As numerous big-name Republicans drop out of the race, Cain, a former pizza magnate, tells National Review Online that he can win the GOP presidential nod.
“I can’t say who else might get in,” Cain says. “But if you look at the announced candidates — Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, and me — I think my chances of getting the nomination are just as great as their chances, and probably better than some of them.”
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“People are looking for a candidate,” Cain explains, days after he announced his run at an Atlanta rally. “Fewer people are competing for the same votes and the same dollars. We have a real opportunity to pick up some support.”
The polls back up his confidence. A new Gallup survey shows Cain with a huge following among conservatives who are paying attention to the 2012 campaign. “Cain, although still not widely known, has the highest ‘positive intensity score’ among Republicans of any potential GOP candidate still in the race,” Gallup reports. “His ‘positive intensity score’ of 27 matches the highest yet recorded for any candidate or potential candidate this year.”
Cain, a longtime Georgia resident, predicts that he can build a national network of conservatives — and fill the void in the GOP primary for a southern man. He thinks that he can perform very well in South Carolina’s primary and, as a fresh voice in Iowa and New Hampshire, rise quickly.
“I do not believe that the South, nor Georgia, is necessarily Newt Gingrich’s territory, simply because of the experience that he has there,” Cain says. “We are going to do well in all of these early states. People are connecting with my message, with my commonsense solutions and my passion.”
“People know that I am not just giving a stump speech,” he continues. “I am giving speeches about what is in my head and in my heart. That is resonating. So I am going to keep doing what I have been doing, which is building a ‘bottom-up’ campaign around the country.”
Cain acknowledges that his momentum has not garnered much media coverage. After toiling for months under the radar, he is ready to “call names.”
“ABC, CBS, and NBC are pretending that I don’t exist,” Cain says. “Occasionally, they ask me to come do an interview; then, right before it happens, they cancel it. There are a couple of theories out there about why this is the case. One is that I am the last person they’d like to see run against Barack Obama.”
Cain pauses. “Just a theory,” he chuckles.
On the fiscal front, Cain promises to support Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, especially as other contenders, such as Gingrich, shy away from the proposal.
“I absolutely support Paul Ryan’s plan,” Cain says. “It is exactly the kind of bold restructuring that we need in order to get our hands around the entitlements issue. We need to restructure programs, not just reshuffle, which is what we did for decades, and now look where we are.”
“Liberals are trying to make it seem like we are going to throw old people off of the bridge,” Cain grumbles as he details the response to Ryan’s budget. “That is a lie. That is all they can say, because they don’t want to fix the status quo.”
Regardless of the results in Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 26th congressional district, Cain urges Republicans to “run on” the Ryan budget in 2012.
“I have always followed the principle that once people understand something, they will support it and they will demand it,” Cain says. “I think that we ought to run on it, but we are going to have to do the heavy lifting to make sure that people understand it.”
I sense in Mr. Cain a refreshing sense of clarity, of proven principles, conservative values, and a positive view of what can be achieved when bringing them to bear along with hard work. I don't yet know whether I will vote for him but I know I support him. More importantly, it is already clear to me that he would be a better President than Barack Obama and that is the most important thing to remember at this stage of the contest.
“Occasionally, they ask me to come do an interview; then, right before it happens, they cancel it. There are a couple of theories out there about why this is the case. One is that I am the last person they’d like to see run against Barack Obama.”
Probably. The better theory is that most of the mainstream media can't still fathom why a black person would be against their own interests and be conservative or libertarian. The second long-shot theory is that the MSM doesn't want to show blacks that there is someone out there who is black and conservative. I think that kinda ties into the first.
The media is very desirous to see a black president do well...so long as that black president stays on the liberal ideological plantation. Stray off of it, like Cain, and you can expect derision. That'll be starting very soon, surprised it hasn't started already.
Here are my two cents. Herman Cain sounds great. I would love to see him go head-to-head with Obama. My only concern with him is whether he has the political experience he needs. We got a political newbie with Obama, and that hasn't worked out very well. You do need to have some basic experience in politics to do it well. On-the-job training is absolutely not an option.
I do like Cain on China. He understands they're not the cause of all our problems. Conservative talkers like Laura Ingraham who make China out as the cause of all our problems are losing credibility. China hasn't changed over the last ten years--we have. Once we get our debt house in order, China will drop back on our list of concerns. I think Cain (and Romney, for that matter) has it right.
Tim Pawlenty sounds great. I love the fact that he went to Iowa and talked about ethanol subsidies going away. We need the truth! He seems energetic and capable. I would be very happy voting for Pawlenty.
