Herman Cain has every right to feel uncomfortable.
According to news reports based on anonymous sources, the GOP presidential frontrunner is suspected of unspecified acts of sexual harassment while running the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. Cain’s first accuser considered coming forward, but now says she will stay in the shadows. Like a hit-and-run driver, she wounded Cain and now speeds off into the night.
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What, if anything, transpired between Cain and his associates remains as unclear as this episode’s ultimate impact on Cain’s upstart, surprisingly successful, and — for many — refreshing candidacy.
Too bad this media Nor’easter overwhelmed two recent stories on a sunnier aspect of Cain’s past: his tenure as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza. If these reports are accurate, Cain is a diligent, cerebral, tough-but-fair executive who turned a failing and flabby organization into a fit, effective enterprise. Imagine if this tested manager could do likewise with America’s paunchy and profligate federal government.
First, between 1983 and 1985, Cain revitalized Burger King’s 450-store Philadelphia region. He moved it from a laggard to a leader among the company’s twelve geographic territories.
“My career spans 38 years, and I’ve worked for 26 different managers,” said Frank Taylor, Cain’s former regional controller at Burger King. “Herman was far and away the best I’ve worked for in terms of getting a team together, sharing a vision, and accomplishing the goals. And nothing diverted him.”
Pillsbury brass then tapped Cain to resuscitate Godfather’s Pizza. They gave him one year. Godfather’s “had one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel,” Cain has said. According to Neal St. Anthony’s article in the October 30 Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Godfather’s was “waylaid by a tired menu, demoralized employees, and lousy results.”
“I’m Herman Cain and this ain’t no April Fool’s joke,” he told Godfather’s employees upon arrival on April 1, 1986. “We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everybody else that we will survive.”
Cain got very busy indeed. He worked long hours, gave frequent pep talks, canvassed employees individually for their ideas, and even cooked pizzas himself — both in Godfather’s test kitchen and its retail locations.
Cain energized his headquarters staff with after-work sing-alongs and expected top supervisors to communicate on a first-name basis with all of their subordinates. Cain tested them on this skill. He also pressed $50 bills into the palms of employees whose customer service or pizza-making prowess impressed him as he visited Godfather’s outlets.
“Herman was very quantitative and analytical,” former Pillsbury executive George Mileusnic recalled in the Star-Tribune, “but he demanded that everybody be engaged, and every employee must be appreciated and respected.”
“He’s very, very inspiring,” Godfather’s marketing director Charles Henderson told Brady Dennis in the October 23 Washington Post. “The guy can convince you to run through a wall.”
By 1987, Godfather’s was on a roll. It generated an operating profit, and gained market share against Domino’s and Pizza Hut. According to the Post, Cain closed failing stores and laid off their workers. However, average sales and profit margins grew at surviving restaurants. One year later, Cain arranged for his team to buy the chain from Pillsbury for an undisclosed sum and remained Godfather’s capo di tutti capi until 1995. Once left for dead, Godfather’s thrives even today. It remains in private hands, and its 220 franchisees operate some 620 restaurants.
I hope the media keep it up or move on to their next salvo of shocking innuendo. It is name recognition for Mr. Cain and illustrates how little respect our side has for the old media.
yep, it helps Cain for the same reason as it helped Clinton in 1992 when his bimbo eruptions began. It also distracts from the more serious issues in his campaing such as:
Is he or is he not pro-life?
Will his tax plan even work if he gets it implemented?
If the problem is spending then why does he not propose spending cuts?
What if anything does he know about foreign policy?
I've seen this movie before, last time it ended up with Obama, this time I think if Cain is nominated we get our own republican Obama (i.e. wildly popular and wholly ineffective)
External Link -Informative piece on wsj about harassment.
"Poor Herman Cain. If he were a Democrat, his biggest headache today would be how to survive the loud snores of the liberal press."
Life isn't fair; deal with it. To this point Cain's dealing with this and other controversies has been pathetically troubling. Surrounding himself with the right people to help him make the right decisions is one of the cornerstones of his campaign. How can we trust him to succeed with this strategy during his Presidency when he has chosen campaign staff who are so obviously lacking?
Quote; "I mean who really is Mitt Romney? You don't have that question with Herman."
??
With the exception of a GOP derangement syndrome targeting to annihilate Romney's record--do conservatives EVER source a political resume?
Cain has walked back both sides of the issue on his 100% pro-life i.e., "It's a woman's choice. It's not the government's business" abortion stance. Ditto on sexual harassment allegations with cash settlements, Federal Reserve audits, "electrified" fences, his SimCity 999 Tax Plan, Tarp bailouts, ethanol, school vouchers, affirmative action, campaign cash book purchases, "Who killed Jesus" (i.e., a liberal court), terrorist negotiations, "Right of Return", China's nuclear capacity, Muslims-in-Cabinet, and the U.S. constitution, etc.
