This is Herman Cain!

by Herman Cain

  Number two, stay involved and encourage your friends and neighbors, if they’ll listen, to stay involved. Now you can’t make people get involved, but whenever you hear the statement, I don’t have time to pay any attention to that stuff, you say well, one day you gonna wake up, to paraphrase former president Ronald Reagan, you’re gonna wake up one day and you’re gonna be telling your grandchildren what freedom used to be like, because this is an, an environment. We’re already telling them that. This is an environment where we can’t sit back. Do you know, it used to be where we could elect people, send them to Washington, and they were statesmen and stateswomen, and they would do what was best for the nation and best for their constituency. That doesn’t exist anymore. This is why they have to hear from us frequently, loudly, and forcefully in between elections. That’s the different dynamic that we’re having to deal with. And that’s why we have pushed these things to the back burner. We gotta stay involved. And so when you have an opportunity to talk with or influence some of your family members. My, my son, he’s thirty-two. My daughter’s thirty-eight and I finally got them to pay attention. You know how I got their attention? I said now Dad is not a kajillionaire, but Mom and Dad are gonna be comfortable in our old age and if I don’t spend it all, the government is trying to take your inheritance. It’s amazing how that got their attention. They woke up the next day as conservatives and didn’t know it. I said welcome to the American dream. Welcome. So stay involved and encourage others to get involved. And, as I tell folk, get off the sofa and get off your anchovies because America’s under attack, but we can save it.

  Number three, stay informed. Stay informed. Because if you don’t stay informed and if you don’t know your facts and if you don’t know your history, you can be tempted to drink the liberal Kool-Aid without knowing it and there’s a lot of liberal Kool-Aid out there. And in order to stay informed, you have to be aware of what I call the liberal tactics that they use all the time consistently, no matter which liberal is talking. And if you, if you recognize their tactics you will be able to counter their tactics with good information, good facts and reasonable logic. But sometimes some of these reporters that I see on TV, they are blindsided so quick they don’t know how to react. You have to stay better informed because if you look in the liberal playbook, you will find their three primary tactics. They commit what I call liberal SIN, capital S, capital I, capital N. They commit their liberal SIN and watch this whenever you see a liberal being interviewed on TV. They call the radio show all the time, and sometimes when I know that it’s one of my regular liberals, I will warn the audience. I’ll say, now, we’re gonna take Thomas but you all know what to look for. He’s going to SIN.

  S—whatever the topic, he’s going to shift the subject. They do it every time. I was talking to a liberal one night on my radio show. I’d said did you know that President Obama has allowed the national debt to increase over $3 trillion in one year versus George Bush allowing it to grow $4 trillion in eight years. Almost as much in one year as eight years under the Bush administration. So the liberal says, well George Bush got us into this war. I didn’t ask you about the war. We’re not talking about the war. We’re talking about runaway, tsunami spending. But they like to shift the subject. Watch that. Listen for it. And then if you’re in dialogue with them, then you can get them back on track. So they SIN. They shift the subject. They do it all the time.

  Second, I—they ignore the facts. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in that famous movie, liberals can’t handle the facts. They hate the facts. When President Obama started trying to sell health care deform, he continued to use the number 46 million people are without health insurance. Now fortunately, some radio talk show hosts, some news, cable news outlets, and a lady by the name of Sally Pikes of the Pacific Research Institute and others took a look at the data and unraveled that 46 million and found that it was not 46 million people who were going without health insurance because they couldn’t afford it. Some of those people made enough money to buy it but they chose not to and some of those people that were counted in that number were residents of the United States of America but they were not citizens. And do we owe health insurance to every other person in the world? So when you start to peel back the numbers, it’s not 46 million. And then in the president’s address to Joint Members of Congress on just health care, he started using the number over 30 million. The real number’s about 10 million. He still has a few others in there. And here’s one other thing about health care deform that I want to make sure that I state in case somebody else didn’t state it. We do not have a health care crisis in America. We have a health care cost crisis in America, and that proposal is not the way to fix it. I get the liberals who will call up and say, “Well what do you have against all Americans getting health care?” I said I have nothing against all Americans having health care. There is a right way and a wrong way, and unfortunately your party, your leaders, are trying to shove it down our throats, and we the people are saying not this time. You’re not gonna shove it down our throats. So this is why we have to know our facts. Know the logic. Know the facts.

  There are three things we need to do to bring down the cost of health care in America. This is not a health care seminar, but I gotta take advantage of this opportunity. So when, so when you are in dialogue with a reasonable liberal you can point out to them—I know, there aren’t many of them, but you might get lucky and run across one on the bus or something. Three things would dramatically change the health care cost equation dynamics in this country. Number one, tort reform. Number two, level the playing field in terms of who you, who gets a deduction if you buy health insurance. Right now the employer gets a deduction but the employee doesn’t get a deduction—and if you level the playing field such that it doesn’t matter who pays for it, you get a tax deduction for your health insurance. Now let me just say parenthetically, we need to eliminate the stupid tax code. While we got it, we may as well do the right thing by the people. So that’s number two. And then number three, allow insurance to be sold across state lines. If you do those three things, if you do those three things and if government gets out of the way, we won’t have a health care cost problem. It’s common sense. It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense. So know your facts, know your logic, stay informed. That’s all we have to do in order to be the founding, the defending fathers.

