Tuesday Debate Puts Cain in Line of Fire for First Time
The race for the Republican presidential nomination has changed since the September 22 debate. Herman Cain has taken second place and is biting at Mitt Romney’s heels. Rick Perry has fallen to third, and Newt Gingrich is biting at his heels. Jon Huntsman has crept up to third place in New Hampshire. This all means that in the October 11 debate, Herman Cain will be in the line of fire for the first time and how he fares will have huge implications for the race.
Herman Cain’s meteoric rise brings Rick Perry’s former frontrunner status to mind, but he has less reason to collapse than Perry. As a late entrant, there were huge expectations for Perry. Cain, on the other hand, has been campaigning and debating since the beginning of the campaign and has proven his skill. He’s extremely likable and articulate, making it very risky for other candidates to attack him. His lack of a legislative record gives little for his opponents to scrutinize. Now that he seems viable, Republicans who merely liked him are now supporting him.
Cain needs to do a few things in this debate. First, he needs to boast about other parts of his resume so that his image is not reduced to being the “pizza guy” who is a powerful speaker. In his interview with Dick Morris, he mentioned for the first time that he was a mathematician and worked on weapons systems. Why didn’t we hear about this from him before?
Cain can become the frontrunner by gathering the right-of-Romney vote behind him. He needn’t confront Romney and subject himself to counter-attacks. He can politely contrast himself to the former Massachusetts governor by emphasizing his record in creating small business jobs — where most new jobs come from — as opposed to expanding big businesses. He should criticize Perry to keep up the pressure and continue the Texas governor’s slide in the polls. He can fend off Gingrich’s surge by appearing substantive, which he has done well lately. And finally, Cain should get into a tussle with Ron Paul over national security to blunt the impact of his own early foreign policy missteps. If Cain does all of this, he could solidify his position as the alternative to Romney.
Mitt Romney’s strategy will be the same as before. He knows that the other candidates must bring down Cain before they can take him on. He’ll let them do this job for him so he doesn’t get into a mud throwing contest. It is not as imperative that he take aim at Perry, as it turns out that Perry’s entry ended up being an early Christmas present for the Romney campaign because he has split the right-of-Romney vote.
Rick Perry’s campaign is at stake on October 11. He has a big task ahead of him. He must perform so well that Republicans forget what happened in previous debates, and he needs a very good response to questions about in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. His problem is that he has to attack Cain, but in so doing, he could look desperate and alienate his supporters.
Newt Gingrich is in a very good position to turn this into a Romney-Cain-Gingrich race. Gingrich, however, is counting on victory in Georgia, and right now Cain is leading him by a whopping 41-17. Gingrich needs two things to happen: Perry must continue his downward trend and other candidates must knock Cain off balance. The most likely ones to do this are Perry, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann.
Santorum and Bachmann are tied, with polls differing on which one has a very slight lead. They need Cain and Perry to drop fast. Most likely, they’ll hammer Cain on his many foreign policy stumbles. He had no plan for Afghanistan and defended himself in August with, “I have learned more about Afghanistan,” essentially admitting he began running for president of a country whose war he was unfamiliar with. He said he had no plan for the war on terror because he wanted to wait to get access to classified information. In an interview in May, he didn’t know what the Palestinian “right of return” issue was and admitted, “I know more about the Palestinian right of return issue now than I did then.” And, as I’ve written about, he visited a top Muslim Brotherhood mosque while he was winning applause for slamming Sharia law.
Jon Huntsman, though he’s still in last place in almost every national poll (because they usually don’t include Gary Johnson or Buddy Roemer), actually has momentum in New Hampshire. He is in third place in the Granite State, four points behind Ron Paul. Romney is way ahead with 41 percent, but there’s still interesting movement in the competition. Huntsman received his biggest applause during the last debate when he said he’d bring home the troops from Afghanistan, and performed well when confronted by Santorum. He plans to double-down on this issue, and will be outlining his foreign policy vision in New Hampshire the day before the debate.
Ron Paul has set himself up to get hit hard because he questioned the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. Paul seems to have hit his ceiling.
Mark October 11 on your calendars. It’s going to be a fun night.
I’m praying for Cain.
While you are praying, give his campaign some money, any amount. We have got to take this country back.
