The GOP's New Wild Card: Herman Cain (Attended Trump Tulsa Rally; Dead from COVID-19)

[QueEx]

Herman Cain, the GOP Wild Card

The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza wants to
upend the race for the 2012 Republican nomination.

The Atlantic
By Joshua Green
Saturday, January 15, 2011
March Issue 2011


ANY DAY NOW, one of the many Republican worthies who long to be president will make an announcement, everyone else will follow in rapid succession, and the 2012 presidential campaign will officially be under way. Feels like it is already, doesn’t it? And has been for eons? Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney never stopped running. Newt Gingrich has been running since the ’90s. The rest of the field is likely to include Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, and the list only gets duller from there—none could be accused of inciting a crowd.

Are we doomed to a dull campaign? Not if the Hermanator has his way.

If you don’t attend Tea Party rallies or listen to political talk radio, the name Herman Cain may not register. Cain intends to rectify that. He’s planning to seek the GOP nomination, so he’s spreading his blustery, relentlessly upbeat right-wing social and economic message, which can be heard weeknights from 7 to 10 on WSB in Atlanta. Cain is so exuberantly confident of his message that he has upgraded its status: he bestows upon audiences not speeches or talking points but “The Hermanator Experience.” He’s even trademarked the phrase.

Truth be told, what distinguishes Cain’s message is less its content—“From the standpoint of our conservative beliefs and values, Sarah Palin and I are probably identical,” he told me—than the person supplying it. Cain is a 65-year-old retired African American pizza-company CEO who sits on several corporate boards, including Whirlpool’s, and entered politics only as a late-life hobby. But he’s serious about running for president. To a bland field, he’d add charisma, a compelling story, and some craziness.

Cain was born to working-class parents in Georgia and earned a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, then a master’s in computer science from Purdue. He got a job doing work for the Navy on fire-control systems for ships and fighter planes, but gravitated to business—Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, and Burger King—and eventually became CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, which he ran for 10 years.

His entrance into national politics was a fluke—albeit, if he runs, an enormously beneficial one. In 1994, Cain, then still CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, participated in a town-hall meeting that Bill Clinton held to drum up support for his flagging health-care plan. He challenged the president’s claim that restaurateurs would bear only a marginal new cost. Clinton objected, but Cain wouldn’t relent. “I’d had my financial people run the numbers,” he told me. The Wall Street Journal published them, and after Clinton’s plan collapsed, Newsweek identified Cain as one of its “saboteurs”—a badge of honor, especially among conservatives today.

It wasn’t a desire for an audience but frustration with Washington, Cain says, that led him to politics. He sought Georgia’s Republican Senate nomination in 2004, finishing second. A radio executive who heard him campaign recognized a natural, offered him a show, and from thence the Hermanator blossomed.

Cain is a born talker, with a rich baritone that sounds uncannily like the actor Samuel L. Jackson. He’s also a showman, and utterly uninhibited. Recently, he survived Stage 4 cancer, and claims he wouldn’t have under Obamacare. Although often outrageous, he has a shrewd sense of his appeal. At a GOP confab in New Orleans last year, Cain railed against liberals, who, he said, slander conservatives as “racist, redneck tea-baggers.” He paused for effect, then brought the house down: “I had to go look in the mirror to see if I missed something!”

Last year, Cain addressed more than 40 Tea Party rallies, hit all the early presidential states, and became a YouTube sensation. He pops up regularly on Fox News. He has devoted followers—on Twitter, on the radio, and in the real world too. He calls himself the “dark horse.” People love it. In December, he was the surprise choice for 2012 GOP nominee in a reader poll on the conservative Web site RedState.com, narrowly edging out Palin. “I’m 70, 80 percent there,” he told me. The only question is money. If he can raise enough, he’ll get in the race.

Cain would surely enliven the proceedings, and might even steal a debate or two. But is he for real? Maybe. “The people posting about Cain on Facebook and Twitter are the activists I look to for the pulse of the Tea Party,” Tim Albrecht, a top aide to Iowa’s Republican governor, Terry Branstad, told me. “They’ve taken an increased interest in him.” Get ready, America, for The Hermanator Experience®.


http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/herman-cain-the-gop-wild-card/8367/

 

[QueEx]

<font size="3">
Citizen Cain

A successful businessman talks about his brand-new presidential campaign.

Interview with the National Review, January 14, 2011

</font size>

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

I read an article about him in CNN. His quote about the healthcare bill made me tune out. He had stage four cancer sometime ago. He claims the Obama healthcare bill would have killed him. The man was a millionaire at the time of the diagnosis (correct me if I am wrong). He could afford the best health insurance money has to buy. "Obamacare" is not an issue for people like him.

Someone should ask him would he had survived if he was diagnosed with cancer, but didn't have any health insurance. Had health insurance but was capped in the amount spent for treatment, or denied coverage because the insurance company treated it as an preexisting condition.

 

[Gunner]

Cain vs Clinton: Health Care

Cain schools Clinton on health care!

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HdLGKRBJ_0E" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

 

[thoughtone]

Re: Supreme Court Justices Attended Koch Event, Sparking Ethics Debate

source: Think Progress


Wall Street Titan Ken Langone, GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain At Koch Brothers Meeting

This weekend, David and Charles Koch, co-owners of the Koch Industries conglomerate of chemical, timber, oil and manufacturing interests, are hosting their twice annual meeting to coordinate strategy and raise funds for the conservative movement. In October, ThinkProgress brought these meetings to light with a memo detailing the last Koch event, held in June, where corporate interests collaborated to help Republicans dominate the election last year. The memo we published showed that the last meeting included a number of wealthy business executives, along with leaders from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Glenn Beck. Previous meetings have featured top Republican politicians and conservative Supreme Court justices. ThinkProgress is reporting from the ground in Rancho Mirage for this meeting, and has learned new information about the attendees:

– Ken Langone, an investment banker and founder of Home Depot, is attending the Koch meeting this weekend. Langone helped found the new Karl Rove network of front groups known as American Action Network, American Action Forum, and American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS, which together delivered an unprecedented wave of attack ads against Democrats last year. Langone and his fundraiser, Fred Malek, attended previous Koch meetings.

– Karl Crow, a Koch-funded operative, will unveil a new voter-targeting system to help Republicans win back the White House in 2012. Last summer, Crow published a memo arguing that corporations should take advantage of the Citizens United decision to flood money into the midterm elections. His memo also claimed that the decision could give corporations unlimited power to coerce their employees into supporting particular pieces of legislation or candidates.

– The first “serious” GOP contender for the presidency, Herman Cain, is at the Koch meeting. Cain, a talk show host and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has been a frequent guest at events sponsored by Koch front groups like Americans for Prosperity.
​

On Thursday, ThinkProgress revealed other attendees of this year’s Koch meeting, like billionaires Richard DeVos and Diane Hendricks. Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) will be in attendance, according to National Review. Also, we learned that 40% of the donors this weekend will be new to the Koch meetings, and that Charles Koch has promised to match ever dollar raised with one of his own.


<!-- post updates would go here in theory -->Update Ronald Erickson, "CEO of Holiday Companies, a Minnesota based petroleum retail and wholesale convenience business with operations in twelve states across the Upper Midwest and Alaska," is at the Koch meeting.

<!-- end #entryContent -->

 

[thoughtone]

Re: Supreme Court Justices Attended Koch Event, Sparking Ethics Debate

source: Politico

Koch conference under scrutiny


<!--/.story-toolbar-->

The conferences have drawn A-listers like Beck, Limbaugh, DeMint and others. | AP Photos Close


<!--/.slideshow-components-->
<!--/.slideshow-->
<IFRAME id=iframe_odiogo_0 height=0 src="" frameBorder=0 width=290 name=iframe_odiogo_0 scrolling=no></IFRAME>
This weekend, for the eighth straight year, the billionaire Koch brothers will convene a meeting of roughly 200 wealthy businessmen, Republican politicians and conservative activists for a semi-annual conference to raise millions of dollars for the institutions that form the intellectual foundation – and, increasingly, the leading political edge – of the conservative movement.

