2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[Dark Sage]

Herman Cain? The pizza company owner?

And to think, we thought "peanut farmer" was a stretch. And Carter at least was a governor.

[Roy Karrde]

Herman Cain? The pizza company owner?

And to think, we thought "peanut farmer" was a stretch. And Carter at least was a governor.

Hey it could work, in a year where people are incredibly turned off by politicians, they may actually want some one with no political experience.

[mr_pikachu]

So, what do you guys think about the growing rift among right-wingers? I'm talking, of course, about the so-called tea party. Romney's outright said he doesn't care about the tea party and is skipping a Labor Day presidential candidate forum hosted by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a tea party "kingmaker," even as Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Paul, and Perry all accepted their invitations. What do you think that will do to the candidates' respective chances, as well as the odds of the eventual Republican nominee unseating the incumbent Obama?

I'm starting to wonder if the fragmentation will derail any chance that the right has of garnering enough support on election day, even as Obama's poll numbers flounder. My thought, at least, is that a moderate candidate will struggle to gain grassroots support, while a far-right candidate will alienate undecided voters... hrm.

[Dark Sage]

If Romney is rejecting the Tea Party, he may well be the only smart Republican in the bunch. But I've said many times, Romney is their best bet right now if they knew what was good for them (and I don't think they do).

[mr_pikachu]

So. I called Cain almost two months ago, when he was polling in the single digits among GOP candidates. Now he sits firmly in the top two for all recent polls. He's trailing only Romney in the Reuters, Bloomberg, and Gallup polls of voting-age adults, he's tied with Romney in Rasmussen's poll of likely voters, and he's winning among Public Policy Polling's and NBC News' registered voters.

Hey, if you can sell pizza, you can sell a message, too. It also doesn't hurt that Romney's been hammering Perry on illegal immigration, knocking him to deep third and fourth places in the above polls. Outside of the Gallup poll, in which Perry trails Romney by 5%, he's trailing by double digits in every poll since October 3, and a whopping 20% behind Romney and Cain in the Rasmussen poll. Even Gingrich -- Gingrich! -- is beating him in that poll.