Herman Cain's Nationwide Worker Intimidation Tour

“The problem,” former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain told a ballroom of about thirty people in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, “is we have a president who does not believe in a free marketplace. This is why his whole campaign is about class warfare. Playing the race card. Divisiveness. And as some of us know, deception.”

These are boilerplate attacks from Cain, but this was not a typical Tea Party rally. This was yet another stop on Cain’s “Job Creators Truth Tour 2012,” the fifth this week and one of thirty that will happen before the election. The audience was “job creators” from the Philadelphia area—small-business owners who were there to learn how to influence their employees vote in November.

Herman Cain Affair Allegations Prompt Republicans To Call For His Exit

WASHINGTON -- Herman Cain's rise in the Republican primary polls several months ago was always viewed warily by the GOP establishment. Many believed the longtime businessman was more engaged in his book tour than his presidential bid. And so while the crowds on the campaign trail may have liked what they heard, at some point, the thinking went, the fad would fade.

At this point, it can't fade quickly enough. On Monday, Ginger White, a longtime friend of Cain's, told an Atlanta-based Fox affiliate that they had engaged in a consensual, 13-year-long extramarital affair. Jumping in front of the story, Cain denied the allegation in an interview with CNN before the Fox report aired. But as White becomes the third woman to level accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior at Cain, some inside the GOP tent -- worried about the side effects the "circus" is having on the party at large -- are no longer willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Cain is irrelevant, and the quicker he gets out of the race the better it will be," said Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist. "My fear is that he marches to the beat of his own drum and he may try to drag it on and deny and deny and deny. And my sense is that will likely be the pattern here. But there is no way he can be the nominee of our party. The quicker he gets out, the better for him and for us."

Herman Cain Uses Cartoon to Explain 9-9-9

Herman Cain, the once-surging but now-sagging GOP presidential candidate, is trying to get back on message with a new animated video explaining his proposed tax policy. The new video is smoking-free, though it does include some cartoon images of an "overgrown monster" (representing our current tax code, of course) and an undersized propeller plane flown by Obama. These images and several others are employed, like we said, to keep Cain on the message of his 9-9-9 tax code following his dip in the polls -- Real Clear Politics currently puts him in third place. But when that message got torn apart weeks ago for its comical resemblance to SimCity and its more serious effect the lower classes, it may be hard to peddle. The video, which doesn't feature Cain's image or voice once, still has a narrator touting the merits of 9-9-9: its transparency, its ability to stimulate business.

Meanwhile, Cain reassures the AP today that he's still a strong candidate and has "nothing but optimism" for his campaign. He explains that his drop to third in the poll (following accusation against him of sexual harassment, which he doesn't mention by name) instead of sixth or seventh is a good sign. Despite the decidedly better production value of this video compared to the much-mocked smoking spot, maybe a cartoon isn't the best way to go about asserting your legitimacy.

Origin
Source: the Atlantic Wire  

Herman Cain's Implausible 2012 Election Run: From Pizza Magnate To GOP Candidate

TALLADEGA, Ala. — He's a mathematician, a minister, a former radio talk show host and pizza magnate. But most of all, Herman Cain is a salesman.

And how he sells.

"The sleeping giant called `we the people' has awakened," Cain thunders, pacing the stage in his trademark dark suit, brown fedora and "lucky" gold tie, delivering a rollicking, 45-minute performance that evokes an old-fashioned church revival, complete with cries of "Amen" from his audience.

Whether it's selling his book or his presidential aspirations, this is Cain at his best, grinning and joking and wooing a crowd, soaking in the adulation as he vows to lead the cheering masses to a promised land of "less regulation, less legislation and less taxation."

That's simplistic, of course. But so is Cain's message, and he makes no apologies for it.

"They want to confuse you with comp-lex-city," booms the self-styled "Hermanator," accentuating every syllable. "I want to lead you with sim-pli-city."

In the end, he takes no questions, sweeping off to his next stop to the tune of "Rock You Like a Hurricane." His smile disarms everyone whose hand he shakes along the way.

"Is he for real?" asks 75-year-old Jean Waggoner, a longtime Republican activist from Montgomery.

Herman Cain Signs Susan B. Anthony List's 'Pro-life Presidential Leadership Pledge'

WASHINGTON -- The conservative Susan B. Anthony List sent out an email announcing that Herman Cain had become the latest presidential candidate to sign its 'Pro-life Presidential Leadership Pledge' on Tuesday.

The pledge commits candidates to supporting a strict anti-abortion rights platform, including choosing "pro-life appointees" to the courts and the executive branch.