At this juncture in a GOP presidential primary shouldn't candidate Herman Cain have an inkling?
It's not Cain's acumen as a Godfather Pizza CEO, it's his political coherence, "management" judgement calls, and ability to run a government successfully during an unprecedented fiscal crisis, that has not been well documented to his credit.
It's Cain's political present & future that is in question.
Herman Cain is not the first successful leader to be targeted by greedy golddiggers, and he won't be the last. This story will go nowhere because there is no substance to it, but the mainstream media have succeeded in planting unwarranted doubt about Cain into the minds of the clueless. Now it's time for the next Pretty Girl In Danger story, or perhaps a nice juicy celebrity scandal.
From Herman Cain's op-ed in last Friday’s Washington Times come these ‘gems’ that should cause any true conservative to shudder.
"Cain: One year from now when I am president …"
“My administration will establish opportunity zones in poverty-stricken areas to promote empowerment, not entitlement - done through implementation of broadened tax incentives.”
Poverty-stricken areas=black neighborhoods. Haven’t we done enough to ‘empower’ blacks?
"We also must not take our own backyard for granted. In addition to securing our border and enforcing our laws on immigration, we must build North America as a globally competitive strategic system with 600 million people - encompassing the United States, Canada and Mexico. Adding Central America and the Caribbean, the region is vital to our economic growth and national security - yet is often overlooked. Collectively, the area is our top source of energy and our largest market. I will pursue a growth-oriented strategy that builds on this region’s compatibilities - geography, demography, competitiveness, energy, culture and security - in order to promote mutual prosperity, opportunity and freedom."
Sounds like Cain has a novel way to enforce immigration: erase all borders and become the United Americas.
At some point, we have to stop and ask some serious questions about this man.
There's a difference between entitlement and empowerment...I think you may have missed that.
Also, I didn't see where Cain wanted to alleviate immigration and turn the Americas into one huge "country." What I see in his statements is a change in the business model...for which he has an impressive resume, having nothing to do with amnesty for illegals.
Which part of his resume are you so impressed with?
Herman Cain was head of the National Restaurant Association and was dealing with their lobbyists. This organization was (and still is) one of the leading lobbyists in favor of open borders and against all immigration control measures, especially interior enforcement. Herman Cain has been very much on the wrong side of immigration issues until very recently in his campaign, especially with immigration developing as a weakness in the Rick Perry campaign. He is not to be trusted on this issue.
Every one rallying for Cain refuse to even question whether or not he's the best candidate.They refuse to hear and think critically about any negative aspects of his past or his plans. Reminds me of liberals and the unvetted Obama.
How is he going to create these "empowerment zones" will he do this by executive fiat? Will he grease congressmen by offering fed monies to set up these areas within their districts. It's a good idea on the surface, but the implementation says there is a lot of room for trouble here.
Cain came through the Gingrich debate pretty well. Though he didn't match up on details, he made his points well. Today he moves to Jimmy Kimmel, later in the week two debates.
Since Gloria Allred is apparently holding a press conference with yet another accuser today, it's important for him to have opportunities to talk directly to the public without the media filter. Allred is sure to set off a feeding frenzy, so it will be another interesting week for the Hermanator.
Funny listening to Cain's defenders one could be mistaken for thinking every business executive was being sued for sexual harrassment in the '90s....but Mitt Romney ran a large financial business and he was never sued for sexual harrassment....wonder how the Cainiacs explain this discrepancy...
Funny, listening to some of Cain's detractors one would assume that no one has ever been falsely accused of wrongdoing therefore all allegations must be true.
He (Romney) did develop a wrestling move which involved covering himself with a slippery substance so his opponent could not get a grip on him called the "Flipflop" that many felt had sexual overtones.
I recently was told that Romney received a $1,000 donation from an old friend and long time supporter of his who worked with Herman Cain during his time in the NRA. Herman Cain's campaign initially suspected Rick Perry's campaign of babbling to the left wing media. Now I'm beginning to wonder if Romney had a friend do him a favor. It would be interesting to see a list of Romney's big donors and check to see if any of them worked with Herman Cain.
Either way, it's obvious that Herman Cain provides a serious threat to Obama and the more insecure Republicans running. I wouldn't put it past Mitt Romney to pull something like this. He was a pretty disappointing governor with the health care debacle we have in Mass right now. He seemed more interested in getting on Ted Kennedy's good side at the time than he did in helping the people of the commonwealth.
Herman Cain's reaction to all of this may be awkward because he isn't a career politician. To me that's a plus. As far as I'm concerned if there were credible allegations against him they would have surfaced right away. Some victim would have sent some one a note decrying the offending candidate from the start. That this whole thing didn't surface until he became a serious threat makes me think that it was more contrived than anything else. After all it's what the left did to Clarence Thomas. " How dare he be a conservative black man! Let's accuse him of not being able to control his primal urges!"