I’m just not voting for another inexperienced black president–call me racist, whatever, but I’m just not. This pimp n ho culture they’ve brought to the white house is quite disconcerting indeed.
Not necessarily racist, just incredibly stupid.
No, that is necessarily racist.
The left throws around “racism” to mean “low regard for a member of a group we favor” that normal people might be inclined to forget racism is real, and Mike Stevens’s comment is a perfect example of it.
Neither Obama nor Cain has any connection with “the pimp and ho culture”. Obama was raised in a white family; Cain in an honest working-class black family. Stevens cannot see beyond the color of their skin to notice self-evident facts.
To say that Cain will be a bad president because he and Obama are both black and Obama is a bad president — that exactly what racism is. It’s as stupid as saying because Obama was born under the sign of Leo, anybody born in August will be a bad president; plus it has a dose of malevolence thrown in.
Criticism of inexperience would be legitimate but no one was ever president before becoming president; you can only have proxy experience and even that doesn’t help much. Jimmy Carter was a military officer and a state governor and he was a terrible executive.
Cain has been a CEO of a large company and he’s been a banker. Aren’t those about the best qualifications for a president right now?
If you think Herman Cain is bringing the hip hop Thug culture to the white house you don’t know the guy. He’ll bring wearing a suitcoat in the oval office back. He won’t be putting his feet up on the desk and his wife is a class act as well.
Is she white? Most black athletes prefer white women for wives.
Ms Candy: what do athletes have to do with this?
The fact remains that Cain is less experience in elective office than Obama did when running for President. He also was diagnosed with cancer that, after treatment, is now in remission — and stressing his old immune system by running for election will not make a relapse less likely. It is ridiculous to treat him as a serious candidate.
OR
We can vote for the guy who has been solid in his behaviours and ideas and who flies the conservative flag with more gusto than any contender thus far. Romney’s a RINO, Paul, Huntsman, and Perry both have aspects that make conservatives of various stripes shut down.
Cain has shown himself to be a stellar candidate.
Obama was a “stellar candidate” too — for the other side. What the country needs is not just a good candidate but rather a good president, and at this point I’d settle for adequate. A RINO in office faced by a conservative congress, both House and Senate, would tend to act like a conservative.
Then he needs a good VP on the off-chance the stress of the office kills him or taxes his health too much to continue. Being that he has zero foreign policy experience and zero experience dealing with legislators, he needs competent advisers anyway. If he asked me for advice, I’d tell him to choose Huckabee for VP, Bolton for SECState, Petreus for SECDEF, Palin for SECEnergy, give Ron Paul his choice of Treasury Secretary or Fed Chairman and cart blanche on auditing either of them, and choose someone like Chuck Norris for Press Secretary.
Huckabee gets him operations experience, Bolton covers him on foreign policy, Petreus on military command, and Paul assuages concerns about the fact that Cain once headed the KC Fed. As for Palin, she’s reliable, though a suitable alternative would be reasonable. Most importantly for your purposes, Huckabee covers Cain ideologically, ensuring a smooth ideological transition in the event of his death or incapacitation.
Um no no they wouldn’t. They would be a RINO and would still try to advance policies that are not Conservative.
I’ll go with Cain who is a principled man who stands by what he says rather than Romney who is even now trying to spin around why his HC plan was a model for Obamacare (or is that Obomneycare?) Perry who has a wonky immigration strategy. And Paul who is just a nut.
@Mike Stevens
This is precisely the kinda racism that sucks big time. I can understand that you dread the way the majority of Blacks behave. It’s not the most successful minority out there in regards to creating peace and prosperity. I can understand that you are on the defensive. But it is still your duty to look at every individual with fresh eyes. Every time you meet a new person you have to give that human being a chance to prove that he doesn’t fit the stereotype of his group.
Mole alert!
I don’t for a minute believe you are a conservative, Mike. If you are, then you have no ability to think how damaging what you wrote is for the cause. Go away, Mike! Far, far away
Mike,
Wow. I’m not sure how to respond to that one. My Grandfather always said that rascism was firmly rooted in ignorant soil. You have reminded me of just how wise that giant old man really was.