Candidates also commit to trying to defund Planned Parenthood, advancing legislation to "permanently end all taxpayer funding of abortion in all domestic and international spending programs," and supporting a "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain from abortion."

"This decision is consistent with the Herman Cain we have come to know," said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. "He understands the wound abortion is to America and especially to the most vulnerable among us -- people that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger labeled 'human weeds.' We commend Mr. Cain for adding his name to the list of candidates who have signed the pledge, and should he be elected to the White House, look forward to his leadership in the mission to protect Life."

Four Signs Herman Cain Isn't Really Running for President

Herman Cain is running a pretty strong presidential campaign, depending on whom you ask. The press covers him intensely: In early November, Cain was the “dominant” newsmaker in a whopping 72 percent of all campaign news stories, (according to a Pew report). Cain’s rivals now see him as a threat, attacking him regularly. And Republican voters are following these cues, at least in theory, telling pollsters that they support him. But what about Herman Cain?

A review of his recent activities, commonly referred to as a presidential campaign, suggest four big reasons why he is not really running for president at all.

Herman Cain: God Convinced Me To Run For President

Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain says that God told him to run for president, National Journal reports.

"I prayed and prayed and prayed," Cain told about 100 members of the Georgia Young Republicans in Atlanta on Saturday. "I'm a man of faith, I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I'd ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. 'You've got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?'"

Cain isn't the only Republican candidate who says God convinced them to run, however.

In May, before officially announcing her candidacy, Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said that she felt a "calling" to seek the GOP nomination.

"I've had this calling and tugging on my heart that this is the right thing to do," Bachmann said.

In June, in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Bachmann reiterated her comments about God telling her to run for political office.

"Did God tell you He wanted you to run for the Minnesota State Senate, or something like that?" host Bob Schieffer asked.

"I prayed about that, as well," Bachmann said. "And that's really what that means. It means that I have a sense of assurance about the direction I think that God is speaking into my heart that I should go."

Origin
Source: Huff 

The Koch-Cain Connection: IRS Urged to Probe Ties Between Cain Campaign and Billionaire Koch Brothers

The campaign of Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain took another hit on Monday when a fourth woman emerged to accuse him of sexual harassment in the 1990s. But the allegations of sexual harassment are not the only controversies surrounding Cain. Also on Monday, the Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy filed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether one of his top aides has used tens of thousands of dollars from a tax-exempt nonprofit organization to fund Cain’s political activities. Citing leaked financial records, the Center says Cain’s campaign manager, Mark Block, used at least $40,000 from his group, Prosperity USA, to pay for Cain’s private jets, air travel and computers when he was exploring a presidential bid. Block founded Prosperity USA just last year. The leaked records cited in the complaint also suggest extensive financial ties between Block’s Prosperity USA, the Cain campaign, and the right-wing advocacy group founded by billionaire David Koch, Americans for Prosperity. Block stepped down from heading the Wisconsin arm of Americans for Prosperity to run Cain’s campaign. We speak with Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, about its request that the IRS investigate the group’s tax-exempt status, and other ways Block may have been funneling money to political campaigns.

Video
Source: Democracy Now! 

Herman Cain harassment story was good journalism

Herman Cain, unwilling to defend himself on the merits against the sexual harassment allegations against him, has taken to having his campaign pass out copies of the “journalistic code of ethics” to reporters who dare ask him questions about the matter.

Reporter-bashing is always a handy tactic, especially when you don’t have the facts on your side. Especially among Republican primary voters. So it’s no surprise that the GOP presidential candidate resorted to that cudgel during his debate with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “There are too many people in the media who are downright dishonest,” Cain said. “They do a disservice to the American people.”

Spare me the lectures about honesty from a man who denied that he was aware of a financial payment to settle the sexual harassment claims, then acknowledged it, then said he was distinguishing between a “settlement” and an “agreement.”

Herman Cain, Koch Brothers' 'Brother From Another Mother,' Defends Ties To Conservative Group

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain spoke at an Americans for Prosperity event Friday, and proudly claimed to be the "Koch brothers' brother from another mother."

"I'm proud to know the Koch brothers. I'm very proud to know the Koch brothers. They make it sound like that we have had time to go fishing together, hunting together, skiing together, golfing together," Cain told the audience. "Just so I can clarify this to the media, this may be a new announcement for the media: I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother. Yes. I am their brother from another mother, and proud of it. You see, the reason that I am running for president, folks, is because I want to unite the United States of America, not divide the United States of America."

Billionaire oil magnates Charles and David Koch are the founding benefactors of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that admitted having controversial financial ties to the Cain campaign earlier in the week.

