With Palin and Christie out, will Herman Cain gain more ground?

Is Herman Cain another Michele Bachmann: Will he see a burst of popularity, only to fade?

Now that Sarah Palin has officially joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the sidelines of the 2012 GOP presidential race, who will benefit?

Skip to next paragraph

Will it be former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain, who's star is rising?

Will it be Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who's backsliding in recent polls.

Or will front-runner former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hang on to with the GOP nomination?

Romney was looking to pick up support from Republican activists who had been poised to back Christie. A handful of major Republican donors jumped into Romney's camp after Christie on Tuesday ruled out a candidacy.

But many party activists still appear restless, casting about for a conservative alternative and wondering if Perry can fill the role despite his shaky debate performances.

Polls show that Romney attracts about one-fourth of prospective Republican voters, with the rest looking to Perry, businessman Herman Cain and others.

Few campaign veterans think Cain, who has never held elected office, can win the nomination. But his rise, similar to the one once made by Rep. Michele Bachmann, signals that many Republican activists still prefer someone more aggressively conservative than the measured Romney, who ran in 2008 and has long been seen as the party's establishment candidate.

Cain "is starting to pick up steam, more so than I'm hearing for Perry," said Glenn McCall, Republican chairman in York County, South Carolina.

Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks, a group linked to the tea party movement, said Cain's rise "shows the opening for a conservative is still there." Either Cain or Perry "will likely emerge as the conservative, anti-establishment alternative to Mitt Romney," he said. "The final goal is beating Barack Obama with the most conservative candidate that can win."

Romney's supporters say he has the best chance of ousting Obama. They point to Perry's debate problems, and to questions about the racist name of a Texas hunting camp Perry has used, as typical of the surprises that bring fast-soaring contenders back to earth.

Yet Romney has long struggled to win Republican voters' enthusiasm.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UvmH2cFGTz0/With-Palin-and-Christie-out-will-Herman-Cain-gain-more-ground

pef pef the perfect storm draya michele draya michele ozzie guillen ozzie guillen