In the past, the meetings have drawn an A-list of participants – politicians like Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, leading free-market thinkers including American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks, talkers Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and even Supreme Court justices - to mingle with the wealthy donors who comprise the bulk of the invitees. The meetings adjourned after soliciting pledges of support from the donors – sometimes totaling as much as $50 million – to non-profit groups favored by the Kochs.
<!--/.story-embed-->



For the most part, the meetings, which are closed to the public and reporters, have attracted little attention outside conservative circles. But very different circumstances surround the Koch conference set to begin Saturday at an exclusive resort outside Palm Springs, Calif.

The Koch brothers – Charles and David – have come under intense scrutiny recently for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement such as Americans for Prosperity, and for steering cash towards efforts to target President Barack Obama, his healthcare overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election.

Liberal critics have launched a campaign to highlight what they say is the systematic way in which the Kochs use their political giving to advance a conservative economic and regulatory agenda designed to further the interests of their oil, chemical and manufacturing empire.

Common Cause, the liberal watchdog group, is planning a protest called “Uncloaking the Kochs” and what it calls “the billionaires caucus” on Sunday a few miles down the road from the resort in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where this weekend’s conference will be held, and a handful of reporters have made plans to try to cover the Koch’s closed-door gathering.

While the Koch conferences have taken on an undeniably political edge – a June summit featured sessions on voter mobilization efforts for the 2010 midterms as well as solicitations for an ad campaign attacking Democratic lawmakers – those who have attended the meetings say the critics have it all wrong.

“The main goal of the seminars appeared to me to be education on the challenges that face the American system of free enterprise and democracy, and what people can do about them,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a conservative Republican who has attended at least seven of the meetings.

McDonnell, who is not attending this weekend’s conference, said he was introduced to the gatherings by “free market friends up in Northern Virginia, some in the Koch enterprises institution,” and he cast the conferences as playing an important role in the political process.

“Groups on the right, left and in the middle get together all over this great country to exercise their first amendment rights to talk about these issues - some of them are public. Some of them are closed meetings,” he said. “So, to the degree that some on the left may be trying to attack these Koch seminars is really ridiculous.”

Until recently, the secrecy surrounding the meetings had always been tight.

A packet distributed to participants at the last session, held in June in Aspen, Colo., warned attendees not to talk to the press about the meetings, to wear their nametags at all times, and stressed that the meetings are “confidential” and “invitation-only.”

When that packet, which contained a tentative agenda and the names of about 200 invitees hand-picked by the Kochs, was leaked to the New York Times and the White House-allied ThinkProgress blog, it prompted a concerted effort by Koch operatives to locate the source of the leak.

<!--/.story-embed-->
Wealthy business leaders – in particular – have reason to be cautious about publicizing their participation in the conferences and might not participate if they were open to the public, said Herman Cain, a conservative activist and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza who has participated in three Koch conferences and plans to attend this weekend’s.

“If you happen to be someone who sits on the board of a corporation or you own your own company, and you’re quoted out of context, it could impact your relationship with your owners, your stockholders and your employees,” he said. “That’s why the meetings are closed, so that you don’t have to try to say what’s politically correct. You can just talk about solutions and ideas about what needs to be done in order to try to make this country stronger.”

But the scrutiny from the media, liberal watchdogs and Democrats, including the White House, not only failed to discourage new participants, asserted a source close to the Kochs, it may have increased interest for this weekend’s meeting. “As a result of left-wing attacks, attendance is booming,” said the source.

In addition, the Kochs have been asking select participants to talk publicly about the conference to counter any effort to frame it as a secretive cabal.

Still, when contacted by POLITICO, most of those who had attended past conferences either refused to comment or would do so only on background, with some expressing concern about running afoul of the Koch brothers – who are reportedly worth $21.5 billion each – and being blacklisted from receiving invitations or funding.

According to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service Records, participants in last year’s Aspen conference, their clients and companies, have accounted for $48.3 million in contributions to mostly conservative candidates and causes since 2003.

And those tallies don’t include contributions to Koch-backed non-profit groups such as Americans for Prosperity or the Cato Institute which are registered under sections of the tax code that don’t require them to disclose their donors, making it difficult to accurately assess the total impact of Koch-linked giving.

Cain, who is openly discussing a long-shot bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination as a tea party alternative to the front-runners, echoed McDonnell that the left’s criticism is hypocritical.

“The liberals in this country are always looking for a big conservative target, but the Democracy Alliance does the same thing – so why is this one so suspect?” he said, citing a group of Democrat-allied donors who have been meeting twice a year in secret since 2005.

In some ways, the comparison between the groups is apt.

Democracy Alliance, which kicked a POLITICO reporter out of its November meeting, was patterned after the Kochs’ efforts to steer major donor funding to a set of permanent think tanks and policy-based non-profits that aren’t directly linked to elections.

And POLITICO has learned the Kochs are trying to launch a voter micro-targeting operation called Themis that their operatives hope will one day rival the Democrats’ vaunted Catalist database, which was funded with help from Democracy Alliance.

<!--/.story-embed-->
Plus, the Kochs are becoming targets for the left in the same way the billionaire financier George Soros, a founding Democracy Alliance donor, has long been vilified by conservatives.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, who has attended almost every Koch conference and sits on the board of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which the Kochs helped create and fund, rejected the Soros comparison. Conservative attacks on Soros, he said, “have been scrupulous in being careful with the truth and presenting only facts, whereas on the left, you have a lot of false and misleading rhetoric about the Kochs.”

Charles and David Koch each own about 40 percent of the Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries, which was founded by their father in the 1940s as an oil concern. Today, it’s the second-largest privately held company in the U.S., with interests in producing and distributing oil, chemicals, energy, pulp and paper, and various other concerns.

Students of libertarian free-market philosophy, the Koch brothers, their foundations and company focused their giving in the 1970s, 80s and 90s on think tanks that churned out mountains of studies and white papers promoting libertarian-infused free-market policies and legislation.

The family’s money either launched or helped launch such pillars of the conservative establishment as the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, and the Institute for Justice, while the Koch-funded Citizens for a Sound Economy, founded in 1984, engaged in so-called grassroots lobbying on a narrow range of issues that sometimes seemed to jibe with the interests of the Koch’s companies.

By the mid-point of the Bush administration, though, many fiscal conservatives had become disenchanted with what they saw as the fiscally reckless course charted by the Republicans who controlled both the White House and Congress.

It was against this backdrop that David Koch spearheaded the creation of Americans for Prosperity and that Charles Koch began organizing the donor conferences, with the inaugural meeting occurring in Chicago in 2003.

While critics have charged that their support for free markets represents a thinly veiled rationale to oppose federal regulation, one donor who has attended six or seven Koch conferences insists it is a fundamental belief.

“For the left to characterize the Kochs’ efforts in the policy arena as self-interested is to misjudge the extent to which they are motivated by an intellectual belief system,” said the donor, “just as the philanthropic efforts of George Soros and Peter Lewis and others on the left are driven by their very different beliefs.”

But their newfound prominence as liberal targets is due largely to their support for more activist groups, many of which have sought to harness or fan the energy of the tea party movement.

Their summer 2010 Aspen conference, for instance, featured a heavy emphasis on the efforts of Koch-linked groups to shape the midterm elections by rallying grassroots activists around issues important to the tea party.
<!--/.story-embed-->



An ad was screened attacking Obama’s healthcare overhaul, and plans were announced to air it in districts of vulnerable congressional Democrats who supported it, while Karl Crow, a former Koch Foundation staffer who left to run Themis last year, introduced the project to donors.

Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, which David Koch helped found in 2004 and which played a leading role in organizing early tea party events, talked about his group’s effort to mobilize voters ahead of the midterms, as well as its planned $45-million campaign ripping Democrats in 50 swing House districts and half a dozen targeted Senate races.

At the luncheon on the final day, a donor stood up and pledged $1 million to fund some of the Koch-backed non-profits, followed by a number of other 7-figure pledges, and a combined $12 million pledge by the Koch brothers, according to multiple attendees, one of whom estimated that the pledges received at that luncheon alone totaled $25 million.

But the Kochs and their operatives have expressed some uneasiness about being linked to grassroots activism, generally, and tried to distance themselves from the tea party movement, specifically.

“I’ve never been to a tea-party event,” David Koch in July told New York magazine in a rare interview. “No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me.”

In a May interview with FrumForum, Koch’s top executive, Richard Fink, said of Americans for Prosperity: “I don’t consider them a Tea Party institution,” then clarified “While they participate in events with tea party groups, our support of them has included no funds specifically for tea party-related efforts.”

A session at the January 2009 Koch donor conference in Palm Springs seemed to highlight the tension between the establishment and the new populist, grassroots movement. It featured a spirited debate about how best to advance free-market conservative principles in Washington between DeMint, who was then emerging as a champion of the anti-establishment conservative movement that became a pillar of the tea party, and Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Cornyn told the donors about Republican efforts to win more seats in the Senate, while DeMint made the argument – as he has repeatedly, both before and since – that the cause would be better served by having a GOP minority comprised entirely of uncompromising conservative purists, than having a majority compromised of moderates and centrists.

“That’s a pretty establishment crowd,” said someone familiar with the panel. “But DeMint completely won them over.”


<!--/.story-text-->
<!--/.story-wrapper -->

​

​

​

​

 

[QueEx]

Re: Supreme Court Justices Attended Koch Event, Sparking Ethics Debate

Who Is Herman Cain?​

​

The outspoken corporate executive and Tea Party favorite
explains why he could be the second black president​

The Root
By: Cynthia Gordy
March 17, 2011


In his 2005 book, They Think You're Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It, Herman Cain commiserates with voters who have grown weary of Washington politics. Now he's petitioning that same electorate to support his (potential) bid to become the second black president.

So, who is he? The self-described ABC -- that's American Black Conservative -- is a former CEO of the Godfather's Pizza chain. He has also served stints as an Atlanta radio talk show host, a mathematician for the Department of the Navy and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. So far Cain, 65, is the only prospective GOP candidate to form a presidential exploratory committee.

While he's far from a household name, Cain's advocacy of smaller government, steep reductions in corporate taxes and the so-called FairTax plan, which would replace the federal tax code with a national consumption tax on retail sales, has made him a Tea Party favorite. He's gotten additional buzz over his penchant for making provocative, sometimes outrageous, statements, particularly where President Obama is concerned.

Although Cain has no political experience aside from a failed 2004 run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, he is confident that his strong business background makes up for it. His experience rescuing Godfather's Pizza from bankruptcy, for example, has informed his plan for America's economic growth. And he says that his slow but steady grassroots ground game just might leave mainstream candidates eating his dust.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Root, Cain talks about race, policy and why he thinks you shouldn't rule out his chances of going head-to-head with Obama.

The Root: You made headlines this week with your comments about President Obama potentially hurting your chances of being elected: "Don't condemn me because the first black [president] was bad." In which ways do you think Obama is a bad president?

Herman Cain: Let's make sure we say his policies are bad. First, his economic policies have failed. We can't spend our way to prosperity. We have spent nearly a trillion dollars, and this economy has not been stimulated. He has promoted programs like Cash for Clunkers, which was a dismal failure, yet he tries to pretend now like it didn't happen. Second, he has broken a lot of promises that he made about transparency, for example, and about unemployment coming down.

The biggest failure, in my opinion, is the forced passage of the health care reform legislation. It was supposed to bring down costs, but it will not because it is not well-structured to begin with. It was supposed to increase accessibility, but it has not. When you have 1,000 companies ask for special exception waivers before it's fully rolled out, and they get those waivers, then something is terribly wrong with this legislation. I call that bad policy and bad leadership.

The Root: At the Tea Party Patriots summit in Phoenix last month, you won the presidential live straw poll. Some critics have dismissed that as tokenism, claiming that Tea Party members only picked you as a foil for racism accusations, or that the Tea Party just wants its own version of a black candidate. What do you make of your support from the Tea Party and the skepticism surrounding it?

Herman Cain: I find the accusation that they voted in favor of me over the other candidates because they wanted to say they were not racist absolutely humorous. That is the most inaccurate assertion that I have heard. The first inaccurate assertion is that the Tea Party/citizens' movement in this country is racist. I have probably spoken at over 100 Tea Party rally events all over this country -- there's been no racism.

Why would they be giving me standing ovations? Why would I be winning straw polls? Now, to believe that they did it to say, "We are not racist" is an insult to my ideas, my ability to communicate, my track record of being a problem solver and what I bring to the party. That is what people are responding to.

They are responding to Herman Cain's message. They're responding to how Herman Cain delivers that message. They are responding to Herman Cain's proven record of being a problem solver in business, and they see how that can translate over to solving some of the problems that we addressed.

The Root: How do you plan to take your message to black voters and convince them that the Republican agenda is good for them?

Herman Cain: First of all, I have a conservative agenda that is resonating with some Republicans. I separate the label of "Republican" from "conservative." I will run as a Republican in order to get the Republican nomination, but I am a conservative -- I have conservative ideological positions, and my ideas for dealing with problems come from a conservative approach.

The way you reach out to black people in this country, and Hispanic people in this country, is to tell them the truth and tell them how you're going to make life better for them. That starts with making this economy better. Outreach to the black community isn't to pander to them. The outreach to black Americans is going to be the same as the outreach to every other American.

The black Americans who have taken the time to listen to me have come back and said, "You know, you make a lot of sense." The ones who have never taken the time to listen to a speech or read one of my commentaries, those are the ones who want to condemn me and call me names simply because I happen to be an American Black Conservative. If they want to label me, use ABC -- that's my self-imposed label.

But the good news is this: I've had my own call-in talk radio show for three years up until the end of last month, and I have gotten hundreds of calls from African Americans who've expressed that what I have to say has resonated with them. When they got past the label of "Republican" and past the labels that some people want to put on anybody who has conservative views, it opened their eyes. That's what I'm most proud of, quite frankly.

The Root: You've achieved tremendous business success, and I wondered about your thoughts on racism in America today -- does it still reduce the chances for African-American success?

Herman Cain: Racism in America will never be totally gone. There's always going to be one group that will look down on another group, but we have come a long way from where we were in the '50s and '60s. I'm a product of the '50s and '60s, and one of the reasons that I succeeded in corporate America is that I did not try to climb the corporate ladder with a victim attitude.

I think that one of the things that holds a lot of black Americans back in terms of succeeding in business and corporate America is that they have a victim's attitude. Whenever they are criticized or evaluated or whatever the case may be, they want to see it through the lens of color rather than take a hard look at their performance to determine whether or not the criticism is something they should learn and grow from.

Yes, there's still some racism in America, but I don't think it's the predominant factor that keeps black Americans from achieving some of the highest levels of success. We've had a lot of success, and the ones that have succeeded at the highest levels will tell you how they've dealt with racism along their career, just like I have. It's called performance. Outperform the next person, and they will forget about what color you are.

The Root: You're also a stage IV cancer survivor, and you've hinted that your survival might not have been possible under the health care reform law. What adverse effect do you think Obama's plan would have had on your cancer treatment, exactly?

