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LJZumpano says:

I hadn’t been paying too much attention to the straw poll in Florida, except to be annoyed that the MSM was putting out the idea that it was so important. Pulling out the recent history to declare that the winner of this poll always went on to win the White House. Building it up way out of proportion. I asked myself, if this poll truly has merit, why has Mittens decided not to get involved? Surely he would want a win here. Surely he had the funds needed to mount a vigorous campaign. Surely he had the operatives needed to schmooze his way into first place. Yet Mittens did nothing. Wasn’t Florida an important state in the general election? IMO Mittens wouldn’t ignore Florida unless he had a plan. Remembering how he used Bachmann to pull & drain TEA support in Iowa, I began thinking was he trying the same in Florida? Bachmann’s balloon seems to be losing air quickly and she didn’t seem to be catering to Florida, so didn’t expect her to get high numbers there (though it was quite shocking to see the ultra-low numbers she did get). Perry seemed to be the choice of the “anyone but Mittens” vote. He was actively out and about and at the start of the week it looked like the bulk of the vote would be split between the annointed one, Mittens, or Perry. I am sure the folks who voted had an idea of how they were going to vote. I think much of Perry’s support is soft. He hasn’t been campaigning for a long time. Folks have had the chance to make up their minds about Mittens. Either you are going to support him, or you are still looking for someone else. In the last few days Perry set off alarm bells. Suddenly if you were a soft supporter, you began to wonder if he was going to collapse. Many questions were raised, and folks were no longer sure they wanted to commit to Perry at this point, maybe later, but not just yet. So logically, you begin to look for a non-Mittens place to put your vote.
Herman Cain is a nice guy. He gets TEA. He wants America to prosper and it is passionate in defending the core values so important to most of us. Yes, beneath the surface we can see that he has a long way to go if he were to be POTUS. He is a guy you want on your team, even if he’s not the one you want as the leader. Many folks wish that the “top tier” candidates could somehow merge with Cain and create a new and perfect choice. Cain is second choice for many people. Given the cloud sitting over Perry’s head at this point, Cain was a natural choice for voters with questions.
Cain’s 37% is the result of many factors. Did Mitten robots sow some seeds to pull Perry voters toward Cain? This is hardball politics time and if he didn’t, that would be surprising. That’s what political operatives do. Keeping Perry’s vote total low was in the best interest of Mittens. Mittens knows what is in his best interest. Mittens has the money & people to protect his best interest. Mittens knows where his vote in Florida is and he needs to chip away at the soft support of others. Since Bachmann was not going to be a factor, it would be natural to take advantage of the great likabilty of Cain and move folks in his direction. Mittens knows that making Cain seem strong might also impact on Palin. And last night, I saw worried tweets from some concerned that this “massive win” for Cain might hurt Palin. All this plays well to Mittens goal. Use Cain to pull from Palin, just as Bachmann was supposed to. However, unlike Bachmann, Cain is not beholden to the GOP machine. He will not be amused by other candidates attempting to use him as a pawn in their game.
Perhaps for soft Perry supporters, Perry himself caused the doubts that made them hesitate about voting for him. Taking a moment to think, they suddenly decided they were not quite ready to commit to a man who seemed to be changing with each passing day. If not a vote for Perry, who was left? Again, everyone likes Cain, even those who see no chance of him winning the ultimate election. A vote for Cain was a safe vote, for a decent guy who wears his conservative values on his sleeve.
A third factor in the vote for Cain was the efforts he and his team have made on his behalf. Of all the choices so far, Cain is TEA. He gets it, not as a way to win but as a core value.
I was happy to see Cain win because he IS a nice guy, from the outside, running against the political party machines and that felt good. I was also pleased because he destroyed the message MSM had been sending about this being a 2 man race, and that this poll so was so important, the fate of the election would be decided here.
The deck got shuffled in Florida. All bets are off, and a new phase begins. Cain gets a chance to show what he has to offer. Other candidates will fall away, and new ones will come in. And when GovPalin arrives, she’ll be bringing a new deck of cards and then, the game will really begin, and we will see that all that has gone before was merely practice for the main event.