Saturday, October 8, 2011

On Herman Cain...

Back in March, I posted a blog post entitled "What I dislike."
At the time, I did not include Herman Cain in my thoughts. I knew he was running for President (in fact, his Presidential Exploratory Committee was formed in January!), but he was not registering very high in the polls. Well, recently, he has shot up in the polls, and is considered to be a "top-tier candidate." As such, I have now deemed him worthy of his own post.
First, a bit about Herman Cain. He has a decent resume and record of accomplishment. He has a bachelor's in mathematics, and a master's in computer science. In the 1970's he worked as a civilian ballistics analyst for the Department of the Navy, developing fire control systems for ships and fighter planes. He then left the DoN to work for Coca-Cola, and then Pillsbury. Under Pillsbury, he worked for Burger King and Godfather's Pizza. As President and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, he cut costs by going from 911 stores to 420 stores, in just over a year. Later, Cain and a group of investors bought Godfather's Pizza from Pillsbury. In 1996, Cain resigned as CEO of Godfather's, and became the CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
From 1992 to 1996, Herman Cain worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, including being the Chairman of the board of directors.
He resigned his position at the Fed to become more involved in national politics in 1996.
In 1993/1994, as the President-elect of the National Restaurant Association, he publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan.
In 1996, Herman Cain became a senior economic adviser to the Dole/Kemp presidential campaign.
In 2000, Herman Cain ran for President of the United States. He ended up dropping out and endorsing Steve Forbes over front-runner George W. Bush.
In 2004, Cain lost another race, this for the Senate seat vacated by Zell Miller.

Here are my problems with Herman Cain:
1. In 2008, Cain endorsed Mitt Romney for President.
2. Herman Cain has said he doesn't believe we need to audit the Federal Reserve, much less end it.
3. Cain's supporters like to tout the idea that he "isn't a politician, but a businessman." However, he has been involved in politics nearly two decades. This is his second run for the Presidency. He is a politician, just not a successful one.
4. Herman Cain doesn't seem to have a good grasp on the Constitution, as this article shows.
5. He has yet to clarify his positions on foreign policy, saying he won't know what to do until he is elected.
6. His 9-9-9 plan sounds good, and may, in fact, be better than the current system. However, it would be levying a national sales tax on the American taxpayer, on top of a national income tax. I am okay with they idea of a sales tax, but only one that replaces the income tax. I would prefer a 0-0 tax plan. 0% income tax, 0% sales tax. But I realize that is idealistic. Economists say that the 9-9-9 plan "would cause largest deficits since WWII, while increasing taxes for most Americans."
7. I don't know what he stands for. Like Mitt Romney, he seems to "adjust" his political positions for political expediency. He was for affirmative action, now he is against it. He was against Auditing the Fed, now he is for it. He was opposed to the Federal Government targeting US citizens for assassination without trial, now he is for it.
8. Herman Cain doesn't understand what caused the economic mess we are in. He claimed there was no housing bubble, and supported the TARP bailouts.

Another issue is race. Some conservatives seem to be under the impression that in an election between Barack Obama and Herman Cain, Cain would take a large chunk of the black vote from the President, thus securing a win for the GOP. However polling shows that to not be the case. In fact, Bachmann, Romney, Pawlenty, and Palin all secured a larger percentage of the black vote in a hypothetical matchup with President Obama than Herman Cain received. Some voters think that black voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama because he is black. In reality, black voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama because he is a Democrat. President Obama captured a similar amount of the black voter as John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton before him.

In conclusion, there are a lot of issues with a Herman Cain nomination. If you like his business background, Mitt Romney has a similar, and more successful one. If you like his support of the FairTax, I suggest you look toward Gary Johnson, Michele Bachmann, or Ron Paul, each of who support the FairTax at least as much as Herman Cain does. If you like the fact that he loses elections, I suggest you look toward Rick Santorum, who lost reelection to the Senate in 2006 by 18 percentage points, the largest margin against an incumbent senator since 1980.