Please Mike, do us all a favor and just stay home on election day. The rest of us will listen to each candidate with open minds, eyes and hearts and will select the BEST candidate. Will it be Mr. Cain? I don’t know but I will guarantee one thing, it won’t have a thing to do with his race.
Already done that, LaSuthenboy. And I’ll give some more if all goes well at the debates. The pressure on him–on any conservative–to be whiter than white(sorry for the metaphor but it fits),i.e., no scandals, no foot-in-mouth disease, is incredible.
“The pressure on him–on any conservative–to be whiter than white(sorry for the metaphor but it fits)”
Go away disgusting liberal troll. You are fooling no one, but sadly, yourself.
while its always possible I am wrong, I have had a feeling for a long time that Cain may be the first person running for office who is a moral and honest person with no ego issues.
for the first time in decades I am actually donating.
its an odd time for me LOL
Indeed. No ego issues. Very good point.
I wouldn’t say *no* ego issues. He thinks he has what it takes to be POTUS, which requires a fair-sized ego just to start with.
The only question is “can he back it up?”
And unless it is a very well-performed front, the man gives off an impression of confidence in himself, and in his positions.
a man with an ego problem will not admit to not knowing an answer to a question. he would also not then research the question to learn about it.
being comfortable with yourself and proud of yourself is not the same thing as having a huge ego.
“…..Republicans who merely liked him are now supporting him.”
I am an independant. I have never before given money to any political candidate. Herman Cain is now the recipient of my first political campaign contribution. If he does well in this debate I will be giving more.
I heard a snippet today on the radio of him speaking. When addressing the question ” Why are you running for President?”
he answered ” To be President.” When asked why he should be President; ” This country has alot of problems and I am a problem solver.” Not the usual slimy, disingenuous, double talk about devoting themselves to public service blabbidy blab that you get from career politicians.
He studied math and science, then worked as a practical scientist ( Ballistician for the Navy ). He entered business and became a problem solver in the real world in a practical sense. He has some political experience, but not enough to corrupt him. He is articulate and straightforward. He doesnt get intimidated. Whatever gaffes he has committed signal honesty to me more than incompetence. I like this guy.
” This country has alot of problems and I am a problem solver.”
There ya go. Qualifications.
and he can do math too/
Putin, the Dhina Politburo, Akmanutjob, and the marxists who have taken over the libwit party are frightened today, or something.
“There ya go. Qualifications.”
Did you vote for Obama? No one respects you anymore, dolt. Deal with it.
Thanks.
I didn’t know anybody respected me before.
But since you did, I suggest you actually give a moment’s thought before you roll the dice on one of the least qualified people to ever be given serious consideration to be president of the most powerful country in the world.
Or at least, read Cain’s insane plan and imagine how it might affect you, your friends and your neighbors. For example, if you have parents or grandparents who depend on social security, it will raise their taxes by 9 to 18% (for most, the higher end), enough to destroy their lives; same thing for many young people just starting out, btw. And how many people do you think will vote for a tax plan that appears to reduce taxes on the wealthiest people in the country from about 30%+ to a bit over 9%. If you set out to design something to get Obama elected, you couldn’t come up with a better way than 9 9 9. Pelosi is rubbing her hands in glee just at a tiny chance of a national sales tax. It’s the marxists’ wet dream of the ages. Even Obama doesn’t have the guts to propose one.
And why is tax policy the centerpiece of his plan anyway? The problem is SPENDING, not taxes. Radically overturning the tax system in this country is like fighting a raging forest fire by redesigning fire trucks. Maybe the trucks need to be improved, but my god man, put out the fire first.
Of course, the 9 9 9 plan has absolutely no chance of ever being implemented… which is probably an even bigger disqualification than Cain’s total lack of experience.
Half the lobbying money spent in Washington today is spent lobbying for tax loopholes. Lots of stuff written into the tax code is actually subsidies. Oh, and we can lay off a bunch of IRS agents if taxes are simple. If it helps, think of it as regulatory repeal.
Oh yeh, a looney vat tax will stop the lobbying in Washington on a dime. Sure it will.
Run with that one.
If you really want to stop the lobbying in Washington, the only way to do it is to gradually eliminate functions of the central government or return them to the states. If they are returned to the states, the lobbying problem doesn’t go away, but at least the criminal legislators would only be titans of billions of taxpayer money, not trillions, and the lobbyists would have to spread their lucre around 50 states instead of a 10 square mile patch of corruption.
