Herman Cain 2012?

Add another name to the growing list of possible Republican presidential candidates in 2012 -- former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain, one of the leading African-American conservatives in the nation. Cain pops up on Fox News on occasion and ran in the Republican primary in the U.S. Senate election in Georgia back in 2004. Cain placed a distant second in the primary behind Johnny Isakson who went on to win the seat.

There is already a Draft Cain website up and running and they even have a page set up for individual states, including Florida.

While Rick Scotts victory over Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Republican gubernatorial primary is in everyones memory, there have been very few men who have successfully made the jump from business into presidential politics.

Wendell Willkie, the Republican presidential nominee back in 1940 comes to mind. But Willkies rise came from the Nazi invasion of France and his call for America to get ready for a possible war -- and the rest of the Republican field was isolationist like Bob Taft or bouncing back and forth between the camps like Thomas Dewey.

But Willkie is the exception and not the rule.

The history books are full of businessmen who tried to get a partys presidential nomination and failed miserably. Even when voters are discontented with politics in Washington, they are not calling on placing a businessman in the White House.

Voters may well be fed up with Washington in 2012 -- but they were also fed up in 1996 and 1932.

Morry Taylor looked to tap into the Ross Perot movement and he flopped badly when he ran for the Republican presidential nod in 1996. Steve Forbes was more of a factor in his bids in 1996 and 2000 but lost both times out. GE Chairman Owen Young helped form RCA and NBC and was widely respected but was a non-factor at the 1932 Democratic National Convention which ended up nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt. The same convention also saw banker Melvin Traylor flop as a presidential candidate.

History is clearly against Cain if he decides to jump in the race, though he is an excellent communicator. He has been hitting the tea parties where he has made a good impression, but it is hard imagining his bid catching fire in crucial early contests like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

On a personal note, I lived down the street from Cain and his family back in 1983 and 1984 in Moorestown, New Jersey, when he was working for Burger King. I do not have any memory of him though I do have fond memories of his two children who were close to my age.