Why I support Newt Gingrich for president

by Herman Cain
January 29, 2012

In a sea of negativity and distractions in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, I decided to throw my support behind former Speaker Newt Gingrich because I can now see much clearer distinctions between President Obama and Newt than I do between Governor Mitt Romney and the president.

These distinctions are between Obama’s hodgepodge of foggy small ideas, which he talked about in his State of the Union address, and Speaker Gingrich’s clear and bold solutions for solving the crises we face as a nation. And yes, my bold 9-9-9 tax reform plan is a serious consideration for Speaker Gingrich, which is why I accepted his invitation to co-chair his Economic Growth and Tax Reform Advisory Council.

The polls do not agree with my assessment of Speaker Gingrich, and it appears that the so-called political establishment does not agree. But remember, I’m Mr. Unconventional, and the ability of the Republican nominee to highlight distinctions clearly in the general election campaign will be critical to achieving the ultimate mission of defeating President Obama.

My decision was not based on the political pundits’ attempted labeling of the candidates as conservative, most conservative,moderate, liberal Republican, not a true conservative, not a real conservative or any other of the concocted labels by which they try to pigeonhole candidates.

My decision to support Speaker Gingrich was also not influenced by all of the attacks and dirt dug up from Newt’s personal and political past, which all of the campaigns are guilty of doing – including Newt’s. As a reminder, Newt specifically tried to stay out of the negative attack mode but was forced into it after being bombarded with attacks in Iowa, and some early attacks in South Carolina, where he not only survived but won the primary.

The bombardment of attacks on Newt is being launched again in Florida. I believe he will survive as the clarity of his solutions rises above the rhetoric.

And now, some of the former Members of Congress who served with Newt when he was Speaker of the House are trashing Newt, even though many former members thought highly of his leadership as Speaker. Their trash and attempts to say Newt was not a “Reagan conservative” (here we go again with the labels) are certainly adding credence to the emerging perception that the so-called Republican establishment is pushing hard for Mitt Romney to be the nominee.

That’s because the establishment does not want bold changes in Washington, D.C.
The bottom line is that the voters will decide. That’s why the voters got my first endorsement as announced previously, because the people have to remain inspired or the establishment wins. Most of us just want the people to win, and win with a people’s president in November.

Here are nine of Speaker Gingrich’s positives:

• He successfully led the passage of nine out of ten provisions in the Contract with America when he was Speaker of the House.
• He was a key player in passing welfare reform in the 1990s, and got President Bill Clinton to sign the legislation.
• He left Congress and spent years studying and developing bold ideas and solutions to our problems, many of which he is using as a candidate. This hiatus as an elected official gave him time for his head to clear and identify how to fix a broken Washington, D.C.
• He will ruffle feathers in Washington in order to change Washington.
• He will be bold in boosting economic growth because he understands that less government is the key, not more government as Obama believes.
• He believes in removing regulatory barriers so this country can become energy-independent by maximizing all of our natural resources.
• He is an outstanding debater and his language connects with people.
• He fearlessly body-slammed the media in a recent debate, which showed strong conviction, character and leadership qualities.
• His motivation to be president is the same as our motivation for bold solutions in Washington, D.C. It’s not about us. It’s about the grandchildren.

Thomas Jefferson said, “When people have the right information, then they will make the right decisions.” It is way past time for the media and campaigns to focus on solutions so people can get the right information.

We must make the right decision in November 2012. 

What it Means to Endorse We the People

by Herman Cain
Monday January 23, 2012

I made my much publicized unconventional endorsement at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last week in Charleston, South Carolina. As predicted, the media did not like it, but the people loved it.

I endorsed “the People”. We the people!

The media did not like it because it did not fit their desire to have another quick hot scoop news story that would have about a hot minute-long news cycle. Just look at the endorsements of Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry. They were not stories very long and their impact on the endorsees was questionable.

A single presidential candidate is not going to save this country. “We the People” are going to save this country from its current path of collapse. Yes, collapse is a strong word, but if one honestly considers the facts, that’s the only conclusion one can make about the direction we are headed.

