TAMPA, Fla. - Although they cheered on a number of speakers including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), the tea partiers and their sympathizers who gathered for what was billed as a ???Unity Rally??? Sunday evening gave their loudest cheers - and clearly, their hearts - to another former nomination rival of Mitt Romney.
Forced out of the primaries earlier this year, Herman Cain made it clear to a standing-room-only crowd at the River Church that he will be soon be on a new nationwide tour before the election and working for the election of fellow black conservatives.
???I???m still on a mission to defeat Barack Obama,??? said Cain. The audience cheered, hanging on the former pizza mogul???s every word, and cheered just about every applause line from the man most of them refer to with reverence as ???Mr. Cain.???
Insisting on referring to ???black people??? instead of ???African-Americans??? (???I???ve only been to Africa once and I???ve been in America all my life???), Cain dismissed a recent poll showing ???zero percent of black voters for Mitt Romney.??? He said the pollsters had obviously not talked to him or other blacks in the audience, that ???I???m not a zero,??? and that polls such as that were ???distractions, distortions, and diversions??? designed to help President Obama win re-election.
???And four more years of President Obama is a nightmare!??? thundered Cain.
The former GOP presidential hopeful also made it clear that he is going to play an active role in politics. He announced his upcoming ???Truth Tours,??? in which, with the help of Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, he will tour the U.S. discussing the importance of the presidential election. His message will be focused, Cain said, on audiences of black children and black ministers. He also called for support of candidates such as Utah???s GOP nominee for U.S. House Mia Love, who will be featured as a primetime speaker when the national convention commences. Love, he said, is one of the candidates he supports who are ???ABC???America???s Black Conservatives.???
Is Cain himself disappointed he wasn???t tapped to address the convention? No, he said, answering his own question, ???it???s not about me. It???s about our grandkids.???