Herman Cain: ObamaCare is socialized medicine. Under socialized medicine, the wait time that people have for critical tests like CT scans can be extensive. In some countries with socialized medicine, it can take as much as six months to get a CT scan.

In Canada, the number of CT scan machines per 1,000 people is like one-tenth of what we have here in this country. That's why people have to wait. When my cancer was first diagnosed and I had to get a colonoscopy, if I'd had to wait six months for a CT scan, my chances of survival would have been zero to nil because the cancer that they discovered was very aggressive. When I say that, that's assuming ObamaCare is fully implemented. So, with ObamaCare I probably wouldn't be living today. As of now, I have been totally cancer-free for five years.

The Root: Congratulations on beating it.

Herman Cain: Thank you. It is a blessing from God. And God said, "Not yet." I said, "OK, God, why are you keeping me around?" He's still answering that question. It might be to run for president of the United States.

The Root: In your only other bid for political office, you lost the 2004 U.S. Senate primary in Georgia. What lessons did you take away from that?

Herman Cain: First of all, I didn't lose; I just didn't win. There's a big difference. I came within two percentage points of forcing a runoff with then-Representative Isakson, with only a 50 percent name ID. He had over a 90 percent name ID. So the two big lessons that I learned: One, if I were to run again, start early. Second, if I were to run again, hire good people early. I've got an awesome team working with me in these early stages of this whole possibility of saying yes and running. It makes all the difference in the world.

The Root: You're still "exploring" a presidential run. At what point will you be ready to declare whether or not you're officially in?

Herman Cain: I am not waiting on anyone else. I will make my decision within the next six to eight weeks, based upon some benchmarks that my team and I have established. So far we have hit four out of five majors that we wanted to hit in order to say, "Let's go forward." We've got one more that we need to hit.

I'm not going to identify what it is because I don't want my competition to know what I'm up to. But I can tell you right now, I don't doubt that we're going to hit it. We just have to hit it before we make our final decision.

The Root: What are the four benchmarks that you've already hit?

Herman Cain: I'll give you two of them. One is the response by activists and grassroots people. I have gotten a strong reception with the Tea Party movement, the citizens' movement, and a lot of FairTax people are in my corner. The reason I won that straw poll that you referred to is because I have a strong ground game building. That was one of the things we were looking for.

Second, we've been able to generate considerable interest on the part of the alternative media. We have an Internet presence that is rivaled only by Sarah Palin, and that is because she is on a popularity road -- God bless her, and more power to her. But a lot of people don't realize that we have ways of measuring how commanding a presence I have with the Internet world. So those are two of our benchmarks that have exceeded our expectations, and we have one more river to cross.

The Root: You have a strong ground game, but what reception have you gotten from the Republican establishment? Do you think they'd work with or against you as a candidate?

Herman Cain: I believe they will work with me as I gain momentum. The good news is they have not tried to get in my way or discourage me. When I ran for the United States Senate back in 2004, designated hitters came to me that were part of the Republican establishment, and they tried to talk me out of running. They had already decided who they wanted to be the Republican nominee in Georgia.

The Republicans for a long time have played "Whose Turn Is It." That's why they keep losing. I don't believe in "Whose Turn Is It." You have to look at what is needed for the party and the country at that particular point in time. But they have not tried to discourage me or create any impediment, and that's all I ask at this point. Let's let the power of the people speak.
​

Cynthia Gordy is The Root's Washington reporter.





http://www.theroot.com/views/who-herman-cain?page=0,2

 

[QueEx]

I read an article about him in CNN. His quote about the healthcare bill made me tune out. He had stage four cancer sometime ago. He claims the Obama healthcare bill would have killed him. The man was a millionaire at the time of the diagnosis (correct me if I am wrong). He could afford the best health insurance money has to buy. "Obamacare" is not an issue for people like him.

Someone should ask him would he had survived if he was diagnosed with cancer, but didn't have any health insurance. Had health insurance but was capped in the amount spent for treatment, or denied coverage because the insurance company treated it as an preexisting condition.

In his words (but not your question exactly):

The Root: You're also a stage IV cancer survivor, and you've hinted that your survival might not have been possible under the health care reform law. What adverse effect do you think Obama's plan would have had on your cancer treatment, exactly?

Herman Cain: ObamaCare is socialized medicine. Under socialized medicine, the wait time that people have for critical tests like CT scans can be extensive. In some countries with socialized medicine, it can take as much as six months to get a CT scan.

In Canada, the number of CT scan machines per 1,000 people is like one-tenth of what we have here in this country. That's why people have to wait. When my cancer was first diagnosed and I had to get a colonoscopy, if I'd had to wait six months for a CT scan, my chances of survival would have been zero to nil because the cancer that they discovered was very aggressive. When I say that, that's assuming ObamaCare is fully implemented. So, with ObamaCare I probably wouldn't be living today. As of now, I have been totally cancer-free for five years.

The Root: Congratulations on beating it.

Herman Cain: Thank you. It is a blessing from God. And God said, "Not yet." I said, "OK, God, why are you keeping me around?" He's still answering that question. It might be to run for president of the United States.

​

http://www.theroot.com/views/who-herman-cain?page=0,2

 

[QueEx]

Herman Cain officially announces presidential bid​

​

. . . are you running just to get attention. or maybe come in second?’
I said, you don’t know very much about me.
I don’t run for second.
I’m running to be No. 1.”​

Cain delivered a rousing half-hour speech that touched on his childhood in Atlanta.
AP Photo


p o l i t i c o
JUANA SUMMERS
May 21, 2011


He lost the only campaign he ever ran, in the 2004 Republican primary for a Georgia Senate seat. He acknowledges the widespread belief that most observers write him off as the longest of longshots.

But Herman Cain, the Atlanta businessman and one-time pizza king, drew a crowd that his campaign says hit 15,000 people as he formally announced his presidential candidacy Saturday with a fiery critique of Barack Obama and a promise to alter the course of the election by appealing to grassroots voters in early states and beyond.

“We have become a nation of crises. We have a moral crisis, we’ve got an economic crisis, we’ve got an entitlement spending crisis. We’ve got an immigration crisis. We’ve got a foggy foreign affairs crisis and we’ve got a deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House,” Cain declared at the rally in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

And he rejected the idea that he’s after anything but the GOP nomination
itself.
“I’ve had reporters ask me sometimes, ‘Well, are you running just to get attention. or maybe come in second?’ I said, you don’t know very much about me. I don’t run for second. I’m running to be No. 1.”

With real estate mogul Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee taking a pass — and Newt Gingrich’s stumbles in his first week as a candidate — Cain advisers insist that there is a plausible path for Cain to do just that.

“The things that [Gingrich] said about supporting parts of Obamacare and, quite frankly, trashing Congressman Paul Ryan have done nothing but help us,” said Mark Block, a Cain adviser and former Americans for Prosperity state director in Wisconsin. “Some people who may have had a favorite son are now looking for somebody else to support. I think for the vast majority of those people, Herman Cain is where they’re ending up.”

Advisers to Cain don’t believe any one state is crucial to catapult him to “serious-candidate” status, saying instead that he must place among the top three in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

But advisers say he also plans to campaign aggressively outside the early-state map — citing Cain’s recent trip to Fargo, N.D. — to build grassroots support and boost fundraising.

Cain’s campaign will be structured on a model similar to Americans for Prosperity’s network. The campaign hub will be in Atlanta, but with semi-autonomous state branches.

“We’ll give overall strategic advice and let the states do what they know how to do best,” Block said. “Just like Mr. Cain says that he wants to move a lot of functions of the federal government down to the states, we’re going to practice what he preaches.”

Cain has already begun building up his organization in first-in the nation Iowa, with a cadre of activists, and is expected to participate in this summer’s Iowa GOP straw poll in Ames.

