GOP's Herman Cain Announces 2012 Presidential Run

America, meet Herman Cain. Where did he come from, you ask? Well, he’s the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and has found his niche among Southern conservatives after, what was said to be, a successful primary debate in South Carolina earlier this month. Cain announced his presidential run for the upcoming election this morning.

Conservative messaging guru Frank Luntz polls crowds after big events for their instantaneous reaction. And in the case of the GOP presidential debate, the results were pretty remarkable (even though the whole thing is entirely unscientific).

The crowd of roughly 30 unanimously said that pizza magnate Herman Cain won the debate. Only one of them went into the evening supporting Cain. A clear majority — citing his “straight talk” on the economy and his capacity to criticize the president — said they would now support his presidential campaign.

“I have never had this kind of reaction until tonight,” said Luntz. “Something very special happened this evening.”

Holding true to conservative policies, Cain believes that his “common sense” and “straight talk” approach to politics has the potential to win over Tea Party voters … despite the fact he’s never held an elected position and lost a U.S. Senate bid in 2004.

Cain supports a strong national defense, opposes abortion, backs replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax and favors a return to the gold standard.

He’s never held elected office, losing a three-way Republican U.S. Senate primary bid in Georgia in 2004 with one-quarter of the vote. His “Hermanator” political action committee has taken in just over $16,000 this year.

With Mike Huckabee out of the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, three well-known politicians, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich, emerge as leaders in Republicans’ preferences. Republicans, however, have less intensely positive feelings about these three than they did about Huckabee. Two less well-known potential candidates, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, generate high levels of enthusiasm among Republicans who recognize them.

Okay. So, apparently, this guy holds promise for the Republicans … it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.

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