Print edition: 
The GOP presidential race has been hit with a sudden case of Herman Cain. To wit: the September CBS News nationwide poll of Republicans had Cain near the bottom with 5 percent. The October poll shows Cain at 25 percent.
To find out more about this new phenomenon in the race, I went to Des Moines for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum, where Cain and five other candidates spoke to more than 1,000 Iowa Republican activists.
One key to understanding the appeal of the 65-year-old former CEO of Godfather's Pizza is that he is an excellent public speaker. This is not surprising considering his background, which includes hosting a radio talk show and working as a paid motivational speaker for conservative advocacy groups. But it is a true asset.
Strikingly, in American politics, effective public-speaking skills among top-tier candidates are relatively rare. As John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama found out when they ran for president, it's a talent that can be used to inspire, convince and command attention.
Cain can grab an audience's attention, and the message he has for GOP audiences is one that many Republicans want to hear: that this election is about regaining freedom, not from outside forces but from within, and that Obama has ruined the country.
In Des Moines, Cain began his remarks by referring to a Republican icon, saying, "It was Ronald Reagan who reminded us how fragile this thing called freedom is." He ended in a similar fashion, imploring that "in 2012, it is our responsibility to honor the memory of Ronald Reagan (and) take that shining city on the hill to the top of the hill where it belongs."
Cain seems to be at his best — or at least most serious — when he glosses over how he will get things done and concentrates on what he wants done. The crowd responded well to Cain's various policy proposals, including his call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, outlawing abortion across the country, making the U.S. energy-independent and, as he said, "throwing out the current tax code and put in the bold plan called '9-9-9' to get this economy growing." The 9-9-9 system would replace the current tax codes with 9 percent national sales tax and 9 percent tax rates on corporations and individuals.
GOP crowds have responded favorably to the how in Cain's policy proposals — drawing a big audience reaction a few weeks ago when he said he'd stop illegal immigration by putting in a people-killing electric fence on the border. At the Iowa forum, the audience cheered when he said he would achieve energy independence by giving the Environmental Protection Agency an "attitude adjustment."
But many caucus and primary voters, although impressed by the man, likely will need convincing that Cain can move legislators in the House and Senate to pass his actual proposals. Unlike Kennedy, Reagan and Obama, Cain is running for the presidency with no actual experience in elected office.
Last summer in Iowa, fellow GOP candidate Mitt Romney argued that Americans "experimented" by picking Obama as president. The question for Republicans this election may be whether they want to follow the lead of the Democrats in 2008 and try the Herman Cain experiment.
