Presidential hopeful and pizza executive Herman Cain says he ”won’t be a flavor of the week” and his sudden climb to the top of GOP presidential polls will last.
Recent polls show Cain joining Mitt Romney for the top GOP tier, along with Gov. Rick Perry. Cain said Sunday that his signature 9-9-9 tax plan would lower taxes for most Americans, but conceded some middle-class-Americans might pay more. The plan would scrap the current federal tax code and replace it with 9 percent rates for personal income and corporate taxes and add a 9 percent national sales tax.
Many independent analysts say Cain’s plan would lower taxes on the rich and raise them for many middle class Americans, but the Georgia businessman disputed those doubts on NBC’s ”Meet the Press.”
In a debate Tuesday night in Las Vegas, Cain said he was sticking to his 9-9-9 tax reform, which he says will generate more than we take in for taxes now. But, rivals say Cain is still not counting the state income taxes that people, especially low income working people, will still pay.
The debate got heated between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, was the mature voice of reason, and felt he gained in the polls. Rep. Michelle Bachman denounce the Cain tax plan and continued to push the moms and women causes.
Other candidates who participated in the Western GOP Presidential Debate were Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. CNN hosted the debate and Anderson Cooper served as facilitator. There were also questions from the floor.
The 65-year-old businessman Cain, the son of a chauffeur and a maid, clearly has struck a chord with a part of the Republican electorate craving a fresh face not tied to the party establishment. This is the first presidential contest since the rise of the tea party movement which advocates small government and deep spending cuts. Cain is in many ways the natural culmination of the grass-roots movement: a political outsider, espousing an anti-tax platform.
The former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza has never held elected office, having lost a 2004 Republican primary
for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. In other years, such a sparse political resume might be disqualifying, but Cain, who calls himself the ”Herminator,” brandishes the outsider status like a badge of honor.
Cain’s rise in the polls has been fueled by his catchy ”9-9-9” tax overhaul plan which he’s made the centerpiece of his campaign. In a year of anti-government fervor, Cain is casting himself as the anti-politician Main Street candidate who would bring common-sense business know-how to the bureaucratic thicket of Washington. The former conservative radio show host is brash and straight-talking, saying that ”stupid people are ruining America.” He mimics liberals with a high-pitched whiny voice.
”Well, he doesn’t have foreign policy experience,” he said to laughs at a rally last Friday, Oct. 14, in Jackson, Tennessee. ”And the guy we have in there now does?”
In Tuesday’s debate Romney defended the 2008-2009 Wall Street bailout that irks the tea party and declared that he could work with ”good” Democrats. He also gave one of his most spirited defenses of his health care initiative when he was Massachusetts governor, legislation that President Barack Obama has called a partial blueprint for his own national overhaul that most Republicans loathe.
Generally, Republicans say that Romney has more experience and a better chance to beat Obama next fall than anyone else in the field. But those on the party’s right flank doubt whether he _ more so than other candidates _ shares their values.
Cain has not followed the traditional strategy of a serious White House contender, but then he is not the traditional presidential candidate. With his campaign suddenly in the spotlight, he chose not to focus on appearances in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire but embarked on a two-week book tour to promote ”This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House.” The optimistically titled rags-to-riches political memoir has landed among Amazon.com’s top 10 best-sellers.
He acknowledged that he likely can’t raise as much money as Perry or Romney but said his recent surge has convinced him that ”message is more powerful than money” and that he can get the financial and public support to stay in the race.
Cain has had his share of stumbles. He had to apologize to Muslim leaders for vitriolic remarks in which he said communities have a right to ban mosques because Muslims are trying to inject sharia law into the U.S. and that he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration.