Herman Cain is on a roll. Off a solid performance in Thursday night’s debate, the former Godfathers’ Pizza chief executive won a straw poll in Florida — one that has predicted the Republican presidential nominee every time it’s been held.

While his chances of winning the nomination remain slim, he’s not thinking of dropping out anymore.

Cain, 65, grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College. He became a turnaround artist, rescuing the Burger King outlets of Philadelphia. From there, he went to Omaha, where in 1986 he took over and stabilized Godfather’s Pizza with clever advertising and aggressive downsizing.

By the early 1990s, Cain had started to transition out of day-to-day management at Godfathers and delve into politics. In 1992, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 1994, he became head of the National Restaurant Association, a post he held for five years.

In 1994, in his first memorable political moment, Cain confronted President Bill Clinton at an Omaha town-hall meeting over health-care policy, a tete-a-tete that attracted the notice of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp. Kemp recruited Cain for a congressional study group on tax reform.

Cain left Godfather’s in 1996 and devoted himself to politics, with less impressive results.

He ran for president in 2000, but dropped out early in the race. In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, finishing a distant second in the GOP primary.

But despite his lack of political success, he managed to attract the notice of a radio executive with his rich, booming voice. His campaign manager became his producer. He trademarked the expression “The Hermanator Experience.”

The quality that makes the Republican a popular radio host and tea party favorite is the same quality that will make Cain’s path to the nomination incredibly more difficult: Cain speaks his mind.

Just this weekend, he called President Barack Obama’s economic policy “bull—-” He’s said that Planned Parenthood was formed to “help kill black babies.” He’s had to clarify statements that communities should have the right to ban mosques and that he would not be comfortable with a Muslim in his Cabinet.

He’s a hard-liner on social issues and immigration and supports huge cuts to the federal government — policies that might captivate conservative straw-poll voters but won’t lure a wide swath of voters.

Margi Helschien, a Republican from Palm Beach County, was impressed by Cain’s speech. “This was the wow factor we had been waiting for,” she said.