COMMENTARY | After watching the Republican Presidential Debate held at Dartmouth College, one thing was readily apparent: Herman Cain has a 9-9-9 economic plan.
The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO has somehow managed to gain traction in the polls by being combative and at times arrogant. He has been an equal opportunity offender, chastising Blacks for being brainwashed by the Democratic Party, invoking the insensitive image of plantations in explaining how he came to be a conservative Republican, using disparaging remarks when describing the Occupy Wall Street protestors and rebuking anyone that doesn’t agree with his set of facts, including Bloomberg News, the host for the Dartmouth bebate and Rep. Ron Paul, another debate participant, who accused Cain of lying when it came to the issue of auditing the Federal Reserve.
Cain’s insistence that he is not a career politician is a matter of semantics. Anyone watching him in action and is aware of his background, rising from humble beginnings to his current position as a Presidential candidate, realizes that Herman Cain has been politicking most of his life. And he’s very adept at politics, especially that of the triangulation variety: Get them mad, get them talking and hit them with simple math, 9-9-9.
Herman Cain has vaulted past the one-time front-runner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was more vocal and enthusiastic on a visit to a Dartmouth College fraternity house after the debate than he was during the actual debate. In a curious admission, Perry admitted that debating wasn’t one of his strong suits, something that the rest of America realized three debates ago. Unless Perry shores up his debate presentation, it appears that he will soon be back in Texas attempting to convince his constituents that the state hasn’t been operating on auto pilot for the last 10 years.
Why anyone would want to be President in this current political climate is difficult to fathom. For Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich, enjoy your moment in the spotlight while you can. Eventually, and for some of them, sooner than later, the clock will strike midnight on their campaigns. When the dust settles, that will leave Mitt Romney to do battle with Herman Cain and the Republican party’s right-wing Base.
Despite his propensity to change his stances on issues from moment to moment, and for that matter of Obamacare, Mitt Romney appears to be in position to do something that his father could not do, win the Republican presidential nomination. It’s not a done deal yet. The endorsement of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other moderate Republicans on behalf of Romney will help him in his run for the White House, but it won’t help him with Southern evangelicals. In recent polls, Romney’s support has remained stagnant. He has yet to reach 30 percent in the polling. That number spells out the distrust by many conservatives that Romney is not one of them. Some have actually called him a Democrat due to his views or one-time views on a host of social issues. Romney has had six years to woo his detractors within his own party. As it stands now, he has not gained their trust and he may never gain evangelicals’ support because of the Mormon issue.
Religion will be Mitt Romney’s litmus test. It shouldn’t be, but whoever said that politics was fair? Recently, a Rick Perry surrogate had this critique, when introducing Perry at a Voters Value Summit. “Do we want a candidate who is a good moral person, or do we want a candidate who is a born-again follower of Jesus Christ?” The evangelican Minister also called Mormonism a cult. Romney has been here before. Last Presidential election cycle, he gave a speech to allay any fears that evangelicals had concerning his Mormon beliefs. Romney was unsuccessful in convincing them them and he felt their sting through the candidacy of Mike Huckabee, the darling of Christian conservatives. Without their support, Romney was forced to drop out of the race.
Nearly six years later, Romney appears to be better positioned to capture his party’s nomination, but it won’t be without some ring-kissing and atonement. That message has been made clear by the unexpected notoriety that has been given to Herman Cain, a black man and an evangelical minister. The specter hanging over Romney is the real possibility that he could be beaten by Cain — or should I say the only person left in the race besides Michele Bachmann who carries evangelical bonafides. Bachmann’s campaign appears to have flamed out, which leaves Cain as Romney’s stalking horse. In the coming days, I expect that Romney will began to make overtures to Cain. Strange as it might seems, Cain’s political savvy could place him on the ticket with Romney as his running mate. We will know if that is the case if Romney indulges in Cainspeak: 9-9-9.
Careful Mitt, there is a minefield up ahead.