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Cain for Senate: A winner for the GOP
National Review (NRO) ^ | May 28, 2003 | Deroy Murdock

Posted on 05/29/2003 1:50:46 PM PDT by JohnnyZ

he GOP has an excellent opportunity to elevate to national prominence a charismatic leader of the free enterprise system. His election in November 2004 would Republicanize a now-Democratic U.S. Senate seat. He also could sell GOP principles to black Americans, in part because he is black himself.

If bringing black conservatism to the world's greatest deliberative body sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Atlanta businessman Herman Cain, 57, hopes to succeed retiring Senator Zell Miller (D., Ga.). Cain has launched an exploratory committee and website and asked key GOP, conservative and libertarian activists for their support. Cain's campaign should excite Americans seeking a powerful new voice for free-market ideas.

And what a voice Cain offers! Hardly higher than that of James Earl Jones, Cain's bass baritone rolls with the rhythms of a southern sermon. Indeed, Cain is an associate minister at Atlanta's Antioch Baptist Church North where he occasionally preaches on the hereafter.

In the here and now, Cain's communications and problem-solving skills won him the chairmanship of the 600-restaurant Godfather's Pizza chain. He also is a director of the Hallmark, Reader's Digest, and Whirlpool companies.

I have seen Cain address three large audiences: an issues forum that publisher Steve Forbes organized during the 1996 GOP Convention in San Diego, a 1999 Manhattan banquet launching Forbes's 2000 presidential bid (which I served as a communications consultant), and a March 2002 Cato Institute seminar in Washington, D.C. on blacks and Social Security. Cain consistently speaks with remarkable energy, conviction, and authority.

"I am better prepared than ever before to help protect life, restore lost liberties and encourage the pursuit of happiness by all," Cain says.

"Take a look at the tax code," he tells me. "There was a law passed years ago that allows the government to take money out of your paycheck before you get your money. What would Thomas Jefferson say about that? You have lost the liberty to receive all of your wages before you pay taxes. You, by law, must contribute to Social Security, and you don't own your contributions. I don't call that liberty. The fact that the life expectancy of an African-American male is now 68 years of age, and the life expectancy of a white male is 75 years of age, says to me that there is not much liberty in African Americans subsidizing the Social Security system."

Cain repeatedly says: "Replace the tax code." He would scrap today's federal income, corporate, payroll and death taxes and instead implement a 23-percent consumption tax. Americans could control their tax exposure by adjusting their spending. Monthly Treasury checks that Cain calls "pre-bates" would "untax" the sales levies on basic necessities. He forecasts that Americans would save $250 billion annually in transcended tax-compliance costs.

Cain believes that America "is being held back by the current tax code. Replacing it with a consumption tax would unleash the full potential of our economy."

On Social Security, Cain favors "gradually moving toward a system of personal retirement accounts. People currently on Social Security would not be affected. Those close to retirement would have the option of not being affected. You could set up a system where people eventually would be able to own the money they are paying into Social Security."

While Cain still is crafting healthcare proposals, he generally argues that individuals should be empowered to purchase their own medical insurance with funds their employers now spend.

Cain's Republican primary opponents are fellow black businessman Al Bartell and congressmen Mac Collins and Johnny Isakson. While Atlantan Phil Kent — president of Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative, public interest law firm — admires these contenders' business backgrounds, he predicts that Cain "will give liberals fits."

"It's just enchanting," says Steve Moore, president of Club for Growth, a pro-market PAC in Washington. "Herman has all the credentials. He fought for the sales tax. He's an entrepreneur. He was an adviser to the 2000 Steve Forbes campaign. His is an Horatio Alger story. The Democrats don't have any blacks in the Senate. We, as Republicans, could. A black, free-market senator from the South would be rich with irony."

"Blacks, liberals, and conservatives can identify with his background," says Cain booster Alex St. James, chairman of the African-American Republican Leadership Council in Washington. "His story resonates with Georgians of all backgrounds. They certainly can identify with where he comes from in achieving the American dream."

Herman Cain passionately believes in America because of his family's steady advancement here.

