Anyone can see that there is a concerted effort by Ron Paul supporters to attack Herman Cain. The reason is obvious: Herman Cain’s performance in the South Carolina debate sucked the oxygen out of the Ron Paul campaign. Paul–a fringe candidate at best–was depending heavily on making a show in the SC debate to drum up early enthusiasm (and donations) for his 2012 run.

But an unexpected thing happened in the debate. Herman Cain not only won the debate, he dominated it. Ron Paul was reduced to making the most outrageous statments he could think of in an attempt to garner any attention what so ever (calling for the legalization of not just marijuana, but heroin). Ron Paul came away from the SC debate empty handed, and if things don’t change that’s how Paul will come away from future debates as well. As of now, it looks like the 2012 Ron Paul campaign is (like Newt Gingrich’s) DOA.

Any YouTube, news story comment section, or internet forum making any mention of Herman Cain was suddenly flooded with anti-Cain posts. This was no accident. Just spend a little time on any Ron Paul forum and you’ll see they’re talking about two things: (1) how to support Ron Paul, and (2) how to destroy Herman Cain.

The plan seems to be to highlight Herman Cain’s time with the Federal Reserve Bank; portraying it as an evil institution bent on taking over the world along with its Illuminati masters (and no, I’m not being sarcastic; I’ve seen a number of these posts mention both the Federal Reserve and the Illuminati).

Now for the typical Ron Paul supporter (as well as the fans of George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” radio show) this is a powerful argument. But to non-Paul supporters (the 99.8657% of Americans who don’t know the correct procedure for folding a tin-foil hat), it doesn’t come across as negative at all. In fact, it comes across as a huge positive for Herman Cain.

Without the (unintended) help of Ron Paul’s supporters, Herman Cain would still be fighting the stereotype that he’s just a “pizza man.” But now, he’s know across the internet as an expert on the Federal Reserve System, the nation’s money supply, macro-economics, and national/international finance. Given that the biggest challenges facing the next president will be financial, this kind of knowlege and experience will be a huge plus for any candidate–again, at lest in the minds most voters (the 99.8657% of voters that are not Ron Paul supporters).

Are the attacks on Herman Cain by Ron Paul supporters actually helping Cain? Yes they are, because they have exposed something about Herman Cain to the public that most people didn’t know about–that he has an impressive background at the highest level of fianance.