Their predecessors weren’t scared of Reagan either, until it was clear he was going to win. Once he was in command, they were terrified. Do you have any idea how scared Gorbechev was when Reagan said we’re going to make ICBMs obsolete? Let the libs actually see the prospect of no more using the tax code for welfare or the military for social experiments and then see how scared they are, especially when it’s a black man doing it, because that destroys their whole narrative.
Reagan had been in politics for decades as an advocate and lecturer; he had been the governor of the second largest state in the union; he ran two large-scale predidential campaigns; he had tons of financial contributions and legions of supporters; and he had been the singular spokesperson for the conservative movement for many years. He was well-prepared to be president.
Cain isn’t even close to being prepared to be the president.
Reagan was not well-prepared to be President. There is no such thing as well-prepared to be President. There are only people who have proven themselves in small matters who have earned the trust needed to be entrusted with greater matters.
Cain’s 999 plan includes a new Federal sales tax. Once that tax is established, it will grow.
Fortunately, it’ll never get passed, because there will not be sufficient political support for it. Cain is a mathematician, so he did the math. He did not do the political calculation, though. The 999-plan’s only virtue is that it gets the subject discussed. Non-starter, so I ignore it.
Cain is a decent, honest, capable man, but he is ignorant of the political world. He has some serious catching-up to do. There’ll be some serious OJT for him. Knowledge is easier to obtain than ethics. I’d take an honest dummy over a smart crook, any day, and Cain is no dummy. He’ll figure it out, eventually.
True.
Indeed I’m sure that’s all a settled matter amongst the folks by now but somehow you and I missed the explanation. I can’t wait to see how this method of taxation is going to work. Let’s see, OH we can’t tax food – let’s exclude that. An iPhone is certainly a human right – lets exclude that. Tanning beds, they should get a little more…
I would have thought the same thing about food and water being taxed but there are states and I live in one that has a ‘gross receipts tax’. EVERYTHING is taxed. Food, Water, Doctor visits, everything. That wouldn’t be so bad but there is also property, local and state taxes just incase I don’t buy food and water or visit the doc. Just sayin’, it ain’t outa the question. My utility bill is even taxed.
All taxes grow. If you are looking for one that doesn’t then maybe you should check under D for Doesn’t Exist.
But at least Cain has more than just the Lower Taxes blather that EVERY candidate espouses to do.
He’s almost too perfect. The Skulls/Freemasons/Anunnaki won’t allow anyone who can’t be blackmailed or otherwise scandalized to run for president.
Obama!
A new 9% Federal sales tax…one more way to pay for our bloated Federal government!
Everybody wants to cut government spending.
But whatever government spending still exists after the cuts, must be paid for. What we can’t do is continue to spend money we haven’t got, huge deficits adding hugely to the Federal debt.
Grover Norquist’s “starve the beast” theory was that if we cut taxes, that would give leverage to cut government spending. That has since been tried–and it failed. When taxes were cut, the government continued to spend big money anyway, and we just ended up with huge deficits. This beast can’t be starved into submission.
Right now, balancing the budget (and starting to reduce the Federal debt) should be our top priority. More than cutting taxes.
And we can’t balance the budget through spending cuts alone, without taking a meat-ax to entitlements–and no candidate can get elected President promising to do that.
I really doubt that there is a strong popular contingency to keep the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy and etc. I believe we can eliminate 90% of our government with only about 20 percent of our population noticing. This 20 percent is already Progressive and is impervious to logic.
Some of the things those departments do is actually quite useful, so those things should be grafted into other departments while the rest is eliminated. The nuclear weapons branch of Energy should become part of Defense. The economic data gathered by Commerce, along with the intellectual property offices should be grafted into Treasury. Labor should be grafted into Justice and given a special court for contract disputes (note: court, not an executive board). Education should be scrapped entirely and its student loan portfolio sold off to state pension funds and university endowments, but if we want to keep any of it, place it under the jurisdiction of Defense, with its only task being to ensure that we have a population adequately educated in reading, writing and technical disciplines to recruit for the military.
