Herman Cain is getting plenty of attention less than three months before the first votes are cast in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination.
In the process, the ex-pizza magnate has highlighted the vulnerabilities of Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, who this weekend were dragged into a public debate over Romney's Mormon faith at an annual gathering of social conservatives here.
The Romney-Perry contretemps came after the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of a large Baptist church in Dallas, endorsed and introduced Perry, then later told reporters that evangelicals believed the Mormon faith - which Romney and fellow GOP candidate Jon Huntsman practice - was a "cult." Jeffress further predicted that if nominated by the Republicans, Romney could not beat President Barack Obama, because evangelicals would not support the former Massachusetts governor.
Romney was atop a Quinnipiac University poll of Republicans released Wednesday, but Cain had jumped ahead of Perry. Doubts about the Texas governor have increased after mediocre debate performances and because of objections among conservatives to his positions on immigration and his support of mandatory anti-cancer inoculations of children.
All three, along with Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; former Rep. Newt Gingrich; former Sen. Rick Santorum; and Rep. Ron Paul spoke to the annual "Values Voters" conference sponsored by the Family Research Council and other conservative groups.
Cain was greeted with enthusiasm. He joked that "Yes We Cain" and proclaimed himself as a fellow social conservative.
"I believe in life from conception, period, no exceptions," he said to sustained applause. "I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman."
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza said he was the personification of the American Dream - a black man who grew up during Jim Crow but who could not have similarly succeeded in any other country.
"A reporter asked me . . . well, aren't you angry about how America has treated you?" Cain told a crowd of 3,000 at a D.C. hotel. "I said, 'Sir, you don't get it. I have achieved all of my American dreams and them some because of the great nation of the United States of America. What's there to be angry about?"
Cain finished second, to Paul, in a straw ballot conducted during the conference, far outdistancing both Perry, who finished with 8 percent, and Romney, who got just 4 percent. Paul got 37 percent, Cain 23, and Santorum 17.
Asked what it meant to Perry and Romney, who have alternatively led in national polls among Republicans in general, Family Research Council Chairman Tony Perkins said that "there is still work to do" to attract social conservatives.
But Jeffress's controversial endorsement competed with that headline. He told reporters that he believed Romney was a strong family man, but not a Christian, and therefore would have trouble with evangelical voters. Evangelicals vote heavily in states among the first where ballots for the Republican nomination are cast, including Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.
"There are a lot of Christian voters who don't want to appear bigoted, so what they say to pollsters is not necessarily what they will do in the privacy of the voting booth," Jeffress said. "I frankly agree if Gov. Romney is the nominee Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States."
Romney did not directly refer to the issue when he addressed the group Saturday. But he did praise former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, who referred to Jeffress by name and said: "Do not give voice to bigotry."
Bennett complained that Jeffress "stepped on and obscured the words" of seven Republican presidential candidates who addressed the conference.
"You did Rick Perry no good, sir, in what you had to say," Bennett said.
Perry told reporters campaigning in Iowa after his Friday speech that he did not believe Mormonism was a cult.
Paul, who also received a robust reception, said the Perry-Romney dust-up was a distraction.
"Too much government is the issue of the day, not the definition of a cult," he said after his speech.
In his remarks to the group, Perry tried to draw sharper differences with Romney on abortion.
Touching social conservatives' criticism that Romney only hardened his views against abortion when he began running for president, Perry said: "For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to follow the prevailing political winds. To me it's about the absolute principle that every human being is entitled to life."
Romney responded by telling the conference that "our values must also encompass the life of an unborn child." He acknowledged that "there are, of course, strong convictions on both sides of the life issue. Yet, it speaks well of our country that almost all Americans recognize that abortion is a problem."
He also said that "the blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate."
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