Facts: The national debt is out of control. The economy is not in a recovery. We have an energy crisis. Our space program no longer leads the world . The world is not safer. Our military has been weakened. Most people are not better off than they were three years ago when President Obama took office.

Big government liberals don’t consider the facts. They can’t even handle the facts because the facts do not validate their preconceived emotional motives and objectives. They don’t always know what those objectives are, such as the ill-purposed “Occupy Wall Street” protests. They just want to protest and distract attention in the media from the failures of this administration, and from the need for real solutions to problems.

Our nation is broke. Washington is broken.

It is clear that we are not going to change Washington from the inside. We will have to change it from the outside and from the bottom up. The people!

That means we will have to get specific commitments about specific solutions from candidates before they get elected. The heat must come from that candidate’s constituency, which is hereby endorsed and empowered to take the heat to them. Asking them to adopt the 9-9-9 tax reform plan would be a good start.

But regardless of who is elected, neither he nor the next Congress will take the steps that are necessary to turn this country around unless the people demand that he do so.

I was encouraged by some students at the College of Charleston during a rally with Stephen Colbert last week, when they shouted out “thanks for endorsing me”. Endorsing the people is a wake-up call to action.

Several reporters kept asking me during interviews what endorsing the people means. This shows just how insulated and out of touch with the people they are. The media class and the political class believe they are in charge.

Endorsing the people was a reminder that elected officials work for us, and that we are in charge if we assert our collective power. They forget that, so we have to remind them.

We the People are coming. We want our power back.

And Now, for My Unconventional Endorsement

Monday January 16, 2012
by Herman Cain

I have been hounded in media interviews to give them the scoop on which Republican presidential candidate I ‘m going to endorse. When I respond that it will be “unconventional,” they go nuts because they cannot conceive of what that means. That’s not the way they think.

So they try to guess what it means based on conventional political practice. You will be endorsing yourself getting back into the presidential race, they guess. Nope. You will be endorsing someone that’s not in the race, they suggest. Nope. You will be endorsing two of the remaining candidates instead of one. No again.

I was an unconventional Republican presidential primary candidate who ran an unconventional political campaign, and achieved unexpected results before I ended my quest for the position of president. Most of the people interviewing me did not get it. Namely, it wasn’t about the position as much as it is about the mission. I am still on a mission to help defeat President Obama, and to make the “9-9-9 Economic Growth and Jobs Plan” the law of the land.

An unconventional endorsement is part of a bigger message. It can also be two-dimensional, a specific candidate and a specific cause. We already know the specific cause. I’m still looking for the right candidate to “adopt” the 9-9-9 plan. If that does not happen, the cause will still be part of a bigger endorsement message, which is to make sure we defeat President Obama in 2012, and that we transfer power out of Washington and back to the people.

Besides, I’m not convinced that one-dimensional endorsements make that big a difference in the outcome of how people vote. They probably do to some extent, but in today’s political climate most of them are not game-changers.

I want to change how voters think about candidates, not in terms of their media-focused flyspecked negatives, but to think of them in terms of their positives and their relevant experiences. I also want to change how voters think about solutions to our national crises.

Namely, stop accepting the usual political rhetoric of “what’s wrong,” because most of us already know what’s wrong. We also know that there is more than enough blame to go around for how we got so screwed up as a country. I want voters to focus on how candidates are going to fix stuff

I want people to focus on real solutions and real leadership.

I know that’s unconventional political and media thinking, but the conventional thinking, the conventional approach, the conventional compromises, the conventional promises, the conventional rhetoric and the conventional endorsements are not going to save this great country.

We need a Solutions Revolution.

We can’t just think outside the box, as the saying goes. We must redesign the box and fill the box with what the people want, not what the political class and the media class want.

We want our power back.

That’s unconventional.

Join the 999 Revolution!

January 8, 2012
by Herman Cain

Our nation is plagued with crises. We have an economic crisis, a spending crisis, a big government crisis, an energy crisis, an immigration crisis, a foggy foreign policy crisis, an assault on the Constitution crisis and a moral crisis.