"My great, great grandparents were slaves," Cain says. "My great grandparents were sharecroppers. My grandparents were farmers. My father was a chauffeur. Most generations want to give the next generation a better start. That's what my parents tried to do for me," adds the Morehouse College graduate and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

"If we do not solve the tax code, Social Security and health care the proper way, we will not give future generations a better start and keep this the greatest country in the world. If you have to sum up why I am running for the United States Senate, that's it."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: deroymurdock; hermancain; taxreform
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Herman Cain for Senate!
1 posted on 05/29/2003 1:50:47 PM PDT by JohnnyZ
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To: PhilWill; onyx; LTCJ; dansangel; .45MAN
Pizza Man Ping
2 posted on 05/29/2003 1:51:41 PM PDT by JohnnyZ (I barbeque with Sweet Baby Ray's)
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To: JohnnyZ
Wow! Wish I lived in GA to vote for him!
3 posted on 05/29/2003 1:53:39 PM PDT by Buck W.
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To: JohnnyZ
I don't care what color Cain is. I like him. He sounds wonderful....
4 posted on 05/29/2003 2:01:59 PM PDT by eureka! (Rats and Presstitutes lie--they have to in order to survive.....)
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To: JohnnyZ
He sounds good...any ideas on his social views? Would those hard-core southern conservatives (of which I happen to be one) vote for him in the GOP primary over Collins?
5 posted on 05/29/2003 2:12:40 PM PDT by TheBigB (You can't make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.)
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To: JohnnyZ
What's the position on abortion?

Fixing social security won't be this easy. It relies on younger workers to pay for retired workers, so if people opt out the deficit will be even worse. In other words, we're in a deep hole that keeps getting deeper. FDR put us there.

Not that I don't approve of these views in general. But they may be difficult or impossible to implement.
6 posted on 05/29/2003 2:15:32 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: TheBigB; Cicero
Now is the time for me to be your United States Senator, because I am better prepared than ever before to help protect life, restore lost liberties, and encourage the pursuit of happiness by all.

http://www.cainforussenate.com/home.asp

He's pro-life, pro-gun. Tax issues have been his main focus, as befits the head of Americans For Fair Taxation, but he's socially conservative too.

7 posted on 05/29/2003 2:21:34 PM PDT by JohnnyZ (I barbeque with Sweet Baby Ray's)
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To: JohnnyZ
I'll write him a check the day he announces!
8 posted on 05/29/2003 2:24:27 PM PDT by Lightnin
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To: JohnnyZ
Cain for Senate!
9 posted on 05/29/2003 2:25:29 PM PDT by votelife (FREE MIGUEL ESTRADA!)
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To: JohnnyZ
I've been a fan of this guy for years.

Contribute here.

10 posted on 05/29/2003 2:27:08 PM PDT by M. Thatcher
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To: JohnnyZ
bump
11 posted on 05/29/2003 2:27:31 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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This guy sounds great.
12 posted on 05/29/2003 2:28:21 PM PDT by PianoMan (Liberate the Axis of Evil)
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To: JohnnyZ
Are the Democrats nomonating a suitable Abel, I wonder.

;^)
13 posted on 05/29/2003 2:29:34 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: headsonpikes
nominating, that is. :^0
14 posted on 05/29/2003 2:30:09 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: JohnnyZ; mhking
How sweet it would it be for the GOP to have a black in the Senate while a former KKK member is in the leadership of the "party of diversity".
15 posted on 05/29/2003 2:31:51 PM PDT by Sparta (Tagline removed by moderator)
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To: JohnnyZ
Thank You! I've never been this excited over a candidate for a US senate seat! Mr. Cain is going to attract a huge national following! Huge!
16 posted on 05/29/2003 2:34:22 PM PDT by onyx (Name an honest democrat? I can't either!)
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To: onyx
Huge! I sure hope he runs. He looks and sounds great. I found a site that opens with his voice. I'm excited about him.
17 posted on 05/29/2003 2:37:02 PM PDT by WVNan
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To: JohnnyZ
This guy sounds awesome!
18 posted on 05/29/2003 2:40:56 PM PDT by wjcsux
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To: onyx
Mr. Cain is going to attract a huge national following! Huge!

I know, seriesly!

19 posted on 05/29/2003 2:42:17 PM PDT by JohnnyZ (I barbeque with Sweet Baby Ray's)
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To: JohnnyZ
what do you think his chances are...actually a potential problem in the primary could be Collins and Cain would split the conservative vote, leaving Issakson the winner!
20 posted on 05/29/2003 2:43:57 PM PDT by votelife (FREE MIGUEL ESTRADA!)
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