Mitt Romney is also a great candidate. I love the healthcare proposal he made recently. It was truly a market-based system, and he passionately backed market-based solutions. I feel like Romney really does understand markets, but he is also able to appeal to independents, which we'll really need if we're going to win in the general election.
I also like the fact that he's a known quantity. He's a solid family guy. But is he 100% conservative on social matters? I'm pretty comfortable on that score but not absolutely convinced.
I can't think of anybody else that I'm really excited about. Newt is a no-go for me, although I was thinking about considering him before he assaulted Paul Ryan's plan. It matters to me that he cheated on his wife. Yes, I believe in redemption, but why not choose somebody who has been true to his wife through all their years.
I'm not that excited about Palin, for some reason. I got to see her at an event in Sandpoint, Idaho and felt like she was very genuine and personable. I love what she does for our party. But I see her as more of an anchor for the party's conservative values than as the executor of our conservative plan. I'm not sure why, but I'm not really comfortable with her as a presidential candidate. Bachman is the same, at least for me.
I'm not excited at all about Huntsman. I've only heard him speak once, but there's something about him that bothers me. I don't know if it's that he doesn't seem sincere, or whether it's something else. I can't put my finger on it, but I don't really like him.
Ryan and Christie are both awesome in what they're doing, but neither one strikes me as right for president right now. As much as we want "red meat" in our presidential candidate, there is a place for subtlety and flexibility. I see Ryan doing that eventually, but I don't ever see that in Christie.
I'm very positive about the 2012 election. But in our voting in the primaries, we need to consider who can win in the general election, not just who will throw us the most red meat.
Mr. Cain is the best chance at a 2012 Presidential win, because of his no-nonsense, tried-and-true life and business successes. He has worked in the real world, and he has conquered hurdles that would make Barack Obama faint.
He's a hard worker, a man of keen intellect and business acumen, and probably the best speaker I've ever heard. He truly DOES speak from the heart and the mind and that is what I am so excited about!
He knows where our country needs to go, and is probably one of the best communicators out there, aside from the Great Communicator himself, Reagan.
Imho, the reason the liberal media doesn't want the world to know as much about him, is because of the stark contrast between his open past, and his achievement of the American dream (and his parents' story too). It is directly oppositional to Barack Obama's mysterious and shrouded past. We know little to nothing about him before he was senator in Illinois. We know EVERYTHING about Herman Cain however! He was born the son of a chauffeur and a domestic worker. The media is imho, DELIBERATELY blocking the story of Cain's climb and how he reached the American dream, because they don't want other minorities in this country SEEING WHAT CAN HAPPEN if you decide to follow another type of thinking (conservative) versus the traditional libeal drivel, which is oppressive actually to them. Sad and ironic why they aren't letting his voice be heard.
It's time we gave Herman Cain the opportunity to take on his biggest challenge yet. I, for one, think he is a great American who's up for the job!
“ABC, CBS, and NBC are pretending that I don’t exist,” Cain says. “There are a couple of theories out there about why this is the case. One is that I am the last person they’d like to see run against Barack Obama.”
You're absolutely right Mr. Cain.
If you ran against Obama, the left and it's activist media minions would lose (what is apparently) it's only defense against those critical of Obama's policies. Racism! Newly defined by the left as "critical of Obama".
Unfortunately, the old definition just keeps popping up. Webster is funny that way, always slow to catch on to changes in the American vernacular. Some might even say intransigent, when changes are demanded for the sake of political expediency. Of course, this demand for a new understanding of the word "racism" has left the Left in a precarious pickle. Their well known love for the duplicitous use of the old definition in all other cases of socialist societal engineering (political expediency)such as: entitlements,immigration,quotas, criminal sentencing etc. etc., means that both definitions must be equally available in their bag of tricks.
And then along comes Herman Cain. What's a leftist to do? The bag of nuclear tricks has just turned into a sack of marshmallows.
Should they (as I've seen on many leftist blogs) refer to him as a "lawn jockey"? Or take up the Harry Reid position that "he just doesn't understand his history" (which translates as "how dare he forget to whom he owes his gratitude). Or should they (as so often happens to black Americans who join the Tea Party) refer to him as an "Uncle Tom" (which shows how much the left reads, considering that Uncle Tom was a slave who refused to whip another slave and was beaten to death for it).
No. Any of the above would expose the left's dirty little not-so-secret, secret.
No, with Herman Cain, Obama and the left would have to do something the left hasn't done since Truman, actually base an entire campaign on the issues facing this country and the policies which have failed it.
Herman Cain got a mulligan on the "right of return" question, and unequivocably gave the right answer.
... which is absolutely NO right of return can be forced onto the table at this time, probably never.
