Is Herman Cain on to Something the Rest Don't See

Herman Cain, US Republican presidential hopeful, is Tea Partying in Tennessee this weekend. And, he’s having fun. Yesterday, his microphone system failed and so he sang a rousing version of a Broadway show tune. He often ends his meetings with a favorite hymn.

What is surprising about all this is that Tennessee loves him. He’s getting perhaps 500 people at each whistle stop meeting and the comments are positive. Statements like, “I’m glad he’s bringing God back into the debate,” or “He’s like us, he listens and he doesn’t talk down to us,” or “I came to see what 9-9-9 is all about, and I was going to vote for Obama, but Cain is kinda cool.”

And, even some southern Black voters are beginning to get Cain’s message, “You don’t have to vote for a Democrat to be heard.”

It’s still a LOOOOONG shot for Herman Cain to get the nomination, but he’s certainly more interesting than anyone else on the stumps. He’s intelligent, he listens, he’s good one-on-one as well as on the microphone, and it is clear that he’s enjoying himself.

His $2.8 Million raised during the third quarter is dwarfed by Romney’s and Perry’s $12-17 Million, but Cain says you don’t need that much money to run a presidential primary effort. This may be his Achilles Heel because the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries are coming on fast and without money to build a local presence, Cain may not have a chance. Iowans and New Hampshire GOP voters like to look their candidates in the eye and get an up-close-and-personal sense of them.

Cain is not doing this yet, but maybe he’s playing a game that nobody else has thought of. It is just possible that with a $14 Trillion national debt and Congress squabbling over how to reduce spending so that America doesn’t need to continue borrowing 40% of its annual federal budget year after year, Herman Cain understands that Americans a sick of debt, they are sick of slick politicians and they are ready for a change -- not the Obama spend-and-tax kind -- but a change brought about by a successful businessman who has something to offer besides bumper stickers and Madison avenue TV ads.

Something to think about.