Dems Turn Their Sights Towards … Herman Cain?

Herman Cain has largely gotten a free pass from Democratic officials up to this point, who have focused their attention primarily on Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. But his dramatic surge in the polls is shifting their gaze to the Georgia businessman.

The DNC’s pre-debate press release attacks Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan as a burden for the middle class and he’s the only candidate to get a mention besides Perry and Romney. In a pre-debate memo from Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA titled “Debate Night: Who is the real Herman Cain?,” co-founder Bill Burton goes directly at him over some of his foreign policy gaffes and more fringe statements on Muslim Americans. It also takes a jab at the frontrunners for losing ground to Cain, who was until recently considered a second-tier candidate at best. Take a look:

TO:      Interested Parties
FR:       Bill Burton, Priorities USA Action
RE:       Debate Night: Who is Herman Cain?
                                                                                                                                                              Herman’s Cain’s rise from obscure pizza executive to the latest second-place contender for the Republican nomination is impressive. Unfortunately for Cain, his newfound popularity says a lot less about his appeal than it does about the appeal for who he isn’t.
 
While Romney has yet to capitalize on Perry’s stumbles, with Perry’s hemorrhaging support going singularly to Cain, it’s worth taking this moment to learn a little about who the latest anybody-but-Romney is. 
 
A couple facts about the latest sensation:
 
1.      He’s running for President but he sometimes starts statements by saying “I don’t have the facts to back this up but…”  For example: “I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!” [Wall Street Journal, 10/5/11]
 
2.      He has opinions that wander a little outside the mainstream like… “I don’t think the current minimum wage is necessary” [Think Progress,6/28/11]
 
3.      His opinion of Romney’s key endorser today is mixed – at best – as it relates to Sharia Law: “Call me crazy… Some people would infuse Sharia Law in our courts system if we allow it. I honestly believe that. So even if he [Chris Christie] calls me crazy, I am going to make sure that they don’t infuse it little by little by little.” [ABC News, 10/2/11]
 
4.      He has a new take on a “great” wall: “Now, my fence might be part Great Wall and part electrical technology…It will be a twenty foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top, and on this side of the fence, I’ll have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators inthat moat!” [Think Progress, 6/8/11]
 
5.      He’s not afraid to speak the truth: “And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know.” [CBN, 10/8/11]
 
What does it say about Mitt Romney that Republican primary voters have so much trouble stomaching him that they are choosing Herman Cain?  As we’ve said before, Mitt Romney may well be the Republican nominee but it won’t be because he was the Republican choice, it was because they exhausted all other options.