The Palestinians should be offered absolutely nothing in the name of the United States until they start talking and acting like peaceful neighbors - they may need more than 12 steps to prove it to anyone.
If Egypt can be making noises that the peace treaty with Israel is back on the table, any previous Israeli or American committments and agreements must also be open to withdrawal.
One can only hope that, amidst the current chaos in Egypt, level heads will rise to the top and keep that nation at peace. The treaty eliminated the potential for external conflict for a long time. Until those level heads arise, internal conflict there is guaranteed.
It's so tragic. That whole region would prosper if there were real peace, ever expanding trade, and ever more open borders for professional and personal interactions among friends.
I know a lot of people here in Amherst, NY who own vacation homes in Canada. I've read that Canadians own a good bit of Florida and its neighbors.
Real peace in the Middle East hasn't happened on any president's watch so far, it won't happen on Obama's, and it would be a sucker bet to put money on it happening during a Herman Cain presidency as well.
Israel can, and most likely will, stand on it's own against their regional enemies. An Iranian bomb would (will?) immediately change everything anyway. Mutually assured destruction tends to quickly dominate the room.
Any political movement which professes that their side would win, even in a nuclear conflict, is probably not the party this nation should be supporting under any but the most dire circumstances. Hamas still thinks their side will win.
The adults in the room, to this point, have always come to the conclusion that that there will never be a triumphant winner. Those are the only people we should be talking with.
One does not indulge the destructive whims of children. It only makes them more belligerent and dangerous as adults.
That's what common sense is about.
He still has foreign policy weakness. But I would still take a strong president with good values who would make responsible decisions based on facts than on another triangulator who gives our enemies reason to hope they will prevail, and our friends reason to doubt our resolve to stand up in a pinch.
Given that even in my heavily Republican home NY 26th district a good Republican candidate might go down because of Mediscare demagoguery, I am more convinced than ever that Herman Cain has the right message for Republicans.
We have more than a year to educate people, tell them the truth, and propose solutions that reasonable people will understand and can reconnect them with the values that made America great.
It never hurts to have the facts on the ground breaking towards your ideas and policies. I would never hope for bad things to happen, but at this point, the headwinds are too strong for the economy to stage anything but a tepid recovery at best for a while. The bond market has yet to speak to the issues that are busting down the door.
We have the backbone and we still the right system to keep the American dream alive for many more generations ... both here and around the world by example.
America is not the cause of the world's problems, but we are, and hopefully will continue to be, a part of the solution.
We should start speaking truth to chaos. Power is overrated, it always gets an earful these days anyway. It's getting old - just like Mubarek.
The facts about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are indisputable. The nation must be given a clear choice. Democrats will fight tooth and nail for an "in-house" government fix. I want a candidate who will fight for free market solutions. They used to work well for us... they still do.
Republicans have a little more than a year to get the job done. Deciding quickly what kind of party we are, focusing our own minds back on our values, and staying on message until the election would do the trick.
I think Herman Cain would do that.
After Mitt, at his age, fell victim to the conceit that a managed and mandatory health care regimen would provide better medical outcomes at lower cost than the system it replaced, which was already over-managed, I have to distrust his judgment.
After Newt was against the Ryan Framework, and then was sorta kinda for it, but was just trying to be "realistic" all along, I had to doubt his sincerity.
Both stink of the smoke of "socialism light"... guess what guys, it smells just as bad as the "full flavor" variety.
The middle east will still be a mess by election day. But our entitlements can eventually be fixed... at least we can be sure that the nation will provide the best health care it can by focusing on always allowing responsible new ideas to get a fair market hearing. Just like the adults in the middle east, ya gotta hope that better ideas will rise to the top over time.
PS: Nice job today Mr. Pawlenty. That's what I would call speaking truth to chaos. Corn prices will be fine on their own, you will be taking less from your fellow citizens, and the world will have a more abundant and secure supply of food.
If the term "racism or racist" is accidentally uttered (old habits die hard) by the left or their activist media minions in the presence of Herman Cain and Barack Obama; Cain need only turn to Obama and ask about the miraculous, 20 year, coming and going of Obama's hearing while attending the sermons of the infamous Rev. Wright.
High praise for Cain. In promoting him i was faced with responses indicating that he has slogans for complex problem. What do readers think of that. I BELIEVE IN HIM.
LezleyPrezley - ooo, now there is a thought. That is a dream ticket if ever there was one. The best people on the two most vital topics, both completely untainted by ever having received a single vote from the public for --- no wait.
Seriously, I like them both immensely, and would be happy to see that happen. But I am not holding my breath...
@Doug Marks,
Nice overview. I don't disagree with a point you raised or your impressions, although I'm more lukewarm on Romney. I still get a GHWB vibe from him.
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