Jonathan Jones

Cain takes centre stage

Last night may well have been the moment Rick Perry’s hopes of winning the Republican nomination finally ended. Having already seen his polling surge rapidly reverse – largely because of poor performances in the last two debates – he put in another poor performance as the candidates clashed in New Hampshire. Worse, he followed up the debate with an American history gaffe, saying:

“actually the reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown if you will”.

As a result, he was subjected to merciless Twitter mockery, via the hashtag #perryhistory. It’s taken him a month to go from frontrunner to national joke.

But, as I’ve said before, Perry’s loss is Cain’s gain. For months, Herman Cain’s presidential campaign has gone largely unnoticed by the media. That has begun to change in the last few weeks, as the reality of his strong poll numbers has become too clear to ignore.

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