  The N, S-I-N—when they can’t shift the subject on you, when they can’t ignore the facts, they name call. You right-wing nutcases. You Tea Party—let me see if I can’t remember some of them now. Nancy said we were Astroturf. Harry Reid said we were unpatriotic. Janeane Garofalo said that we were rednecked teabaggers. And some of the other Democratic leaders in Congress called us crazy. Well, it reminded me of my grandfather when we used to spend time on the farm during the summer. And when we did something to upset my grandfather, we thought he went crazy. And Grandpa’s favorite phrase when he was coming after us, when we’d be saying, “But, Pa, you, you’re going crazy.” He would say, “I’m gonna show you some crazy.” And that’s one of our messages to the leaders in Congress. Yes we are crazy, we’re crazy about the Declaration. We are crazy about the Constitution. And we are crazy about the greatest country in the world—and we want to keep it that way. Yes, we’re crazy. We’re crazy. Oh, yeah. We’re crazy. Yeah, next time they say you all are a bunch of crazies say, “Thank you. Thank you.” Yeah, we’re crazy. We’re crazy about this country. We’re crazy about our children and our grandchildren. And so that’s what we have to do as defending fathers. That’s my message to you today. Stay connected, stay involved. Stay connected, stay involved and stay informed. And that way you can combat the liberal SIN.

  And with the Winter Olympics going on, it reminded me of the closing song, the words to the closing song of the 2000 Olympics, that reminds each of us as defending fathers of our responsibility. The words to the closing song of the 2000 Olympics said, “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there�
�s so much on the line. But you can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do. The power of one begins with believing that you hold the key to all of your achieving. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do. The power of one begins with believing that you hold the key to all of your achieving.” We have a message for the president, his administration, Harry and Nancy, and the liberals. We, the people, are still in charge of this country.

  APPENDIX E

  May 21, 2011, Speech

  This is the speech that I delivered on May 21, 2011, at Centennial Olympic Park, in Atlanta, Georgia, when I announced my candidacy for the Republican Party’s nomination for president of the United States:

  Thank you. Love you. Love you. Love y’all. Aw, shucky-ducky, as the man would say. I’ve got to tell you, let me. Thank you. I see some Antioch (church) people back there, a few of them back there, yelling. I understand that my aunt Bessie is here. Oh, there she is. Now do you know why it is so momentous that my aunt Bessie is here? She hasn’t decided if she can vote for me yet. But I’m going to change her mind today. That’s right; we are going to change the minds of a lot of folk in America.

  I want to thank all of you again from the absolute bottom of my heart for your being here because there were some skeptics, you know, who didn’t think anybody would show up for an announcement from me. And the last time I heard, there were fifteen thousand of you all right here.

  Thank you. Thank you. You know it has been this kind of encouragement that has gotten me to this point. And it is this kind of encouragement that I believe is going to take us where we are trying to get to.

  You know, many of you know that I grew up right here in Atlanta, Georgia. Right here in Atlanta, Georgia. I stand in the shadows of my upbringing. I stand here today as the son of a chauffeur and a domestic worker who taught me and my brother three of the most important values we could have ever learned: belief in God, belief in what we could do for ourselves, and belief in this exceptional nation called the United States of America.

  Believe in it. You know that the people who are struggling the most are the ones that don’t believe in this nation. They don’t believe in the values of this nation. My parents never uttered the word “victim” because they never felt like victims, having an opportunity to be in this nation despite its challenges.

  So I stand here today as Luther and Lenora’s oldest son, in my hometown. I stand here today in this hour, in the shadow of the Olympic flame, which represents not only the determination of those that go to the Olympics every four years with their own determination, but it also signifies the great spirit of this great country, the spirit of America. That’s what it signifies.

  And it is this spirit of America and the determination of America and the determination of its people that we are going to take our country back. We’re going to take it back. This day, this hour, the spirit of America and the spirit of the Olympics here in this park. When people participate in the Olympics every four years, they don’t go to the Olympics to come in second. They go to the Olympics to win.

  And you see, just like the spirit of the Olympics, number two is not in America’s DNA. We don’t do number two. Right here, this day, this hour, this moment. Right here, this day, this hour, this moment I have looked inside myself and at this moment, this day amongst thousands and thousands of my friends, and with my family here with me, and associates that I have known throughout the years.

  This day, this hour, this moment, I came here to declare my candidacy for the Republican nomination for president of the United States of America. This moment. This moment.

