Former radio talk show personality Herman Cain launched his long shot bid for President on Saturday at Centennial Park amidst an enthusiastic legion of supporters. Or you might classify the several thousand who packed the downtown park and braved the noon heat to chant "Cain Can!" and waved signs as "true believers." 

But it will take more than faith and bell-weather speeches for Cain [pictured below] to become a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. "I hope he's the nominee" said more than a dozen Cain backers at his announcement rally, while many others simply said, "I believe." Unfortunately for Cain, "hope" is not a strategy and "believing" doesn't win primaries in key early battleground states. 

Photos by Todd Rhem / Staff 

Cain's campaign is eerily reminiscent of another media personality who went straight for the top job in 1992 and 1996 -- Pat Buchanan. Both Cain and Buchanan had radio shows and newspaper columns. Both are tremendous speech givers. Neither had ever held public office before -- although unlike Buchanan, Cain did seek the GOP nomination for U.S Senate from Georgia in 2004. He got an old fashioned pasting at the hands of Johnny Isakson, who crushed Cain and former Congressman Mac Collins to win a first ballot victory by nearly thirty points. Also like Buchanan, Cain is attempting to catch lightening in a bottle by energizing the "disaffected" wing of the GOP. But unfortunately for Cain, the similarities end there. 

Buchanan was a serious contender in 1996 for five key reasons, none of which Cain can claim.

First Buchanan [pictured below] was a nationally known figure for decades, appearing on the Sunday talking head circuit as a regular panelist. Cain is a strictly Georgia anomaly. Buchanan is a noted author of nearly a dozen New York Times best seller books, while Cain has only three to his credit, none of which ever made it to a second printing. Buchanan is a noted newspaper columnist, and his syndicated column appeared in over 100 of the nations largest daily circulation newspapers. Cain did a column that was sparsely read, only picked up by a handful of small dailies and weeklies around the southeast. 

Second, Buchanan was a serious threat to the establishment in 1996 because he ran a very credible campaign against the incumbent, George H. Bush, in 1992. The media personality captured a devastating 40 percent of the vote against Bush I in the '92 New Hampshire primary, a rocking result the Bush camp never fully recovered from. Buchanan followed that up with a 37 percent showing in Georgia a few weeks later. Although Bush was renominated, Buchanan was a factor to be reckoned with at the time. He galvanized a loyal conservative support base from his '92 run by chastising the President for going back on his 1988 convention "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. After getting a prime time nationally televised speaking slot -- 9:00 p.m. on Monday night at the '92 GOP Houston convention, just in front of Ronald Reagan -- Buchanan had four years to solidify his support base to make another presidential bid. 

Cain has none of that, save a famous T.V. exchange he had with then President Bill Clinton over "Hillary Care" at a 1993 town hall meeting, when he was CEO of the Godfather's Pizza chain. But that claim to fame got him nowhere in his 2004 Senate race. 

Third, Buchanan had a message that was different from the pack in '96: "conservatism with a heart." Think of it what you will, it got him traction. At the end of the day, there isn't a dimes worth of difference between Cain's core rhetoric and that of the other GOP nomination contenders -- except Ron Paul -- announced or not. Cain's only advantage: he's the best public speaker of the lot. But so was Pat. 

Fourth, Buchanan raised a fortune, and was able to stay competitive throughout the early stages of the '96 primaries. Cain's pre-announcement exploratory committee netted a mere $13,000 in the entire first quarter of 2011. Buchanan also earned the primary endorsement of the influential Manchester Union Leader newspaper, who coined his campaign theme: "Go Pat Go." Cain has no shot at getting that. 

Finally, Buchanan had a massive ground game in place that he pieced together over five years. This helped him embarrass former Texas Senator Phil Gramm in the Louisiana caucuses. That upset effectively knocked his conservative nemesis out of the race before it got started, and led to his victory in the Alaska straw poll, setting the stage for his dramatic New Hampshire primary victory -- his second time on the statewide NH ballot. 

But once rank and file GOP mainstream voters and Republican Party power establishment types saw that Buchanan might actually steal the nomination, they turned their guns on him, and the quintessential outsider never saw the light of day in another primary. Longtime Kansas Senator and Minority Leader Bob Dole then waltzed in, becoming the eventual GOP Presidential nominee in San Diego. 

Cain has none of Buchanan's pluses going for him. Unfortunately, he has the same big negative: he's an outsider playing an insider's game he can't possibly win. These factors relegate the Cain candidacy to pure entertainment status. 

What Cain does have, though, is Oprah-esk elegance in style and substance. Cain, possessing rock-star like aura, is positively electric on the big stage. He is one of the few politicians in recent memory who can effectively marry detailed and specific policy solutions with bombastic and thundering oratory in the same speech, masterfully melding them together in a seamless verbal concerto of inspirational and visionary lore. He's a unique blend of Jesse Jackson's elocution, Mario Cuomo's speechifying, George Wallace's crafty one-liners, JFK's inspiration and Steve Forbes' policy wonking -- all in one smooth and potent stump speech. Listening to Cain wax eloquent when he's on his game is nothing short of an exhilarating listening experience.

This is a rare talent, and its worth the price of admission to one of his campaign gigs, while they last. The reality for Cain is that beyond New Hampshire, they won't.