Immediately following the announcement by tea party favorite Herman Cain that he is “running for President of the United States” and “not running for second,” Fox News wasted no time in jumping to gush over Cain.

Gushing is not an exaggeration. From an article on the Fox News website:

At a rally attended by thousands, the businessman, author and talk radio show host showed he knows how to wow a conservative gathering. The crowd chanted, “Herman, Herman, Herman,” as Cain unleashed the same soaring rhetoric and relentless attacks on President Obama that has created buzz in recent weeks.

[...]

“And we've got a deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House,” he said to roaring cheers.

But the propaganda parade didn't end there. The very same article highlights his beliefs and stance on various issues, as well as touts Cain's tea-partyesque underdog status as someone who has “never held elected office”:

Cain supports a strong national defense, opposes abortion, backs replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax and favors a return to the gold standard.

He's never held elected office, losing a three-way Republican U.S. Senate primary bid in Georgia in 2004 with one-quarter of the vote. His “Hermanator” political action committee has taken in just over $16,000 this year.

Cain says he's running “a bottoms-up, outside-the-box campaign.” Supporters say he taps into the tea party-fueled desire for plain-speaking citizen candidates.

“I just love him,” gushed Laura Miller, a self-described “Cainiac” from Jessup, Ga. “What he says makes so much sense.”

Later in the same article, the gushing continues with a quote from former GOP Vice Presidential nominee Jack Kemp:

The late Jack Kemp, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996, once described Cain as having “the voice of Othello, the looks of a football player, the English of Oxfordian quality and the courage of a lion.”

But it's not just one article. Fox Nation has an opinion, too:

Over at Glenn Beck's website The Blaze, Cain is described in a post titled “Today's the Day Herman Cain is Launching His Campaign for President” as a “tea party darling” who “knows how to wow a conservative gathering.” The Blaze also provides a seven minute video of a Cain interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto. During the interview, Cavuto prompts Cain to voice his goals should he be elected president.

The Cain Train didn't stop there, either. The day after his announcement, Cain got an interview on Fox News Sunday as part of the show's series of interviews with GOP candidates, although during the interview, host Chris Wallace did challenge Cain on some of his views. Later, Fox & Friends Sunday aired a highlight reel of Cain's Saturday announcement, after which co-host Clayton Morris stated: “many Americans think right now, that might exactly be what this country needs.”

During the segment, on-screen text read: “Yes We Cain!”

So, one question remains: why is Fox News -- whose chief is heavily involved in Republican presidential politics -- gushing so heavily over Herman Cain?

Watch the Fox & Friends Sunday segment: