THE SUDDEN rise of an African-American former pizza company executive who has never held public office is the most surprising development in the Republican presidential campaign so far.
Herman Cain was to be positioned centre stage, between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, for the Republican debate on the economy last night, signifying his newly important role in the campaign. The latest Gallup poll shows Mr Cain with 18 per cent to Mr Romney’s 20, and substantially ahead of Mr Perry’s 15 per cent.
Mr Cain’s poll ratings have tripled since mid-September. Since then, he won the Florida Republican straw poll with an astounding 37 per cent of the vote – more than Mr Romney and Mr Perry combined. Last weekend he won the Midwest Leadership Conference straw poll.
The Florida poll prompted a now famous Saturday Night Liveskit in which an actor playing Mr Cain says: "It's 4 o'clock in the morning and you're high as a kite and the stuff in your fridge is weirding you out – if you order it, pizza will come. Pizza will come! Oh, pizza will most definitely come. And if you vote for me, America, I promise you that I will deliver." In last night's debate, Mr Cain said he would use the slogan, "If you vote for me, America, I will deliver."
His pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps school of economics appeals to conservatives. He dismisses the mostly left-wing “Occupy Wall Street” protesters as “anti-American” and says they are engaging in “class warfare” born of jealousy.
“My parents, they never played the victim card. My parents never said, ‘We hope the rich people lose something so we can get something’,” he told CBS. “No. My dad’s idea was I want to work hard enough so I can buy a Cadillac, not take somebody else’s.”
The son of a maid and a father who worked three jobs as a barber, a janitor and a chauffeur, Mr Cain grew up in Georgia. “This is why I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who believe that this country owes them something,” he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.
The “999” tax reform plan that Mr Cain was to explain in the debate last night would dramatically reduce taxes for the wealthy, while increasing them for the poor. At a time when unemployment among the US’s 40 million African-Americans is double the rate among whites, Mr Cain says he believes one-third of African-Americans will vote for him, but that the other two-thirds have been “brainwashed” into supporting Barack Obama.
Mr Cain refused to condemn Texas governor Rick Perry, his rival for the number two slot in the Republican campaign, for having left a sign painted “Niggerhead” at the entry to a hunting camp he rented. “I don’t believe racism in this country holds anybody back in a big way,” he told CNN. But in an earlier debate, Mr Cain said he would not appoint a Muslim cabinet secretary.
So far, Republican candidates are reserving their low blows for the front runner, Mr Romney. In a video released late on Monday and set to doomsday music, the Perry campaign showed President Obama looking in a mirror, only to see Mr Romney instead of his own reflection. The clip shows the former Democratic president Jimmy Carter praising Mr Romney, and a journalist holding up a pair of flip-flops to signify Mr Romney’s changing positions on abortion and healthcare.
On Monday night, Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist evangelical preacher who is close to Mr Perry, reiterated allegations that Mormons are not Christians but a “cult”. Mr Romney is a Mormon. At the same time the Democratic national committee set up a “WhichMitt.com” website that mocks the evolution of Mr Romney’s policies.
Yesterday, however, Mr Romney’s campaign for the nomination got a large boost when he won the prized endorsement of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a rising star in the Republican party.