FULL ARTICLE

 

[Lamarr]

Promising but....................

<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uiAkeFJXwUk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uiAkeFJXwUk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>

 

[mk23666]

JJ Evans had an older brother?

 

[hocjo2626]

So he's the new Michael Steele and the best they have to offer. Good luck Republikkkans.

 

[muckraker10021]

Herman Cain's Enron-esque Disaster

The story the GOP presidential candidate won't tell you about his years in corporate America.

by Andy Kroll | May 23, 2011

http://motherjones.com/print/114371


What GOP presidential contender Herman Cain lacks in political experience, he likes to say, he makes up for with decades' worth of success in corporate America. He climbed the corporate ladder at the Pillsbury Company, chaired the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and rescued the failing Godfather's Pizza franchise. That business-centric message has won Cain his share of admirers: a focus group convened after a recent Fox News presidential debate overwhelmingly declared Cain the winner.

"I think that over 40 years of business experience is resonating a lot more with people than simply having political experience," he said on a recent Iowa visit. "Knowing how Washington works isn't necessarily an advantage. As a businessman going in, I don’t want to know how Washington works. I want to change Washington D.C. and so by not knowing how it is supposed to work I can ask tough questions that will help change the culture."

Cain clearly believes that his pro-business message is what GOP voters want to hear. So much so, in fact, that on Saturday he officially unveiled his candidacy for the 2012 GOP nomination.

<br><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>But scrubbed from Cain's official story is his long tenure as a director at a Midwest energy corporation named Aquila that, like the infamous Enron Corporation, recklessly dove into the wild west of energy trading and speculation—and ultimately screwed its employees out of tens of millions of dollars.</b></span>

According to five lawsuits filed in federal court in 2004, <br><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>Aquila's board of directors—which Cain joined in 1992—allegedly steered employees into heavily investing their retirement savings in company stock. At the same time, the company shifted its business model from straightforward energy generation to risky energy trading, an unregulated market made infamous by now-defunct Enron. The suits, later folded into a single, massive class action (PDF), alleged that Cain and top company officials violated a 37-year-old federal law requiring that employers manage employees retirement programs responsibly.</b></span> (Cain's presidential exploratory committee did not respond to a request for comment.)

Founded in 1917 as Green Light and Power, Aquila traditionally made its money operating electric and gas plants and selling the energy they produced. In the years after Cain joined the board, Aquila's earnings climbed, from $254 million in 1995 to $351 million in 1998. Then, in early 1999, the company's leadership decided running power plants wasn't lucrative enough; energy trading and speculation had grown popular, and as the class suit lays out, Aquila wanted a piece of the action.

It was a dangerous move—as a company spokesman later put it, "the risk was huge." In the end, it proved disastrous. Aquila's decision to join Enron, Reliant Energy, and the other heavy-hitters in the energy trading markets would ultimately <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">wipe out 94 percent of Aquila's stock value between 1999 and 2004.</span>

The company also faced criticism for using some of the same trading tricks that Enron did as a way to puff up its stock price, the lawsuit says. That included using "roundtrip" trades, a scheme in which Aquila would sell a trading partner some energy and then that partner would sell the same amount back to Aquila, a deal that canceled itself out. In the end, nothing actually changed hands. But it boosted Aquila's trading volume and revenue, sending a positive signal to the markets. The company also engaged in megawatt laundering, or "ricochet" trading, the lawsuit alleges. In such transactions, Aquila and other companies would buy energy from California at a lower capped price, move that energy out of the state, then re-sell it back to California at a higher price for a tidy profit.

But this financial trickery couldn't save a listing ship. In 2002, Aquila teetered on the brink of collapse. <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">And for Aquila's employees, the result of the company's foray into energy trading was devastating: The company's employee retirement fund, overseen by the board of directors, lost more than $200 million in 2002.</span>

The reason: <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">At the same time Aquila's executives and directors were investing more and more in highly risky energy speculation, they were selling their employees on the conservative nature of Aquila and pushing them to invest their retirement savings in company stock.</span>.

For years, the lawsuit says, executives urged employees in company speeches to reinvest in Aquila, lauded those who did so as "Aquila partners," and even offered a 15 percent discount to buy company stock.

Executives and board members also made it more difficult to sell off company stock by implementing lock-up periods, during which employees couldn't cash in their holdings. <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>At the end of 2000, 85 percent of Aquila employees owned common stock in the company. What's more, 60 percent of the employees' retirement fund consisted of Aquila stock—even though financial experts say that total should never be more than 10 to 20 percent.</b></span>

The spectacular failure of Aquila's trading venture practically wiped out the hard-earned retirement savings of veteran employees. Richard Itteilag, a plaintiff in the Aquila class action, lost 87 percent of his savings. Robert Goodson, a 20-year Aquila employee, lost 75 percent. Michael Reinhardt lost a staggering 94 percent. All told, thousands of employees saw their retirement funds eviscerated thanks to Aquila's Enron-esque activities. (In 2007, Aquila settled with the employees for $10.5 million. Not long after, Aquila merged with other Midwestern energy companies and now no longer operates as Aquila.)

Cain served on the board of directors throughout Aquila's ill-fated trading misadventure and the subsequent collapse of the company's retirement fund. <br><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>In fact, he chaired the board's compensation committee, which, according to the lawsuit, had direct oversight of the push to get employees to invest more and more in Aquila stock. As chair of the compensation committee, Cain also saw fit to dole out $30 million in bonuses, not including stock options, to the top five execs at Aquila in 2002, with the company's stock plummeting. A month after the Kansas City Star reported on the hefty bonuses in July 2002, the company laid off 500 employees, and the losses to employees holding company stock had reached hundreds of millions of dollars.</span></b>

As a board member, Cain would've had direct knowledge of Aquila's activities, says Fred Taylor Isquith, a New York attorney who litigated the employee class action. Asked if it was fair to place blame on Cain for the debacle at Aquila, Isquith replied, "Yes, I believe it is."

 

[actinanass]

seems like the usual suspects bashing a conservative. Typical...

 

[Upgrade Dave]

seems like the usual suspects bashing a conservative. Typical...

Are they lying? If so, say so and prove it and you instantly discredit them.

The only person who should be worried about Herman Cain is Sarah Palin. He's about to take her spot as the resident bullsh_tter in the Republican Party. I give him more credit than her for actually running.

 

[thoughtone]

Herman Cain's Enron-esque Disaster

The story the GOP presidential candidate won't tell you about his years in corporate America.

Excellent post! And if by a snowball's chance in hell he actually becomes president, he then fucks up the economy even worse than GW, what will be the conservative defenders excuse be then?

 

[thoughtone]

Are they lying? If so, say so and prove it and you instantly discredit them.

The only person who should be worried about Herman Cain is Sarah Palin. He's about to take her spot as the resident bullsh_tter in the Republican Party. I give him more credit than her for actually running.

Are they lying? If so, say so and prove it and you instantly discredit them.

Your asking him to produce facts?

 

[thoughtone]

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XX1zTR7bFpM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>​

 

[muckraker10021]

Herman Cain on Why "The Black Guy Is Winning"

by Jeffrey Goldberg - Jun 13, 2011

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print...he-black-guy-is-winning-jeffrey-goldberg.html

Herman Cain, the beguilingly personable pizza mogul and Tea Party sweetheart who is showing well in the so-far uncompelling Republican presidential nomination campaign, threw a flag early in an interview I conducted with him last week. I had made the dire mistake of referring to him as African-American.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>“I am an American. Black. Conservative,” he said, punctuating each aspect of his self-identity. “I don’t use African-American, because I’m American, I’m black and I’m conservative. I don’t like people trying to label me.</b></span> African- American is socially acceptable for some people, but I am not some people.” <div align="right"><!-- MSTableType="layout" --><br><img src="http://i.min.us/idxM5Q.jpg" align="right"></div>

What is it about the word “African” that the candidate doesn’t particularly appreciate?

“Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America,” he said, hitting those last four words with a hammer. “And then it goes back to slavery. And I’m sure my ancestors go all the way back to Africa, but I feel more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa. I’m a black man in America.”

This statement came shortly before our discussion turned to another politician generally understood to be an African- American.

“Barack Obama is more of an international,” Cain said. “I think he’s out of the mainstream and always has been. Look, he was raised in Kenya, his mother was white from Kansas and her family had an influence on him, it’s true, but his dad was Kenyan, and when he was going to school he got a lot of fellowships, scholarships, he stayed in the academic environment for a long time. He spent most of his career as an intellectual.”

Indonesia, Kenya, Whatever

I left unasked the question of whether it’s more disreputable to be Kenyan or to be an intellectual (and let us pity those suffering Kenyan intellectuals). But I suggested to Cain that while Obama had, in fact, spent four years of his youth abroad, it was in Indonesia, not Kenya. To which Cain, who has dallied with the fading phenomenon known as “birtherism,” responded, “Yeah, Indonesia.”

Cain wants to be taken seriously in this race. He has said some very unserious things -- his proposal to build a moat between the U.S. and Mexico and fill it with alligators comes to mind -- but his resume is not that of a mere curiosity candidate. He has been a corporate CEO, a chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and president of the National Restaurant Association. He has created jobs in the private sector. He is affable, charismatic and funny, qualities not found in abundance in the current field of candidates.

The Non-Obama

But it is apparent that his popularity, especially among conservatives aligned with the Tea Party, can be traced in large part to his status as the black guy who is not Obama, the Georgia Baptist with the American name. Cain overtly plays this role in front of conservative audiences, offering them public absolution for a sin they don’t believe is a sin: believing that the president is somehow alien to the U.S. and its way of life.

At a convention of the Conservative Political Action Committee in February, Cain told an enthusiastic audience: “They call me racist too, because I disagree with a president who happens to be black.” To cheers, he went on, “You will get called racist simply because you happen to disagree with a president who happens to be black. You are not racists! You are patriots because you are willing to stand up for what you believe in!”

Tea-Party Cool

I explored this theme with Cain when we met. “I’ve been speaking to the Tea Party before it was cool,” he told me. “These people aren’t going to go back to sleep. This sleeping giant is staying awake. The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period!</b></span> If it were, why would the straw polls keep showing that the black guy is winning? That’s a rhetorical question. Let me state it: The black guy keeps winning.”

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>He went on, “This isn’t why I’m running, but my candidacy would take race off the table. Right now, every time someone criticizes Barack Obama, they try to play the race card, the White House, all his supporters, they try to play the race card.” </b></span>

Like who?

“I can’t think of a particular individual right offhand,” he answered. “But you see a lot of that implied.” <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>Then he came up with a name: David Gregory, the “Meet the Press” moderator. He was referring to Gregory’s questioning of Newt Gingrich, who had, in a speech before the Georgia Republican Party, referred to President Obama as a “food-stamp” president. </b></span>

Not About Race

“For David Gregory to sit there and say, ‘Speaker Gingrich, was that a coded racist statement?’ just shows you how deep they dig to turn this into race. What the hell was he talking about?”

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>I suggested to him that Gingrich’s turn of phrase was a quality example of a racial dog whistle, though it was not as elegantly rendered as Ronald Reagan’s infamous reference to a “strapping young buck” who used his food stamps to buy a “T- bone steak.” (Gingrich, in the midst of a strange and dreadful campaign, has been running something of a dog-whistle seminar, stating that President Obama is trying to “get the whole country to resemble Detroit,” </b></span> and arguing to those same Georgia Republicans that next year’s election will be the most important since that of 1860.)

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><b>Cain wasn’t buying it: “As a black man, I didn’t see race in that statement whatsoever.” </b></span>

 

[actinanass]

Typical nature..

Que starts it, Thought expands, muck finds a new york times article, upgrade agrees, wash, and repeat...

 

[thoughtone]

Typical nature..

Que starts it, Thought expands, muck finds a new york times article, upgrade agrees, wash, and repeat...

I post, you decide!

 

[muckraker10021]

<br><br>
Islamophobia on parade at GOP debate

June 15, 2011

by Usha Nellore

I was appalled by the Islamophobia on parade at the first major Republican debate in New Hampshire on Monday night. Herman Cain, the Godfather's Pizza Mogul, made a spectacle of himself by denying that he ever said he wouldn't appoint a Muslim to his administration, only that he meant he wouldn't be comfortable working with Muslims, especially those who want to kill us. Are we supposed to rejoice that he has explained away his bias with this irrationality? And this is an African-American man talking! Whatever happened to content of character being more important than other superficial concerns?

Numerous African-American Christians have voluntarily converted to Islam. Is Mr. Cain telling them that they have no chance for a position in his government even if they are talented because he can't tell them apart from extremists? What is the litmus test for patriotism or loyalty to America? Will he appoint only those who are able to sing the National Anthem without flubbing the lines? Will he appoint Christians who don't vote, who duck jury duty with flimsy excuses, who don't know the Bill of Rights or the Constitution because he doesn't feel threatened by them and because he thinks being Christian is proof enough of devotion to America and ability to serve in public office?

Mr. Cain, also obsessed with the notion that Sharia law could supersede the American Constitution, has said that Muslims should not serve in the federal courts. Second and third generation Muslims, born and brought up in this country, graduate with plaudits from some of the most prestigious law schools in America. These students know nothing at all of Sharia law, much to the consternation of the Imams who preside over their mosques, and Mr. Cain wouldn't give them a shot at the federal courts just in case they turn out to be Manchurian candidates, susceptible to the adroit manipulations of Sharia devotees. It is frightening that Mr. Cain's star is now on the rise and all the other candidates on the debate stage did not outright condemn this man for his blather.

Newt Gingrich, was no better than Mr. Cain. It is laughable that Mr. Gingrich thinks Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad's confession in court that he did not mean his oath of allegiance to the U.S. when he became a citizen is an example of general Muslim perfidy. With whom are Mr. Cain and Mr. Gingrich trying to score political points? Surely they intend to stir those who demonize Muslims and blame all of America's ills on foreigners, non-Christians, illegal immigrants — anyone except they themselves. Surely they intend to demagogue their way into votes from the sector of our society that imagines if Muslims, illegal immigrants and other foreigners are excluded, deported or eliminated then and only then will America prosper. The crowd that preaches this intolerance will be the last to run out and pick our fruits, lay our roads or wash dishes in our restaurants. It is also the crowd that will be the first to line up outside Walmart for the cheap made in China goods. But Mr. Gingrich, a sophisticated professor, book writer and historian, will play to this crowd because he thinks this will make him a viable Republican candidate for the presidency.

Although Mitt Romney touted America's tolerance when faced with the Muslim question, he did not assert emphatically that all talented comers, regardless of religion, should have a crack at cabinet posts and that Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Cain are wrong to spin it otherwise. The front runner of the Republican Party was on the defensive, and though as a Mormon he should feel the pain of marginalized average Muslims, he played it safe, making bland and general remarks that won't get him in trouble with the patriots of the Republican Party — fervent believers in American exceptionalism as a white and Christian virtue.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...am-20110614_1_islamophobia-muslims-sharia-law

 

[QueEx]

Herman Cain is getting a bit of the Newt Gingrich treatment, per the Union Leaderhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57872.html:

Herman Cain's state director and lone New Hampshire staffer has resigned, leaving the campaign without a New Hampshire presence at least for the time being, the Granite Status has learned.

