saved enough money to buy a house and send Cain to college. Obama made his name in politics and Cain made his name in the restaurant industry.
Cain also has another strength that Bachmann, Perry, Romney and others lack. Many voting groups, such as the Hispanic, Black and LGBTQ communities, would never go for a Republican candidate because of past remarks or extreme policy positions.
Cain holds little, if any, baggage with these various groups. With the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and his refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, Obama has the gay community’s support on lockdown, but both the Hispanic and Black communities have not been pleased with Obama’s tenure, so they may be up for grabs in 2012.
A Cain-Obama race would be one for the history books.
