Herman Cain - This Is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House

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Copyright 2011 by Herman Cain

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Threshold Editions Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Threshold Editions hardcover edition October 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cain, Herman.

This is Herman Cain! : my journey to the White House / Herman Cain.
p. cm.

1. Cain, Herman. 2. Cain, HermanPolitical and social views. 3. Presidential candidatesUnited StatesBiography. 4. BusinessmenUnited StatesBiography. 5. PresidentsUnited StatesElection2012.
I. Title.

E901.1.C35A3 2011
324.973dc23
[B] 2011033425

ISBN 978-1-4516-66137
ISBN 978-1-4516-6615-1 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to my mother and father,
Lenora and Luther;
to my wife, Gloria;
to my children, Melanie and Vincent;
and to my grandchildren, Celena, Preston, and Ryan.

ON MY JOURNEY NOW

On my journey now (Mount Zion),
On my journey now (Mount Zion),
Well I wouldnt take nothing (Mount Zion),
For my journey now (M-o-u-n-t Zion)

One day one day (Mount Zion),
I was walking along (Mount Zion),
And the elements opened (Mount Zion),
And love came down (M-o-u-n-t Zion)

You can talk about me (Mount Zion),
Just as much as you please (Mount Zion),
But Ill talk about you (Mount Zion)
When I get on my knees (M-o-u-n-t Zion)

Traditional Negro Spiritual,
as sung by the Morehouse College Glee Club (196367)

THIS IS HERMAN CAIN!

They that trust in the LORD shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abideth forever.

Psalm 125:1

M y name is Herman Cain.

I didnt grow up wanting to be president of the United States. I grew up po, which is even worse than being poor.

My American dream entailed working hard and making $20,000 a year, but I surpassed that goal and became a corporate CEO, a regional chairman of the Federal Reserve, a president of the Restaurant Association, an author, and an Atlanta talk show host before retiring at sixty-five on cruise control. And then I became a presidential aspirant.

But a strange thing happened on my way to cruise control: The country got off-track. On the evening of January 22, 1999, as I held my first grandchild, Celena, in my arms only moments after her birth, I realized that I needed to turn off the cruise control and help make this nation a better place. I needed to help make it a place in which Celena and the generations to come after her would be able to realize their full human potential and fulfill their own American dreams.

So at 12:46 P.M. on Saturday, May 21, 2011, I walked onto a platform at Centennial Olympic Park, in my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia, wearing one of my favorite gold tiesgold is my power colorand waved to the crowd of fifteen thousand and told them what they had been waiting to hear (for over two hours in more than ninety-degree heat): Im running for president of the United States and Im not running for second!

Looking out into the crowd and spotting my eighty-one-year-old aunt, Bessie Randall, one of my mothers sisters, I told the crowd, She hasnt decided if she can vote for me yet, but Im going to change her mind, just like Im going to change the minds of other Americans.

Twenty-five minutes later, having articulated my Cain Doctrine to the cheering, banner-waving crowd, without printed speech or teleprompter, because I dont do telepromptersI like to say Im a leader, not a readerI recalled the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and declared that when all the votes are counted on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, We will be free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! This nation will be free at lastagain!

Then I got off that platform and went back to the green room, where I joined Gloria, my wife of nearly forty-three years; our children, Melanie and Vincent; and our three grandkids (and we have another on the way). And there, of course, was Aunt Bessie. Strolling over to where she was, I couldnt resist asking, Well, Aunt Bessie, now are you going to vote for me?

I guess Im going to, she said, as if resigned to her fate.

It had been a mere sixteen days since I had redefined campaign history during the first debate of candidates for the Republican Partys 2012 presidential nomination, at the Peace Center, in Greenville, South Carolina, on the evening of Thursday, May 5, 2011.

Just before I went out on that stage that night, Mark Block, my campaigns chief operating officer, gave me some of the best, most calming, advice I have ever gotten: He said, Herman, you dont have to be perfect out there. Just be Herman Cain.

His words gave me a deeper level of confidence and I said to the audience, Im proud that I havent held public office before! How does that work for you?

It did.

Then, when asked to make my concluding statement, I declared: We need leadership, not more position-ship. God bless America!

When I walked off that stage, I didnt even consider if I had distinguished myself. I just thought: I didnt make any major mistakes. I just answered the questions as well as I could.

I went into the green room and looked up at the television monitor. There was pollster Frank Luntz, asking a focus group gleaned from the auditorium audience how many people had supported me before the debate. Only one person raised her hand. I thought: I guess this is not going to work. But then, Frank asked how many people supported me now, and suddenly I saw all these hands go up. And then I heard Frank say, Just stop right there! Those words are going to be ringing in my ears for the rest of my life.

I was as surprised as everybody else. That debate was the game changer and my candidacy took off like a rocket. We knew that my name identification and my inclusion in the polls was going to take some time, so we developed a from-the-ground-up strategy of getting out to know the people.

But what, everyone wondered, made the audience respond the way it did?

Maybe its that Ive always been a no-nonsense person. Maybe my straight-from-the-heart approach struck a resonant chord. But those participants in Frank Luntzs focus group voted me the debates winner, as did 49 percent of viewers on the Fox News Channel. The closest runner-up was Ron Pauland he only had 25 percent of the vote!

So how did I, the debate participant who mounted the platform as a relative political unknown, manage to capture the hearts and minds of thousands of American votersand manage to do it in ninety minutes?

How did I, a proud outsider, go on to outdistance four better-known presidential aspirantsTim Pawlenty, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorumin a Gallup Poll conducted between May 20 and 24, 2011?