We have heard of factors that elect presidents: the hair style factor, the name recognition factor, the gaffe factor, the electability factor, the big voice factor, the winning smile factor, etc….
Let me add another factor, and that is “the baggage factor.” Romney, Perry, Newt, all have heavy baggage. Obama was elected in part because he was a relatively unknown with little baggage. Now he has it.
Cain has little baggage, so far revealed. That makes him more of an underdog contender, or better, an outside of the beltway hero.
Actually, Obama carried a *lot* of baggage. The media simply chose to ignore it, and much of the electorate – with dreams of “hope and change” – followed suit.
At least a sales tax is one thing that will have an impact on everybody including those who derive their income from government checks. They will notice it every time they buy anything. If it goes up everyone will be hit with it immediately, unlike the divide and conquer system of taxation policy where you raise taxes on small segments of the population at a time.
seems a lot fairer to everyone then current progressive system, and I say (and support) this knowing it will cost me more due to my disabled situation.
Agreed. In addition, I have long thought that extracting income tax via payroll deduction obscures the discomfort, later further softened by a nice tax refund due to excessive withholding. April 15th can even become a happy day. Having to pay estimated taxes quarterly, as do the self-employed, obscures nothing. Pay the amount that will actually be due and pay it on time or else; if you estimate too low — if, for example, there is a pleasant surprise — a penalty will likely be imposed.
I suspect, but have no statistical basis, that those who pay estimated taxes quarterly are a bit more upset with the levels of federal taxation than are those whose taxes are withheld.
Yeh, as well as anybody on a fixed income, like 50 million or so senior citizens.
Let all the deadbeats contribute their fair share, right?
Of ourse, I’m not including your parents, grandparents, uncles or aunts in that remark. You’ll help them with their new 9-18% tax burden, won’t you?
You act as though nobody on fixed incomes today is paying taxes at the 15% rate. You also ignore the effect of compliance costs on the system. I’d say that seniors are hurt far more by perennially low interest rates than by anything this tax could do. If massive simplification of the tax code and resultant elimination of the benefits of offshoring profits gets the economy back up to speed, interest rates will rise and the elderly will actually be able to draw income from their savings.
As for filial obligation, odds are my grandparents and my uncle won’t need my help, but I’ll help them if it turns out they do.
A lot of seniors and very young people pay no income taxes. 9 9 9 will increase their taxes by 18%. It’s crazy.
And that’s not the worst problem with it. It would be the most disruptive thing to happen to the US besides the major wars. Every single element of the economy would be massively affected. Housing would be crushed, as just one example. Charitable giving would be crushed. Many businesses would go bankrupt. Others would have incredible windfalls. Chaos. Absolute chaos.
Of course, since the loony plan has three completely separate stages that would take decades to implement….and hence, zero chance of being implemented as planned…the uncertainty and continual disruption would cause a world-wide depression.
Which is what you get when your pizza guy designs an economic plan on the back of a napkin in order to cater to the wildest fantasies of the denizens of the far right; who understand even less of the complexity of the economy than he does.
Fortunately, it will never be implemented.
Unfortuanately, the eventual Republican candidate will have to talk about the crazy idea for 9 months, since the press will never let it go, and will work full-time to declare it is the de facto Republican proposal.
Just the fact that the lunacy is out there has cost Republicans at least 5% in the election. It confirms the suspicions of anybody who suspects that Republicans are all about lining their own pockets. 5% swing. Minimum. 6 6 6 is right.
Proreason(LOL) I would love to hear your example of a political party who is not concerned with lining their pockets.
There are no altruists in DC. They are all interested in money as are many other people since (and this may shock you) THE ECONONOMY SUCKS!
“I would love to hear your example of a political party who (sic) is not concerned with lining their pockets.”
I don’t have an example. One doesn’t exist.
Do you have a point? Or are you just writing badly for bad writing’s sake.
“It confirms the suspicions of anybody who suspects that Republicans are all about lining their own pockets.”
Those who are intelligent are not shocked when someone seeks to make money.
Those who are not intelligent will make a big fuss about it. They will also vote for the party that loves to play altruist.
A stupid comment that is well written is still a stupid comment. It just looks prettier.