Veteran GOP organizer Matt Murphy confirmed today that he stepped down last Friday as director of Cain's campaign in the first-in-the-nation primary state. He said the campaign refused to invest in a serious effort here.

“There is no ill will toward Herman Cain,” Murphy said. “There was a strategic difference and I left the campaign because of those differences. The differences involved the New Hampshire strategy and how much investment the campaign should put into New Hampshire.”

The Cain campaign also lost its regional field director. Jim Zeiler confirmed this afternoon that he “resigned last week to return to my home in Wisconsin" ...

Murphy pushed to have the candidate spend more time in the Granite State. As the lone New Hampshire staffer, he asked the national campaign for funding for staff hires and office space. But, Murphy said, his request was denied.

UPDATE: Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael says Murphy will soon be replaced. "We have already made a hire in NH, which we will be releasing in the coming days," she wrote in an email. Carmichael says the new hire will fill the role of state director and is a recruit the campaign is "very excited about."

​

 

[muckraker10021]

Cain Energy Plan:
Put Oil And Coal CEOs In Charge Of EPA Regulations

by Lee Fang

Jun 22, 2011

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/22/251566/herman-cain-shell-oil-commission-epa/

Today at a campaign stop with the group American Principles Project, Herman Cain took a question about how to increase domestic oil production. Without missing a beat, Cain said that, as president, he would create a special commission to remove environmental and energy regulations at the EPA. Cain explained that the commission would be comprised of businessmen from the coal, oil, shale oil, and natural gas industries because they are the “people closest to the problem.”

Cain then said he would literally appoint the CEO of Shell Oil, presumably current CEO Peter Voser, to the commission because Shell Oil has “been abused by the EPA.” Earlier in his remarks, Cain had riffed for a few moments about how Shell had faced delays in a drilling plan due to EPA regulations:
<blockquote>
CAIN: The EPA is the biggest barrier to more permits, more drilling, more shale oil production. So I’m going to have a regulatory reduction commission that I’m going to appoint that’s going to go in and determine how we make things move faster. Some regulations we need. I’m not anti-regulation. I’m just anti-too much regulation. And the people on this commission are going to be people who know something about coal, oil, shale oil, natural gas, and they will be people whose businesses or individuals who have been abused by the EPA. If you’ve been abused by the EPA like Shell Oil, I’m going to ask the CEO of Shell Oil would he like to be on this commission, and give me some recommendations. The people closest to the problem are the ones who can solve the problem.
</blockquote>



Later in the day, at his next campaign stop in Iowa Falls, Cain told a campaign supporter about his EPA plan, and said his energy executives-led commission would kill off regulations.

Cain is particularly close to oil CEOs.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Shortly after announcing his intention to run for the presidency, Cain met with Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries in Palm Springs, California. As ThinkProgress reported, other oil executives were in attendance.</span>

..the end

<hr noshade color="#0000ff" SIZE="8"></HR>

So with Cain we see that he has willfully prostrated himself bootlicking the oligarchs, the same scenario as we see with Scott Walker

"The oligarchs preferred politicians are those like governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin who are willing in exchange for $$$$$$$$$$$ to be an oligarchs Slave Bitch."

READ: Where Are We Headed In 2012

 

[QueEx]

Put Oil And Coal CEOs In Charge Of EPA Regulations

 

[cheyisrameyah]

Put Oil And Coal CEOs In Charge Of EPA Regulations

I'm pretty sure that occurred when Cheney was the VP. If they didn't write it, they had ALOT of input. So in my mind, despite the smallest likelihood Cain has of winning the Presidency much less the Republican nomination, CEOs writing the country's energy policy would not be without precedent.

 

[thoughtone]

Typical nature..

Que starts it, Thought expands, muck finds a new york times article, upgrade agrees, wash, and repeat...

Actual an indictment on the the right is posted, it is commented on, you post some preposterous statement from Rush or Hannity, Gunner makes a snide comment unrelated, some part time wing nut will chimes in, a post blowing up the conservative doctrine is enter, the republican leaning posters disappear, wash, and repeat...

 

[Lamarr]

Typical nature..

Que starts it, Thought expands, muck finds a new york times article, upgrade agrees, wash, and repeat...

 

[thoughtone]

How fringe can you get!



source: On The Issues


Herman Cain on Corporations

When was the last time a poor person gave you a job? ​

Cain said that the president has no leadership ability, but beyond that, there's a political mess and lack of solutions throughout Washington, D.C. "America is on the wrong track, but we can get it back," he said. "We have become a nation of crises"--moral, economic, entitlement spending, energy and immigration.

The federal stimulus funds did nothing to stimulate the economy, Cain said.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">As president, he would reduce the corporate tax rates from 35 to 25 percent, take the capital gains tax to zero and suspend taxes on repatriated foreign profits. </SPAN>

"Lower taxes do stimulate the economy," said Cain. "It's not rewarding the rich. When was the last time a poor person gave you a job?" He also would replace as a second phase the tax code with a national sales tax, describing it "as simple and fair."

Source: Rob Novit in Aiken Standard May 19, 2011

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Rkgx1C_S6ls" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>​

 

[muckraker10021]

How fringe can you get!

He's just following orders and regurgitating scripts from ALEC.
Don't know what ALEC is? Read and learn! Links below. The corporate oligarchs are in the midst of a giant LBO (Leveraged Buy Out) of the United States of America. It's about 60% done. We have passed the tipping point. Only a MASSIVE push back from an enlightened American populace can prevent a 100% takeover. Too many of us are some of the dumbest people in the world.

In Israel, yes I said Israel, a fascist police state, last week FOUR PERCENT- 4% of that country's entire population hit the streets to demonstrate against their oligarchs and the destruction of the Israeli middle class.

Imagine if 4% of the United States population hit the streets — that would be 12,000,000 — TWELVE MILLION people. No in the US people are watching <s>FOX</s> FAKE News and getting all excited about the NFL season — bread & circuses.

The oligarchs are laughing as they cruise 35,000 feet above it all, in a gulfstream 5, with a $3,000 dollar whore deep throating their cocks.

ALEC Exposed

The story of the shadow legislature called ALEC



<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="2"></hr>

The oligarchs plan for America is to have as many people
as possible scrambling for survival as you see in the video below.

 

[Nat_Turner]

Another warmongering zionist stooge..............

 

[Upgrade Dave]

Typical nature..

Que starts it, Thought expands, muck finds a new york times article, upgrade agrees, wash, and repeat...

Maybe you missed my post earlier so...

Are they lying? If so, say so and prove it and you instantly discredit them.

The only person who should be worried about Herman Cain is Sarah Palin. He's about to take her spot as the resident bullsh_tter in the Republican Party. I give him more credit than her for actually running.

Post factual contrary information and show where they're wrong. Posting facts that show them in a negative light about candidates is only bashing to Republicans/Conservatives when it's about them.

 

[QueEx]

Cain wins Florida test vote,
Perry trails far behind
​

McClatchy Newspapers
By Steven Thomma
Saturday, September 24, 2011



ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Republicans threatened to shake up the Republican presidential race Saturday, giving business executive Herman Cain a solid win in a straw poll and delivering a sharp rebuke to front-runner Rick Perry.

Cain took 37.1 percent of the straw poll votes, cast by 2,657 Republicans at a state party gathering in Orlando. Perry, the Texas governor who had vowed to compete for the symbolic victory in a critical state, trailed far behind with 15.4 percent.

"We still have work to do," Perry spokesman Mark Miner said after the vote. "We'll be campaigning six days a week."

He congratulated Cain, then noted that at least Perry outpolled former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, widely seen until now as Perry's chief rival for the nomination. Romney finished third, with 14 percent.

"It's a devastating loss for Romney," Miner said. "He finished third after being in this race for five and half years. We've just been in the race for five and a half weeks."