The Associated Press reported last month that the Cain campaign's deep connection -- or brotherhood, as Cain appears to contend -- to the Koch brothers could undercut the image he has tried to foster as a Washington outsider and businessman who is not part of the politics machine that is so often disparaged by the conservative base.

From AP:

Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

Cain delivered his address as reports continue to flow concerning allegations of sexual harassment brought against him during his time as head of the National Restaurant Association. Three anonymous women have claimed that Cain engaged in inappropriate behavior while he served as their superior. Two of them reportedly received generous settlements in the wake of the allegations. He has denied the allegations.

Origin
Source: Huff 

Herman Cain Addresses Sexual Harassment Settlement

In an interview airing on Fox News on Monday night, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says that a financial settlement was paid to one of two women who accused him of sexual harassment while he was serving as head of the National Restaurant Association over a decade ago.

However, in responding to the accusations in question earlier in the day, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO said, "I have never sexually harassed anyone and those accusations are totally false ... It was concluded, after a thorough investigation, that it had no basis." He added, "I am unaware of any sort of settlement."

HuffPost's Jon Ward relays background on the controversy and on what Cain had to say on the matter at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.:

Cain entered the Press Club less than 24 hours after Politico reported that the former Godfather's Pizza CEO and head of the National Restaurant Association was accused of sexual harassment by two unnamed women at the association. The charges were not detailed but Politico reported that both women received payments as settlement. NBC News reported Monday that they had independently confirmed a settlement with one of the two women.
...
Cain was not asked how he could have been unaware of a settlement if he knew the results of an investigation into the charges. He said that once the charges were brought against him he recused himself from the investigation. And he added that he does not want the NRA to confirm or deny the settlements, or give any information at all about the incidents.

Herman Cain: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Should 'Go Home And Get A Job And A Life'

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain shot down the efforts of the Occupy Wall Street protesters Thursday, telling them to "go home and get a job and a life" while speaking to a crowd in Arkansas.

The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza made the comments in response to more than a dozen Occupy protesters who were gathered outside the event, according to the Tolbert Report. "Nobody knows what their cause is," Cain said before telling the activists to go home.

Cain also had harsh words for the left in general during the campaign stop, saying "the American dream has been hijacked" by liberals, "but we can take it back."

Herman Cain's Distrust Of Minimum Wage Goes Back To Restaurant Days

WASHINGTON -- Questioning America's minimum wage has somehow become a rite of passage in the Republican presidential primary.

Michele Bachmann has said she wouldn’t rule out lowering it. Ron Paul has predictably said it should be eliminated entirely. And Rick Perry, in his book "Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington", has rued the role the commerce clause played in "creating national minimum-wage laws" and "establishing national labor laws."

But when it comes to battling our $7.25-an-hour wage floor, these contenders have neither the vision nor the resume of current frontrunner Herman Cain.

In his plan for economic "Opportunity Zones," Cain offers a slate of proposals aimed at revitalizing depressed pockets of the country, including zero capital gains and payroll taxes within qualifying areas. Although it doesn’t say so explicitly, the Cain campaign's primer on opportunity zones also suggests the possibility of rolling back minimum-wage laws in impoverished areas.

"Minimum wage laws prevent many unskilled and inexperienced workers (i.e. teens) from getting their first job and prices them out of the market," the plan says, listing a number of potential "solutions" to urban poverty.

The Many Walkbacks of Herman Cain

The great thing about Herman Cain is that he's a straight-talker who shoots from the hip. What's wrong with America? Stupid people are ruining it. How to fix the economy? 9-9-9, my friend. What's wrong with politics and media? People need a sense of humor.

Right on.

But whenever one of his zesty hip-shots misses, Cain generally doubles back on himself and has to figure out, on the spot and with the cameras rolling, what it was he meant in the first place. "I think it has created an image of him as not being up to this task," Karl Rove said Monday on Fox News.

Herman Cain and the Kochs

The Associated Press broke an interesting story recently noting that Herman Cain, who has portrayed himself as an outsider to politics, has in fact worked closely since 2005 with Americans for Prosperity, a corporate front group organized and funded in large part by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, long-time financiers of America’s conservative movement. (I wrote about the Kochs for The New Yorker last year.) The historically publicity-shy Kochs have stepped out of the shadows recently, vowing that Americans for Prosperity will spend some $200 million in the 2012 Presidential campaign in hopes of defeating President Obama. In light of this, it seems fair to ask exactly how Cain fits into this larger project, and how dependent he is on the Kochs.

