(Image Source: Gage Skidmore/Flickr) 

BY VICTORIA CRAIG

You're watching multisource political video news analysis from Newsy. 

Move over, Michele Bachmann, there’s a new top-tier candidate in town. After last week’s Fox News/ Google GOP debate, former Godfather’s CEO Herman Cain skyrocketed to third place in a recent Fox News poll. One pundit tells Fox News, this is the kind of spark Cain needs.

“His performance in the debates has been crucial. He’s very easy, he’s very assertive, he’s very clear about where he stands on things, and then I think that winning the straw poll in Florida sort of put in voters’ minds, GOP voters’ minds, that this guy really could possibly be a winner.”

CBS reports Cain’s secret sauce is his 9-9-9 economic plan, something that’s driving conservatives to his side.

“It uniquely scratches an itch among conservatives for a tax code that not only reduces taxes on businesses and high earners, but also demands more from those ‘lucky duckies’ at the bottom of the income scale who don't currently pay income taxes.”

Cain markets himself as a businessman--someone not involved in the government establishment. But that’s the very thing one CNN analyst says could hurt the candidate in the long run.

“He’s never been in government before. While it’s attractive on the one hand, having worked in the White House, you really need to have somebody who knows how to do things with Congress, lead Congress, get Congress where you want them to go. I wish he had went in as a successful governor, I wish he was a one term governor, two term governor. If he was, Anderson, I predict he would very well be the front runner or almost the front runner in the Republican race right now.”

The Washington Post suggests Cain has a lot of work to do if he wants to qualify as more than a flavor-of-the-week candidate.

“The problem for Cain...no one knows him. Only 51 percent of people recognized him in the most recent Gallup poll, while about 80 percent are familiar with most of his top competitors...Given how much people like him now, a little fundraising bump and the extra press he’s getting these days should only increase his name recognition, and he would seem to have some real room to grow."

But a contributor for the Macon Telegraph says Cain already resonates with voters. He compares Cain’s rise and popularity to that of President Obama’s in 2008.

“In 2008, people... didn’t see themselves voting against Bush and the GOP so much as they were voting for something new and shiny -- a new way, a new face, a new hope, and some change. This is why Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll last Friday and now continues a surprising surge.”

The International Business Times says if Cain wins the GOP nomination -- watch out! He might just split the black vote for the first time in a presidential election.

“Southern black voters have more in common with Cain than they do with Obama. … Obama's agenda hasn't solved economic troubles plaguing the Southern black community. … Cain believes he has some solutions. Southern blacks voters are likely to listen, if Cain makes it to he general election to face Obama.”

Transcript by Newsy