Unless Cain’s proposed national sales tax, and the associated cuts in other taxes, and associated top rates are imbedded in a constitutional amendment, it’s a major mistake. Government has never been able to keep a deal on lowering taxes in exchange for reduced deductions etc. Cain has to convince me how the deal he proposes will be maintained. Otherwise all he’s doing is opening up one more source of revenue for the government to suck up. The Reagan tax deal lasted only about 8 years if that.
It is possible to starve the beast, unfortunately, given our morally corrupt congressmen, it appears that means starving it to the point of death.
Free the slaves – AGAIN!
copy and send to evryone you know – especially blacks
http://www.runawayslavemovie.com/site/index.php?
Based on Republicans’ history, I can’t foresee any candidate asking Cain to explain how raising taxes on the lowest earning 60% of the country, and dramatially lowering taxes on the hightest earning 20% of the country is going to persuade 50% of the country to vote for him. Likewise I can’t foresee another candidate asking him how playing the race card 5 seconds after it was offered by an msm enabler will help either. In fact, I expect every other candidate to be 100% mute about Mr Cain, his history, and his delusions. After all, that noted candidate picker Mark Levin is thrilled with Cain, who has memorized the talking points from Levin’s damn-the-torpedos view of life. Nuff said.
And based on the make believe media’s history, I can’t see the moderators asking Caine anything but softball questions….yet….until and unless he somehow pulls an obama/2008 and gets the nomination with less than a postage stamp’s worth of governing experience….in which case we will quickly learn how many dimples he has on his ass…and the asses of every person he has ever said hello to in his life. Anybody who thinks Cain will get a free pass from the “institution” that shapes the opinion of 60%+ of the country is sadly mistaken. Clarence Thomas was a warmup.
Mr Cain is the ultimate wild card. But amazingly, people are supporting him for president based on a couple of interviews and two or three quips…and deliberately ignoring the many naive and foolish things he has said in his short time on the national stage. As others have said, the parallels to the Obama phenomenon are numerous.
I’m not saying he is a liar or or a con man, so he is undoubtedly better than Obama, but my goodness, other than Obama, the man is the least qualified person to be given serious consideration for the Presidency in at least 100 years. Perot was the closest thing to Cain, but Perot was easily more qualified, and Perot commanded a large entourage as well. Cain is a lone ranger. What an incredible wild card to consider entrusting the country to.
Say what you want, but Cain is imminently more qualified to be POTUS then Obama ever was, and if he is the choice on the Republican side, he will have my vote. Of course, it is still early.
This year I believe the doorknob could beat Obama…..and I would gladly vote for the doorknob.
Yes, but will all the dead in Chicago vote for a doorknob?
We are supporting Cain on a lot more than a few snippets and comments. Herman Cain has had a successful radio talk show and also has sat in for Neal Boortz on many occasions and I liked listening to him even more than Boortz. Sorry Neal. Herman is always a voice of reason and conservatism. He will stick to the constitution and that is exactly what we need.
Ah, a radio talk show, in addition to turning an established pizza chain back to profitability!! How could indirect control of 10,000 pizza delivery people be any different than direct control of 2 million soldiers and sailors. I certainly can’t see how those might differ.
There you go. What better experience for governing 300 million people, direct ontrol of the most powerful military in world history, and control of a nuclear arsenal could there be?
At least with talk radio, his opinions are out there for all to see. That can’t be said for our “present” president whose record includes about 150 votes of “present”.
“What better experience for governing 300 million people, direct ontrol of the most powerful military in world history, and control of a nuclear arsenal could there be?”
There is no experience to prepare one for that. None.
In that case, I’ll settle for the pizza delivery guy!!
At least I’ll have a chance of getting my pizza within half an hour.
Assuming you can count out the money correctly.
Hey Obama supporter: If you had asked these hardball questions of Obama, we might gived a damn what you think. Dolt.
if you ever read a single thing on PJM, you would know that there is no more vehement critic of Obama than yours truly.
The really really scary thing is that from an experience perspective, Cain and Obama are pretty close. Cain has limited private industry experience and no public sector experience. Obama had no private industry experience and limited public sector experience. Each one was 100% defined by his own words. Resume-wise, Obama was a better choice, and we know how that turned out.
