Herman Cain DOMINATES Florida Straw GOP Poll

By Gary P Jackson

With 37 percent of the vote, this wasn’t even close! Herman Cain got more votes than Rick Perry and Mitt Romney COMBINED!

From the Orlando Sentinel:

In a stunner, Atlanta businessman Herman Cain – who campaigned hard in Orlando the past three days with a fiery message of tough decisions for tough times – has won the Florida Presidency 5 straw poll.

Cain, who has never been elected to any office, took 37.4 percent of the vote from Republican delegates gathered at the Orange County Convention Center for the Presidency 5 weekend. He blew away the field. Texas Gov. Rick Perry finished second with 15.4 percent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney finished third with 14 percent.

There were 2,657 ballots cast, from among 3,500 candidate.

Cain, who pushed his plan to throw out the national tax systems and replace it with three flat taxes of 9 percent on individual income, corporate income and a sales tax, appeared aggressive in Thursday night’s P5 debate, gave a rousing speech Friday in Orlando at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and another rousing speech Saturday before P5 delegates.

He was one of only three candidates to stay for Saturday’s speeches. The other two were former Pennsylvania governor Rick Santorum, who finished fourth with 10.9 percent, and former U.S. speaker of the house Newt Gingrich, who finished sixth, with 8.4 percent.

This is a serious stunner, especially since both Rick Perry and Ron Paul actively organized to win this thing.

Some thoughts:

It certainly didn’t help Rick Perry to call Conservatives a bunch of heartless racists at the last debate. This also shows true conservatism, spoken from the heart, as Herman Cain does, will always win out.

We’ve already seen Rick Perry’s brand of “compassionate conservatism” in action. It was called the Bush presidency. And while there are a lot of things to admire about President Bush, we don’t want a re-run of those 8 years. And Rick Perry just has too much baggage.

I’ve always liked Herman Cain and most of his positions. I don’t think he’s qualified to be President because of his lack of executive experience, in government. Cain was a sharp businessman, for sure, and I think he gets it on economic issues, but the President needs more. Frankly, some of Cain’s thoughts on foreign policy scare me as much as Ron Paul’s, but for different reasons. Cain is simply too inexperienced.

There’s a reason why we generally elect governors to the presidency. A good president needs to have proven skills in getting things done, while working with a legislative body. It’s very different than walking in as a company CEO and just telling everyone how it’s going to be.

These results tell me there is still plenty of room for new blood in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. Someone who can combine experience as a governor, with a proven record of accomplishments, someone who is an actual Conservative.

That said, once again Herman Cain proves he deserves to be up on that stage, and has some solid ideas that must be heard. He is good for the conservative movement. Cain has a great message and his personal story is amazing. He’s putting the rest in the current field of GOP hopefuls to shame.