Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is encouraged by his fifth place finish in Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll.

"Rep. Bachmann, first I want to congratulate her for winning," Cain told CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday. "She also put substantial funds into this straw poll. It was reported by one of her staffers this morning in an article that they had 40 busses. Well, we had four busses to bring people here. We spent zero in TV. We spent zero on the radio. And so this campaign is encouraged and our momentum continues to grow."

"In your heart of hearts at night, do you sit around thinking, 'I can be the Republican nominee?'" Crowley wondered. "Be honest. You know how it's parsed here in the public, people say Herman Cain is like fifth and he's way behind, he doesn't have any money. Certainly, you barely show up in the national polls. Do you say to yourself, 'I can win this?' Because Tim pawlenty sort of stared this in the face and said, 'I can't win.'"

"I don't wake up at night saying, 'I can't win,' but I wake up saying I can," Cain replied. "For me to be finishing in the middle of the pack with a 46 percent name ID and not spending as much money as some of these other candidates, that's a great position to be in."

"I truly believe, Candy, that I can win the nomination and the presidency."