The real test will be Cain v. Obama with black voters....most blacks are socially conservative....and since Obama hasn't managed to visit a church in months...Cain has a good chance of appealing to them...if he can take 15% of Obama's black support...the election is over..
I agree, Ken (and others here have said similar things).
Long-term, Republicans absolutely **MUST** do something, and do it quickly, to address demographic shifts. We must find a way to make clear to black and to hispanic churchgoers that their votes need to reflect their faith, and we need to show both groups that their long-term economic self-interest does not lie with the party of welfare but with the party of capitalism.
If we don't do something quickly, and if we get branded permanently as the party of racist bigotry, we're in real trouble. I don't want to have to wait for the collapse of the country due to destructive liberal policies and the rise of some new conservative movement; let's fix our bigotry problems now. Cain may just be the way to do it — a successful black business leader who became a Republican because he saw that being a Democrat leads to socialism.
I want Cain somewhere doing something for the Republicans, and I want that badly. However, I've said many times before that I really, really, really wish Cain were running for the Senate or for a governorship. He needs political experience in office; the presidency is not an entry-level job. However, our last presidential election showed us that voters are willing to elect someone with a very thin resume, and so many of President Obama’s problems are due to bad policies rather than inexperience that I'm afraid we as Americans haven't yet re-learned the lessons from President Jimmy Carter of putting fresh-faced people into leadership who are not tested and may not be ready.
If Cain's the nominee I'm sure I'll vote for him. Right now I'm leaning toward Cain but that's mostly because I'm concerned about the policies or apparently opportunistic backgrounds of the candidates who have better qualifications (Romney and Perry), and because I am particularly concerned about Perry's poor performance in the debates.
For our Texans here, how on earth did Perry manage to remain Texas governor with such poor public performances? Did he never face a good grilling before in Texas? I wasn't aware that Texas politicians were routinely playing softball politics, but it really looks like Perry is out of his league here, and that's not a good thing.