  And just to be clear, in case you accidentally listened to a skeptic or Doubting Thomas out there, just to be clear, let me say it again: I’m running for president of the United States. And I’m not running for second. I’m not running for second; I’m running for number one.

  Now let me tell you, because I’ve had reporters ask me sometimes: “Well, are you just running to get attention? And maybe come in second? Or maybe to get a cabinet position?”

  I say, “You don’t know very much about me. You don’t run for second. I don’t run for second. I’m running to be number one.”

  Now let me tell you some of the reasons I’m running for president of the United States. One of the biggest reasons is that we have become a nation of crisis. We have a moral crisis, we’ve got an economic crisis, we’ve got an entitlement spending crisis, we’ve got an immigration crisis, we’ve got a foggy foreign affairs crisis, and we’ve got a deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House.

  There is a big difference between leadership and position-ship. A big difference between leadership and position-ship. Let’s look at the facts relative to all of these crises. We have anemic economic growth. In the first quarter of this year our GDP only grew by 1.8 percent. That is anemic, especially when China is growing 10 percent compound. And if we don’t increase our growth rate, they are going to be as big as we are in five years if you take out the differences in exchange rate.

  If we allow China to become as economically powerful as we are, you know they are going to try to develop a military might as big as ours. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to allow America to be number two in the economy, number two militarily on our watch. Not on our watch.

  We are a nation of crises. Look at the facts, don’t listen to the rhetoric. A 9 percent unemployment rate, with nearly 15 million people out of work. Forty-seven million people on food stamps, that’s 14 million more than there were when the current occupant of the White House took over. Four dollars a gallon of gas and it’s not over yet. One trillion dollars in spending to stimulate the economy and it didn’t stimulate diddly.

  All of that and now to have a $14 trillion national debt and the debate in Washington, D.C., is going on about: Do we raise the debt ceiling again? Let me tell you what the Cain Doctrine will be. We ain’t raising the debt ceiling. We’re going to cut the spending. It’s called reduce. So look at the facts. Don’t just listen to the rhetoric. Look at the facts. The stuff is not working. It’s not working. So, the only thing that I can conclude is: It’s time to get real, folks. It’s time to get real.

  Hope and change ain’t working. Hope and change is not a solution. Hope and change is not a job. Hope and change is not a new business. Hope and change is not a vision. We need a new vision in this country and that means we need a new person leading this nation in the White House. It ain’t working.

  Now I want to ask you a few questions. Is America ready for real results? Is America ready for common sense solutions? Is America ready to rekindle the spirit of America? And is America ready for a real leader, not a reader? Do you want a leader? Or do you want a reader?

  I know it took some people a little time to connect the dots on that last statement, but they finally got it. Since you answered yes to those questions, let me describe our new vision. I don’t call it my vision. My job as the leader is to define it, key it up, share it with you. It becomes our vision. Because you know what? I can’t do this by myself. This will be our vision. Not a political vision, not the agenda of one person, but it has to be the agenda of the people of this country. I call it our vision.

  In order for us to be able to achieve and make a reality out of our vision, we’re going to need some new plans, set some new priorities, and certainly get some new people around the president, this new president, that are better than the ones we got to turn the vision.

  Our new vision is real economic growth, not anemic growth, and in order to do it, we’ve got to lower tax rates for corporations and individuals. We’ve got to work on taxes for repatriated properties. We’ve got to take the capital gains tax to zero. We’ve got to give the workers of America a real payroll tax holiday and then put a bow around the first three and make the tax rates permanent. That would lead to economic growth.

  Our vision includes a real energy independence plan. A real one. Not one th
at someone just reads off a teleprompter. One of the things that is so frustrating about it is that we have the resources to become energy independent, we simply need to pull the resources together in order to make it happen.

  You know that I will never go to a foreign country, like Brazil, loan them money, and then tell them we are going to be their best customer—for their oil. Let me share with you another one of the Cain Doctrines. America is going to be its own best customer—for its own oil. Drill here! Drill now! Right here in the U.S.A. We will be our own best customer.

  And as president of the United States, I want to make sure that we are our own best customer when it comes to our energy needs and our energy resources. It’s not that we don’t have the resources, we’ve just got too much bureaucracy that keeps getting in the way.

  Our new vision means immigration through the front door and not through the back door or the side door. This nation was built on immigrants. Legal immigrants. And if we attack the right problem, actually we have four problems rather than one. We’ve got to secure the border, we’ve got to enforce the laws that are already in place, we’ve got to promote the path to citizenship that is in place. Why don’t you ask the millions of people who have come here legally? They’ll tell you about the path. And then the fourth thing that we have to do in order to deal with the nation’s illegals that are already here is to realize that the federal government is not going to solve the problem. In our new vision we will empower the states to solve the problem of those who are here illegally. That’s how we take care of that problem.