Yup, I think Perry is still the only legitimate anti-Romney with any staying power. Cain I suspect will flame out at some point, and we will be left with Perry to be the only real opposition to Romney. Political issues aside, one huge problem with Cain is that it seems that his primary goal in this Presidential run was to duplicate Sarah Palin's financial success in the marketplace rather than actually win the first election that he has ever won in his entire life.
Conservatives should be very careful about replacing unquestioning faith in one public figure with unquestioning faith in a second public figure.
Don't just listen to the Sound Bites that a public figure throws out. Pay close attention to how seriously they are taking campaign logistics. Palin's total lack of attention to the campaign logistics infrastructure of a serious Presidential campaign (No staff, no courting major donors, no organization, no investing time actually campaigning and not simply at venues designed seek TV face time and enhance the "Brand") was an obvious Red Flag that was rationalized away as "creating her own rules" and "brilliant secret strategy".
In the end, all the talk about Sun Tzu was merely self deception.
Sun Tzu would have agreed with Omar Bradley:
"Amateurs talk about strategy and professionals talk about logistics."
Presently, Cain, like Sarah Palin before him, is not focusing on the logistics of a serious campaign. He is focusing on a book-signing tour.
Herman Cain's top Iowa staff resigns ..... Goff stated that she resigned because the Cain campaign refused to make a serious effort in Iowa, the home of the First-in-the-Nation caucuses.
Cain Campaign: Selling a Candidate or Selling Books? ..... But even as he enjoys the fickle embrace of the party’s social conservatives, doubts are being raised about the straight-talking businessman’s legitimacy, and even his motives. Instead of capitalizing on his newfound momentum by hitting the campaign trail hard, Cain this week opted to spend most of his time promoting his book, This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, which just arrived in retail stores this week. Rather than visit diners in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s signing books at Barnes & Noble outlets in Texas and Washington D.C., although his tour does also include several stops in South Carolina and Florida, two key primary states. .... Steve Deace, an Iowa-based talk show host, posed the question on the minds of many people aligned with the Republican Party: “Is that guy running for president or just lining up a book tour?” .... But, as Block also said, the campaign has just 30 staff members spread across five states, fewer perhaps than one of Cain’s former pizzerias. The candidate this week was scheduled for six book signings and just three traditional campaign events. .... An e-mail that went out to Cain supporters the day before his upset victory in the Florida straw poll wasn’t about one of Cain’s policy positions but instead offered them a chance to buy a collector’s edition box set of the book, complete with a red case and gold trim. “Consider giving a loved one a copy of This is Herman Cain,” it said. “You wouldn’t be giving them just a book. You’d give them a gift to open again and again.” ..... One GOP strategist said he didn’t think Cain’s book tour was bad strategy – business strategy, at least. Cain knows he isn’t going to win the nomination, despite his recent rise in the polls, said Rich Galen, a Republican consultant and former aide to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also vying for the nomination. “It’s very smart to leverage his political surge to sell more books,” Galen said. “He’s a smart businessman.”
Presently, Cain, like Sarah Palin before him, is not focusing on the logistics of a serious campaign. He is focusing on a book-signing tour.Well, the book signing tour was probably long pre-planned and now that he is doing so well he is just incorporating it into his campaign - but yeah, I get your point and agree with it.
Conservatives really don't want to have to settle for Romney and are jumping to on whatever bandwagon that seems strong at the moment. It was kind of Bachmann for awhile, then Perry, some held out for Palin, etc.
At the end I just don't think Cain's polling numbers will translate into actual votes. Electability is just going to weigh too heavily on people and Cain as a political novice is dangerous because he is such an unknown and could implode mid campaign were he to get the nomination. And it looks to me like Perry is the only one with a major campaign operation in place that can challenge Mitt in most/all the primaries. In the end, it will still be between those Perry and Romney in my view.
If Perry starts turning in decent debate performances and stops with the self inflicted wounds, he will rise quickly in the polls and Cain will fall back.