If Cain had been CEO of a Fortune 100 company, or started and grew a large enterprise from scratch, his private sector experience would be more relevant. But sorry, managing pizza cooks and delivery guys and fast-food burger guys counts for nothing to be president of the United States. Cains best experience is in the Fed. That and his general business experience count for something…not enough for him to win a primary for Senator in 1994 (he got 26% of the vote. Not bad for a first effort.), but he would be a good candidate for a position in a state legilature.
But the real problem is his insane 9 9 9 plan. Not workable. Not sellable. Dead on arrival. Maximum high risk if it was ever implemented. Hugely disruptive to every single sector of the eonomy. Designed with zero public sector knowledge or experience. Possibly unconstitutional. Hopelessly naive (Congress will gleefully implement a national sales tax. Harry Reid is orgasming over the thought right now). Easily capable of destroying the country. Calling it a fantasy is paying it a compliment.
People like yourself are the conservative version of Obamabots.
There is no question about whether or not the 9-9-9 plan is constitutional. The Constitution clearly empowers Congress to lay and collect indirect taxes and income taxes. Two of the three taxes in 9-9-9 are income taxes and the sales tax is an indirect tax, ergo, all are Constitutional. I agree with you about the danger with respect to having a sales tax and an income tax, which is why I’d much prefer the Fair Tax, but you’re not advocating for the Fair Tax; you’re advocating for the convoluted mess that is the status quo.
I’m advocating for common sense.
Huge changes, even ones that are well-conceived, to the biggest economy in the world are dangerous.
The problems with the tax code are probably about 10th on the list of things that are dragging this country down. The big problem, as even Cain might acknowledge, is government SPENDING.
I want a conservative, not a radical. Cain’s plan is wildly radical. We already know what works, because it has been done before. Lower corporate taxes to make American businesses more competitive, stop the fruitcake regulatory regime, give the private sector some assuranes that they can plan for the future without being jerked around, and exploit the greatest energy reserves in the world. Making a radical tax plan the centerpiece of your plan is dumb and a losing proposition even if it wasn’t dumb.
When Reagan made tax reform the centerpiece of his plan, the top tax rates were 70%. At that time, tax reform made sense, but notice that he didn’t propose a wildly disruptive plan that would absolutely impact every single sector of the economy in unknown ways…nor did he propose a THREE STEP approach that would maximize uncertainty for a decade.
Cain’s plan is absolutely looney. And from the scant criticism it has received, it’s clear that the country hasn’t learned much from 3 years of Obama. If a black guy proposes something, no matter how crazy it is, it’s time for the three blind mice.
I wish Huckebee was running, but since he’s not, I’d throw my vote to Newt. So far, he’s the closest to my ideal as a president. Cain comes next. I’ve done a lot of research on Newt and I find nothing so bad as to dismiss his great ability to run our country. ANS, he HAS experience.
Newt is knowledgeable and I would LOVE to see him wipe the floor with Obama in a debate.
I don’t get what the thing with Newt is — how many people have gotten a divorce and wasn’t his famous “divorced her while she was in the hospital” 20 years ago. Besides, like religion, we don’t know the personal behind-the-scenes stuff. It seems like a shallow reason to exclude someone, especially someone as smart as Newt, from being President. Heck, wasn’t Washington sleeping around?
I’d vote for a Newt and Cain ticket, whichever one is in the
forefront. Newt for all the knowledge and experience he has
and Cain for his fresh approach and past “fixit” work he’s done.
There isn’t a combination of Dems in this country who could get
within striking distance of the two.
Cain is naive. This is no good.
What time> Which network?
Pre-debate coverage at 6, debate at 7, post debate at 10 (and those are Central times, cuz I’m in TX).
And it’s on Bloomberg.
Thank you Stephanie.
Cain likable? I sure as crap don’t like him at all!! I’ll never vote for him because he’s a lying race-baiter.
It ticks me off that people were sooo mad that Obama wasn’t vetted, yet are perfectly happy with Cain NOT being vetted. I also believe the office of the presidency is NOT an entry level position! Record is far more important than applause lines and rhetoric! If we are stuck with Romney or Cain, we can expect more of the same.
