Media & Dems cannot handle Herman Cain

Herman Cain dazzles crowds in towns and big cities alike Read the Associated Press/GfK poll numbers released last Monday. Check out the CNN/Opinion research. Romney and Cain are within a couple points of each other (CNN: Cain 26%, Romney 25%), while Perry fell to third place (13%) with half the percentage of Cains new status. Recall the campaigns of 1968. Dick Nixons people wanted to run against George McGovern. McGoverns anti-war position allowed Nixons team to portray him as weak. Nixon won the election in a landslide, with 60.7% of the popular vote, only slightly lower than LYNDON B. JOHNSON in 1964 but with a larger margin of victory in the popular vote (23.2%), the fourth largest in presidential election history. He received almost 18 million more popular votes than McGovernthe widest margin of any U.S. presidential election. Cains strategy was going public with 9-9-9 because none of the other candidates had a plan to speak about. It gave him focus for trying to directly address the economy from a business man's perspective - a business plan sort of thing. Cain does not have a staff of economists standing by to defend the plan - just his bully pulpit. The architect of the plan is an Ohio investment banker with Wells Fargo, Rich Lowrie. Lowrie is dodging the press and allowing Cain to pitch 9-9-9 as a campaign tool. That means any plan by the #2 candidate will draw attacks in the attempt to get Cain focused on defense -- a boon to both Romney and Perry. Voters must assume that Cain has a strategy for dealing with that. After Las Vegas Romney and Cain are the two on top. Perry fell dramatically. Polls do not tell us who will or will not achieve the nomination, but they point to big differences in campaign tactics. Romney has focused on larger urban areas of concentrated votes. Cain is hitting the heartland and getting rave reviews wherever he goes. Either Cain or Perry would carry the South, but not Romney. We must fear another stay at home electorate mirroring the McCain candidacy in 2008. That would give the presidency back to Obama. Look to what democrat strategists are saying. In today's AJC Bob Schrum says Cain is destined to fade away. Under greater scrutiny and rival's attacks since rising in the polls, the democrat says, "If Perry gets a bounce in the next week or two, then he is alive again and he could become a real alternative to Romney. In the absence of that, Romney has to be the nominee - unless the Republican Party absolutely loses its mind." That says the Obama team wants to run against Romney. He is not as much threat as a black conservative businessman. Ignore the polls. Ignore the acceptance given to him at every rally. Report the news that Romney is The Man and pray that voters believe the spin. All sides are poking at Cain and we voters are left to read between every reported line and guess at the realities behind each campaign strategy. That is, IF we believe the media reports. The AJC photo of Romney is captioned, Mitt Romney has seen a rise in favorable ratings. Only the last three column inches even acknowledge the meteoric rise of Herman Cain. Coincidence?