Has Obama met his match?

"We need a realistic candidate to run on the Republican ticket who can beat Barack Obama – not just beat the Democrats," Herman Cain, an Atlanta radio talk-show host, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and 2004 Senate seeker, told WND. "We've also got to beat Barack Obama."

He added, "Obama is a master of rhetoric. He is a master of deceptive language. And any white candidate who runs against him will be up against the race card. I take the race card off the table."

Cain, a devout Christian, emphasized he is "prayerfully considering" a 2012 bid for the GOP nomination.

"I'm a man of faith, and I do believe in prayerful consideration of something this big," he explained.

In addition to serving as the former president and CEO of Godfather's Pizza for 10 years, Cain, 64, is also former president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He's been vice president of Burger King, vice president of Pillsbury Company, a mathematician for the U.S. Department of the Navy and a business analyst for Coca-Cola. He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Morehouse College and a master's degree in computer science from Purdue University.

Read Herman Cain's latest: "They Think You're Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It" – at the WND Superstore!

Cain is now president and CEO of The New Voice, a WND columnist, host of "The Herman Cain Show" and an associate Baptist minister at Antioch Baptist Church in Atlanta. He is author of several books, including "They Think You're Stupid."

If he can garner enough support – through contributions, volunteers and heartfelt prayer – Cain believes he may be the man to unseat Obama.

Nicknamed "The Hermanator," Cain has more than 17,000 fans of his Facebook page, 5,000 Twitter fans and 45,000 members in his Intelligent Thinkers Movement. He is urging supporters to sign up for his political-action committee and help raise funds for conservative candidates for the 2010 election. He said support for that effort will help him gauge his backing for a 2012 bid.

"If I can get that kind of encouragement in trying to change Congress, it will be great encouragement in terms of possibly helping me make that decision as to whether or not I can do this," he said. "We're developing a ground game all over this country. We'll have a way to mobilize all of those people."

His supporters have launched a "Draft Herman Cain for President 2012" effort to develop teams of volunteers and build a grass-roots base for a presidential campaign.

"That's been growing like gangbusters," Cain said. "That's the sort of thing I'll be looking at in the next couple of months in making this decision."

Anything's possible with a little 'sweat equity'

One of Cain's key sources of inspiration was his own father, Luther Cain Jr. – a man with a high-school education who literally walked off a farm at the age of 18 with only the clothes on his back.

"He ended up in Atlanta where he used the only kind of equity that he had – sweat equity," Cain explained. "At one point, my dad worked three jobs to make ends meet and save for his dreams."

His father worked as a barber, a janitor and a chauffeur. One of his dreams was to give his sons a better start in life than he had.

"He encouraged us to go to college, even though he wasn't able to foot the whole bill for us to go to college," Cain said. "I inherited a lot of his natural leadership instincts. My dad was a leader in his own right, even though he wasn't running a big corporation and wasn't in a high position."

Another major influence in his life was Cain's high-school math teacher, Charles S. Johnson.

Johnson told Cain in a southern drawl, "Hummin Cain, you can be whatever you want to be. You might have to work a little harder. You might have to work a little longer."

"I never forgot those words," he said. "As I got older and started to be challenged in the business world, whenever things got tough, I thought about the words of Mr. Johnson, or I thought about the fact that my dad used to work three jobs. That would give me a second wind to confront whatever challenges I needed to take on."

Cain recently discussed his family's hardships and his respect for the American dream in an interview with the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy. The following is a video of the interview posted on YouTube:

A miraculous second chance

Cain's resolve was put to the test in 2006 when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, a condition in which the disease had invaded his liver and colon. He endured double surgery, including removal of 30 percent of his colon and 70 percent of his liver, and chemotherapy treatments.

"I was given a 30 percent chance of living five years," he recalled.

But Cain wouldn't succumb to the illness.

"It's been four years now, and I haven't just been living, I've been living totally cancer-free," he said.

His oncologist said there would be no need for remedial chemotherapy because his tests are "absolutely clear." He said the doctor told him, "Your body doesn't even look like you ever had cancer."

"That's quite a blessing," Cain said joyfully.

The 'S' word and communism

Now that Cain's recovered, he's looking to the future.

One of the biggest challenges for the GOP and conservative candidates in the 2010 and 2012 elections, he explained, will be to "educate the public on what has truly happened in the first two years of this administration and this Congress."

"One of the tactics of the Left is the assumption that 50 percent of the American public is clueless and makes all of its decisions based on sound bites and pretty speeches," he explained. "They're right. The biggest challenge for the GOP and conservatives will be to educate people. This is why the Left is trying to demagogue talk radio, Fox News and WorldNetDaily."

He said Obama's supporters don't want people to know the truth or challenge the administration's policies. Rather, they seek to silence their opposition.

"People really must be aware of what has happened, what's going on and the true motivation of this Congress and this president," he said. "The true motivation of this Congress and this president is to change this country from a free-market capitalistic system to a socialized system moving toward communism.

"Yes, I said it!

"They criticize me when I start using the 'S' word, so you know they're calling me all kinds of names when I start talking about communism. That's exactly where this is headed. If you make the economy and the misery bad enough, this is how you get to socialism and communism. You'll have enough people who are so desperate for help, that the government at the time can get people behind any kind of crazy ideas."

'Problem solver' in chief?

Cain told WND his experience as a problem solver – and not a politician – is the No. 1 reason he can beat Obama in an election.

"People don't understand the difference," he said. "Barack Obama is an outstanding politician – and that's all! He is not a problem solver."

Cain said his whole life and career have been about solving problems, including his experience with Stage 4 cancer.

"The way I went about that was, how do I improve my odds?" he said. "I've turned around situations where companies were about to go bankrupt. Now the United States of America is about to go bankrupt. I think my ability to solve problems will appeal to a lot of people."

Cain has a direct challenge for Obama: Forget the slick campaign ads and "pretty speeches" and debate me solely on the issues.

"He's not going to debate me face-to-face because he can't do it with a teleprompter," Cain said. "He would never debate me face-to-face. ... That's where, quite frankly, I could beat Barack Obama."

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