Unlike Rick Perry, Herman Cain I know a bit about. I've been reading about him ever since his (failed) run for the GOP Senate candidacy in 2004. I had a personal interest in one of the other candidates (a Democrat with whom I'd had some truly awful business dealings), but Cain turned out to be the more interesting candidate in that race, his loss notwithstanding.
The main thing I see in Cain that I like is not directly political at all. It's this: he appears to be a normal human being, self-made, and competent as hell. There are darned few other players on the national political stage about whom I could comfortably make that statement.
But until this week, the punditosphere hasn't seemed to take Herman Cain seriously at all. He was rather cavalierly dismissed as “unelectable” and third-tier. With what I know today, given a choice between voting for Cain and voting for any conceivable Democratic opponent (i.e., Obama or Clinton), Cain gets my vote in a walk. You might think that's not much of a statement, as you might think that any conceivable Republican candidate should win that contest. However, for most of the matchups I can imagine (say, Obama v. Romney), my inclination is to decline to vote – as it's largely a waste of my time. Cain would get my vote (again, with what I know right now)...
But the punditosphere may be recalibrating Mr. Cain...
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