Still, many of the Republicans attending the event said they turned away from Perry after watching him turn in a weak performance at a debate here on Thursday.

Pat Palaio, a caregiver from Perry, Fla., said she switched from Perry after watching the debate on Thursday.

"I was leaning toward Perry," she said. "He didn't come across well in the debate. We need someone who can win the debate going forward. He has to compete against Barack Obama."

Instead, she voted Saturday for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, calling him sure footed and solidly conservative.

The rest of the results:

Santorum, 10.9 percent;

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 10.4 percent;

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 8.4 percent;

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, 2.3 percent;

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, 1.5 percent.​

The last place finish was a stinging result for Bachmann, whose first-place win in an Iowa straw poll six weeks ago helped thrust her into the top tier of candidates.

The Iowa straw poll was about machinery; Florida was more about the message and messengers.

The Iowa poll tested the ability of campaigns to get supporters to Ames, Iowa, for a Saturday afternoon and allowed candidates to greatly influence the results by spending freely to rent space at the event for tents, bands and food.

In the Florida competition, candidates did not have to rent space and were not allowed to buy tickets for blocks of their own supporters. They were free to woo delegates off site _Perry sponsored a breakfast Saturday at a hotel across the street.

But mostly, with delegates in town for three days to watch a debate and hear from the candidates in speeches, the Florida event served as a giant focus group with Republican activists weighing what the candidates were saying and how well they said it.

Cain was one of three candidates who stayed to speak to the attendees one more time Saturday afternoon, along with Santorum and Gingrich.

Andrea Floyd, a teacher from Miami-Dade County, said she hadn't even heard of Cain before arriving in Orlando for the three days of speeches and debates. By Saturday, she was sold.

"He is such an inspiring man," she said.

"Florida is important," said Gov. Rick Scott. "The road to the White House goes right through Florida. It pays to be here."

The Florida straw poll in the past predicted the winners of the Republican nomination. Ronald Reagan won in it 1979, George H.W. Bush won it in 1987, and Bob Dole won it in 1995. It has not been held in the last several elections.





http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/24/125153/cain-wins-florida-test-vote-perry.html

 

[muckraker10021]

Out Of The Pizza Pan and Into The Fire
Herman Cain’s Astounding Buffoonery
<font face="helvetica, verdana" size="3" color="#000000">

Sept. 26, 2011

When the current Great Depression started the southern states were booming, and the rust belt states were already in serious decline from the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. Now it’s the south’s turn to see steadily rising unemployment as the lower paid jobs are now being outsourced, and the general lack of demand brings layoffs in the retail and service sectors.

A reverse migration of skilled workers from rust belt states who have ties to the south also contributes to the unemployment rate as they displace local workers. On top of this, is the attitude of Red State governments to slash jobs and cut revenue and you have a self reinforcing decline.

One of the states with the fastest declining job situation is Texas where Governor and one time Presidential candidate Rick Perry and the Republicans are determined to do all of the wrong things. They have yet to realize that an economy can’t be operated on articles of faith. They have faith that cutting wages makes everybody rich, that no taxes on the rich will make more rich people and free trade is really free. An F-5 tornado can be modeled with numbers put into equations, and numbers put into equations define an economic model. Neither of these phenomena care if you believe that the numbers don’t matter, either of these (sets of numbers) will kill you if you ignore them.

Rick Perry fell on his face in the Florida debate, and then finish a very distant second in the Florida Straw Poll. This was not because he gave the wrong answer on immigration. Mitt Romney did kill the Dream Act in his state and he did even worse in the Poll than Perry. Florida’s Straw Poll was different than the Ames Iowa Straw Poll where the person with the most buses and the best box lunch wins. Potential voters in Florida were restricted to party activists who tend to have some money, and therefore a greater interest in economic policy.

Rick Perry’s plan for the economy revolves around Texas swagger (as in don’t step in that pile of swagger). Mitt Romney successfully pointed out that Perry was taking credit for jobs he didn’t create, and in fact Texas is declining fast. Mitt Romney wasn’t rewarded for tattling however, as people are catching on to the fact Mitt created his jobs in China and India. Mitt also has a problem campaigning to a small group like in Florida, Republicans who meet him describe him as “the more you get to know him the less you like him”. He’s basically a rich preppy kid who has never worked and has no clue about anybody who does. This results in Mitt constantly sticking his foot in his mouth. It doesn’t really have that much to do with him being a Mormon because neither of the hardcore Christians got the votes either, Bachman got almost none.

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>Enter Herman Cain, personable, passionate and best of all, he has an detailed economic plan. If he wasn’t, you know, [whisper] BLACK, he would have swept the Straw Poll by an even bigger margin. The problem is that Republican grey beards don’t really want people talking about the economy too much, they might start learning something (can’t have that).</b></span>

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>They won’t however, learn anything from Herman Cain’s plan. It’s utter nonsense, but it’s complicated enough with lots of buzz words Republicans like in it. This makes the dim bulbs think he’s really on to something. After all he made the pizzas come on time, just like Mussolini did with the trains.</b></span>

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>The clever symmetry of the Pizza Plan is it has three “nines“, like nice even slices of pizza pie. Why it doesn’t occur to people (even dumb people) that there is no reason that these numbers should be the same… oh what am I saying, these people go for this kind of crap all the time.</b></span>

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>Herman’s Pizza would have 9% flat corporate taxes, that would be 2 points less than they pay on average now. An individual flat tax of 9% for everybody, people too poor to pay now, would pay 9% while the rich would go from an average of 28% down to 9%. To pay the bills, a 9% National sales tax, on top of the 6 or 7% most states have now, not counting the need for more state revenue as the Federal Government shrinks under this plan.</b></span>

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>To top this off there would be zero tax on repatriated offshore profits so that there would be no impediment what so ever to outsourcing jobs. No capital gains tax, so Warren Buffet would pay no taxes at all. Elimination of the “Death Tax” so that the top 0.024% who have estates large enough to be taxed would “save” $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years. The bottom 99.976% would get no benefit but would need to make up the $1.4 trillion. He preaches elimination of payroll taxes which means no funding mechanism for Social Security or Medicare, but who needs that?</b></span>

<SPAN style="background-color:yellow"><b>His conclusion is that this would immediately put 10 million people to work and dramatically increase revenue. Let’s see, the plan encourages outsourcing and capital hoarding since capital gains, offshore profits and rich people in general aren’t taxed. The poor and middle class have their taxes increased dramatically whether they are working or not (9% sales tax and 9% income tax with no exemptions for luxuries like kids), but they get no benefits from the shrunken government. But Herman Cain’s plan will get here in 20 minutes or less.</b></span>

www.prairie2.com
</font>

<hr noshade color="#d90000" size="8"></hr>

 

[smooveface]

I hope everyone gets this now and really doesn't believe that any republican in their right minds, let alone Cain himself thinks he has any real shot at winning the Republican nomination. Everyone knows (including Herman) that he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, he does have the opportunity to become the same wildcard for the GOP that Sarah Palin was. What the GOP is starting to see that Cain as a VP running with a Romney could really shake things up in the same way that Palin did. If he can somehow take even a small number of black votes from Obama it will be game over for a re-election bid for Obama. Obama is going to need 95%+of the black vote to win and if the Cain can hoodwink just 5% -7% of those black folks into believing in his warped brand of politics, Obama will be in trouble. So, while everyone is laughing at Cain and this ridiculous bid for the republican nomination, you can trust the GOP is taking notice of what kinds of problems Cain could potentially pose for Obama. The problem is during the course of his bid for the nomination, if he continues to come out of left field with some of his comments, he's going to be grouped in the same circus group as Ron Paul, Bachmann, and (if he's not careful) Rick Perry. But, If he can stay on message and not get too out there, he may have a shot. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.