To all the Libs out there that keep on repeating the racism mantra when Herman Cain is mentioned: I’m 71 years old. Lived through 13 Presidents. The idea of a black man being successful at ANYTHING was unimportant to me and to most whites that I knew for the two thirds of my life and I was OK with it. I know what racism means I saw it first hand in the military and in life, maybe I was one .. Probably was. So here we are with a black man as president and he double stinks on toast but yet we are seriously considering another. And guess what? I’m one of those who is thinking about it and one who thinks that Herman Cain is exactly what we need. You bet I will send money and my vote. Regarding experience and qualifications … Read his bio, then look at 80% of our past presidents. The man is over qualified.
Viewing Mr. Cain’s 9-9-9plan and his math, it’s beautiful. Guess what, it LIMITS government spending to mere $1.7 trillion, instead of the “wanted” $2.2 trillion. Fantastic.
So, right from the get go Cantor’s “cut-cap-balance” formula has a “cap” component already in place with 9-9-9. Slight of hand? NO! Beautiful.
Next, after Mr. Cain wins election, and the Tea Party is able to muster massive voting for both House and Senate, comes a re-worked Contract for America, two other components of Mr. Cantor’s planned “cut-cap-balance, namely cut and balance. Sweet. For the First time since 1994, We The People will have government doing We The People’s bidding.
This has ruffled feathers of We The Elite People in Washinton DC to no end. They will try everything to derail both Tea Party AND Mr. Cain. Watch their machinations.
Vote massively this 2012 because massive fraud is definitely going to rear its ugly head. God Bless America. Cain Can.
I find it interesting to see how quick people are to do the lemming jump on a candidates bandwagon. It takes very little effort to research some of these establishment RINO’s and see what they have supported or what their track record has been.
Between Romney, Perry, Cain and Newt we have RINO’s who established, supported and/or worked for: GOV run healthcare, benefits to illegal aliens, the K.C. Federal Reserve, Cap and Trade, not to mention Gun Control measures and engaging in Crony Capitalism.
That hardly defines them as true conservatives in my book, much less constitutional conservatives. It speaks more towards the opposite, big GOV intervention, flip-flopping and bad judgement.
People will say the other GOP candidates can’t win. Well, the same was said about Reagan. If we don’t elect a real constitutional conservative…well you all know what happens.
If Romney wins the ticket, we will have two candidates who are descended from polygamy in the not-so-distant past.
Obama is a spoiled product of affirmative action and has such a thin written record for a grown man that one must conclude it is a plot to destroy America. So far, he is doing well for his Saudi overlords; Strangling energy development.
In contrast, Cain has a very impressive resumé, proven organizational skills and leadership qualities without ever exploiting his race: he pre-dates affirmative action. I would venture he has 50+ points in I.Q. over Obama.
He would never make the foreign policy mistakes Obama has, such as supporting the communist Zelaya in Honduras or making apologies for America around the world. He also understands the dangers of Islam as a Way Of Life, not a religion. He stands in opposition to building mosques for that reason.
I have set up a monthly contribution to him. I hope other PJM readers will too.
True, Cain at first light does seem to be a non-establishment guy with an impressive resume along with his past accomplishments and education indicate he is a very accomplished and smart guy.
My sense with him, is similar to all the Goldman Sachs guys who made it in to run/ruin the U.S. Treasury.
Is there any issue with the fact that he was the Director of the private Kansas City Federal Reserve for a number of years (supporting Greenspan & artificial bubbles)? I don’t think this is something favorable when checking resumes for a true constitutional conservative. Look at the privately run Federal Reserve and Greenspan, Bernanke and Cain.
I pick none of the above.
He has my vote and in my opinion has the the best credentials of the entire bunch. when you consider working for the navy, coca cola pillsbury, turned around two organizations, was a president of the kansas city fed and president of an organization that is the second largest employer in the u.s. I also know one of his advisors well who is a follower of Art Laffer who was Reagan’s first economic advisor. i will take that resume over any of the other politicians. poly = many tics = bloodsuckers. he is a man of principle. I see alot of Reagan in him!
Saying we would do better as a country if we didn’t allow or sharply limited immigration from Muslim countries is acceptable. What is unacceptable is pretending that prohibiting the construction of a mosque on American soil is not a blatant violation of First Amendment.