Columbia, S.C. — Herman Cain is skeptical about Gov. Rick Perry taking credit for the “business friendly” culture in Texas. “It’s always been a very business-friendly environment in Texas,” Cain says in an interview with National Review Online. “It didn’t just start when Governor Perry became governor. So I commend him for the job that he has done, but yes, he is a career politician.”
Cain predicts that he will compete with Perry and others for tea-party backing. “I don’t believe any one candidate owns all of the tea-party support,” he says. “Yes, there has been a lot of media about the top-tier candidates, but it has not diminished my base of support. The thing that we have discovered about Cain supporters — they don’t defect. They don’t go chasing the flavor of the month.”