The AP story described a tangle of ties between Cain’s top campaign advisers and Americans for Prosperity. It also said that in 2005 and 2006 Cain himself travelled the country, speaking on behalf of the pro-corporate, anti-government group. But it stopped short of revealing any past or current financial ties between Cain and the Koch Brothers’ political organization.

Herman Cain Blames The Unemployed, GOP Debate Audience Cheers

Herman Cain recently criticized the Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying, "Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."

At Tuesday night's CNN debate, Cain stood by his comments -- to loud cheers from the audience.

"I still stand by my statement," he said.

"They might be frustrated with Wall Street and the bankers, but they're directing their anger at the wrong place," he added. "Wall Street didn't put in failed economic policies. Wall Street didn't spend a trillion dollars that didn't do any good. Wall Street isn't going around the country trying to sell another $450 billion. They ought to be over in front of the White House taking out their frustration."

In response, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) criticized Cain for blaming the people who have been hurt by the financial crisis through no fault of their own.

"I think Mr. Cain has blamed the victims," he said. "There's a lot of people that are victims of this business cycle. We can't blame the victims. But we also have to point -- I'd go to Washington as well as Wall Street, but I'd go over to the Federal Reserve. They create the financial bubbles."

Origin
Source: Huff 

Herman Cain Proposes Electrified Border Fence As Immigration Reform, Says He Was Joking

GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain came down hard on immigration Saturday on the campaign trail, telling crowds in Tennessee that part of his policy would be to build an electrified fence on the Mexican border that could potentially kill anyone trying to enter the country illegally.

He backed away from that proposal Sunday morning, however, saying he wasn't serious about the idea.

"That's a joke, David," he told NBC's David Gregory on "Meet The Press." "That's not a serious plan."

The New York Times relays Cain's description of the fence: "It's going to be 20 feet high. It’s going to have barbed wire on the top. It’s going to be electrified. And there’s going to be a sign on the other side saying, ‘It will kill you -- Warning.'"

Cain later added, "We want to make it easy for people to come through the front door. And we’re going to shut off the back door so you don't have to sneak into America." The presidential hopeful suggested also using armed military troops to help secure the border.

What 9-9-9 Would Cost the Middle Class

After putting up my previous post about Herman Cain’s tax plan, I did a bit more reading about it. Guess what? The plan turns out to be even more regressive than I had thought, and, moreover, it is a “9-9-9” plan in name only.

On the plus side, the plan is less of a deficit-buster than it first appears. But that’s because it would effectively tax workers at a rate of eighteen per cent, not nine, thereby raising a great deal more revenue. Adding in the sales tax makes the Cain tax proposal even more onerous. A more accurate description of it would be an “18-9” plan.

Once you think of the plan this way, it resolves a question that has been hovering over it since the beginning: How can Cain say he will raise enough money to support the federal government with a flat rate of nine per cent when most serious analyses suggest that it would take a flat rate of at least seventeen or eighteen per cent to do the job? The answer is that Cain’s plan is actually an eighteen-per-cent plan disguised as a nine-per-cent plan.

In a new study, some of whose conclusions I referred to earlier, Edward D. Kleinbard, a former staffer at the Joint Committee on Taxation, has laid out how the plan would work. Until I looked at the details of Kleinbard’s paper, I hadn’t grasped the key point, which is the nature of Cain’s nine-per-cent tax on business profits. Like many others, I had assumed that Cain would maintain the existing corporate income tax and simply slash the rate from its current level, which ranges from fifteen per cent for small businesses to thirty-five per cent for large corporations. But that isn’t at all what would happen.

Herman Cain: 'I'm Not Familiar With The Neoconservative Movement'

WASHINGTON -- GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain raised more questions about his knowledge of foreign policy on Sunday, saying he doesn't know anything about the "neoconservative movement," which dominated the eight years of the Bush administration.

On "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, host David Gregory asked Cain who has shaped his views on foreign policy.

"I've looked at the writings of people like Amb. John Bolton," replied Cain. "I've looked at the writings of Dr. Henry Kissinger -- KT McFarland, someone I respect."

Bolton was one of the most hawkish figures of the Bush administration, serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He repeatedly pushed for striking Iran, and in 1994, he famously said, "If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference."

Kisssinger served as Secretary of State and National Security Adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. McFarland is a national security analyst with Fox News who has served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations.

Pizza Magnate Herman Cain Has Extensive Ties To Powerful Koch Group

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

The once little-known businessman's political activities are getting fresh scrutiny these days since he soared to the top of some national polls.

His links to the Koch brothers could undercut his outsider, non-political image among people who detest politics as usual and candidates connected with the party machine.