http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2011/10/26/how-to-succeed-without-really-trying/Start with, Herman Cain, the leader in the polls but not in the minds of the experts, who fully expect Mitt Romney and Rick Perry to be the last men standing. Cain’s campaign seems like a re-make of a Broadway classic, re-naming it “How to Succeed in Politics Without Really Trying.” Cain lags far behind in fund-raising and his lack of organization is stunning. My jaw dropped when he told a CNN interviewer after the Las Vegas debate that his staff in New Hampshire totaled three people.
A counter theatrical comparison might be Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.” Does Cain really want to be President,
or is he just in it to sell books, get a cable news program and gain fame and fortune from a failed run? Theorists of such a conspiracy can point to the release this week of a very odd Cain campaign video. In it, campaign chief-of-staff Mark Bloch stands in front of a building and promises a campaign like none other, but closes the video with a drag on a cigarette. Campaign operatives are never seen nor heard in campaign ads, and what’s with the cigarette?
Maybe Cain & Co. know something no one else does. And maybe in this viral age of communication and red-hot activism, someone who has never held political office can turn out primary voters with a quixotic message and a real grassroots ground operation.
Conventional wisdom still expects Cain to crash any day now. Some anticipated his muddled message on abortion in a recent interview would hurt him with conservative voters, just as Perry’s support tanked after he defended Texas’ policy of offering in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants, saying those who opposed it might be “heartless.” Also, Cain’s opponents trashed his “9-9-9” tax plan in the Las Vegas debate.
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