President Obama blames the Bush Administration, the Republicans in Congress, big business, rich people and even the American people by saying in essence that we have lost our optimism. That’s what happens, Mr. President, when we have a leadership crisis in the White House.

Sadly, polls consistently show that President Obama has about a 45 percent job approval rating. These 45 percent must be some of the most clueless people on Earth, or they have been living in a cave for the last three years. The other option is that they have drunk so much of the Obama Kool-Aid that they do not want to know the truth.

The truth is the people of these United States are fed up, just as the colonists were fed up with King George and his abusive treatment of the colonies. The colonists cited those specific abuses in the Declaration of Independence, and showed their defiance with the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

Ten years later (1783) we had the start of the American Revolution. We won!

It’s time for another revolution. This time it will not be bombs and bullets. It will be brains and ballots. In 1773, it was taxation without representation and other abuses. This time it’s too much taxation, regulation and legislation. Period!

A recent Gallup poll determined that nearly two-thirds of the American people say big government will be the biggest threat to the country.

We need another revolution!

Let’s start with the biggest domestic crisis we have – an economy on life support.

The best solution on the table is my 9-9-9 economic growth and jobs plan. All of the other proposals are just rearranging the deck chairs on the proverbial Titanic.

9-9-9 the Revolution is not a Republican, Democratic, conservative, liberal or libertarian movement. It is a “We the People” movement. It rises above the political rhetoric, candidate attacks and the president’s blame game.

This is a Solutions Revolution that you can find at www.cainconnections.com
The strategy is straightforward and simple. We will mobilize citizens by congressional districts to obtain commitments from candidates running for Congress before they get elected to co-sponsor or vote for the 9-9-9 legislation.

We will partner with like-minded organizations and use media, rallies, bus tours and speaking opportunities for yours truly and other strong voices to promote our mission of making 9-9-9 the new law of the land. We have all been abused by a broken tax code, a broken Washington and deceptive politicians for way too long.

Let’s transfer power back to the people. That’s the way this country was founded, and that’s what it will take to save this country. We must save it from the outside in order to bring about the right kind of changes inside Washington.

It will not be easy, just as it was not easy 235 years ago.

Remember, it’s not about us. It’s about our grandchildren.

I will not be guilty of doing nothing.

Join the Revolution!

New year, new grandchild . . . new commitment to 9-9-9

January 1, 2012
by Herman Cain

I am not making this up.

Our fourth grandchild arrived today! Mother, baby boy and dad are all doing fine.

This blessed arrival is another reminder that no matter how bad we may see things at times, the miracle of life is still God’s most precious gift to us, along with His Son Jesus Christ.

The birth of a new baby is also a reminder of why we do what we do. Some of us run for elective office, while some of us help those that make such a commitment. Some of us build businesses, and some of us work hard just to be good parents and grandparents.

The new year and new babies should remind us all of our collective responsibility to leave this nation in great shape so they can have great futures. Right now we are not doing such a good job with the lack of leadership in the White House and a dysfunctional Congress.

So even though I am no longer seeking the position of president of the United States, I continue to pursue the mission of returning power from Washington back to the people. It starts with replacing our dysfunctional and politically manipulated tax code. You guessed it: Let’s replace it with my 9-9-9 plan.

I continue to receive comments expressing disappointment that I had to end my candidacy, and people’s disgust with the negative and dirty side of politics. But then people also say to keep 9-9-9 alive so we can get it passed.

That’s why this week I will be announcing a national initiative to turn my 9-9-9 economic growth and jobs plan into a national movement by the people. We may not be able to dramatically change a broken Washington from the inside, so let’s change it from the outside.

The Tea Party Citizens movement has demonstrated that we can make this happen, and this new year and all the new babies have inspired me to take on this challenge. We owe it to our children and grandchildren.

The politicians and bureaucrats in Washington forget that they work for us. We will remind them.

A new year, a new grand baby and a renewed energy for 2012.

We will win a victory for the people.