GOP candidate and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, winner of last weekend’s Florida straw poll, is moving up in the polls. This week, a newly released Fox News poll revealed that Herman Cain is now in the top-tier of GOP candidates. Placing third with 17 percent of the votes, Cain’s campaign appears to have gained some serious momentum.
On the other hand, GOP candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry’s momentum appears to stalled in the last few weeks. Following a dismal performance at the Fox News-Google debate, Perry placed second in the Florida straw poll. To make matters worse, Mitt Romney is back on top in at least one national-level poll. Perry took second place in the latest Fox News poll, relinquishing his hold on the label of GOP frontrunner to Romney.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Cain slammed Perry over the name that had been painted on the Texas Governor’s hunting camp. This weekend, The Washington Post post reported that the term “Niggerhead” appeared on a rock at the entrance of a hunting camp leased by Perry and his family. According to the report, the term no longer greets visitors to Perry’s hunting camp.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Cain called the name of Perry’s Hunting “insensitive.” Cain added that there “isn’t a more vile, negative word than the ‘N word’ and for him to leave it there as long as he did, before I hear that they finally painted over it, it’s just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country.”
According to the MiamiHerald.com, Perry’s campaign insisted that the Texas Governor quickly removed the term “Niggerhead” from the rock after the hunting camp’s name became known to his family. However, The Washington Post reports that a few visitors to Perry’s hunting camp remember seeing the term after the early 1980s, which is when the Texas Governor claims it was removed.
On ABC’s “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour, Cain slammed Perry again. “There are some words that do not basically inspire the kind of negativity like that particular word,” Cain said. The pizza magnate added that “since Gov. Perry has been going there for years to hunt, I think that it shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off of that rock and renaming the place. It’s just basically a case of insensitivity.”
This is the newest round of political controversy involving Perry. In recent weeks, Perry has been slammed by numerous GOP candidates for his position on Social Security and his support for Texas’ in-state tuition program for the children of illegal immigrants and Texas’ state-mandated HPV vaccine.
