In spotlight, Herman Cain survives Attacks

politico.com ^ | 10/12/11 | Staff

[BarnacleCenturion]

Herman Cain woke up Tuesday to another day of soaring polling numbers, showing him moving into second place behind Mitt Romney and pushing Rick Perry out of the spotlight.

The day ended with the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO under attack from his rivals, both on stage and in a series of post-debate press releases meant to tear him down.

But from his new center-stage spot next to Mitt Romney, Cain calmly weathered every jab from them, the moderators and even the Democrats, walking out from the Dartmouth auditorium having done little to hurt his standing.

[Neverforget01]

Having kids of my own, I feel your pain. I will not vote for Romney...he is no different from Obama. Just look at MA.

That being said, I'm in NJ and my vote doesn't matter anyway.

[MrB]

Cain needs to “stay out of the weeds” on this tax plan.
Just keep stating he’s for significant tax reform that takes power from Washington and puts it in the hands of the people.

[org.whodat]

No fool, he said that he grew up a tenant farmer. As I understand it, his family owned a cotton plantation that had been in the family for years. That is what people in the south call “landed gentry”. Not a tenant farmer. Poor old dirt farmers did not get to go to aggie land in those days.

[1010RD]

Cain’s not selling 9-9-9. It’s DOA and will never pass either House. What he is selling is the Big Idea - radical tax reform.

He’s brilliantly projecting to the markets and the people who matter - the producers - that they can expect a president who will pull the shackles off them.

[Mozilla]

Reid won because of a good ground game in Nevada and Angel pissing off the right people who ran off to the polls to defeat her. There isn’t a prayers chance for Obama. But if the nominee of Romney or Perry then the conservatives will be split and it will help him.

[magritte]

Lol ! You been cruising HuffPo again!

[dubyagee]

How about a link to a comparable plan by one of the other candidates (Romney not included—I will not vote for a pub in name only) — one that simplifies the tax code and eventually abolishes the IRS. Seriously. I will take a look.

[Grey Eagle]

I agree with you. People are making a mistake to count Perry out. These so called debates by liberals are designed to favor Romney. I will not vote for him. I hate Cain’s 999 plan. Actually I doubt many voters watched last night since that channel is not readily available. It was very telling to listen to the reports outside discussing “income redistribution”.

[angcat]

Excellent only get rid of the DOE. Coulter as PS is so good!

[RockyMtnMan]

Have you actually read the details of the Fair Tax and all the studies behind it? You don't think the Laffer Curve will play a role in setting the rate based on sound market principles? You don't foresee large corporations bringing back ALL of their foreign revenue when they realize they don't have to pay taxes on it?

It's very one dimensional to talk about only the rate and not consider the overall economic impact. Rate and revenue are two different things and one does not necessarily drive the other which is why lower rates drive higher tax revenues.

[globelamp]

“He’s not done for, but it took 3 debates to destroy Perry, and it will probably take 3 to destroy Cain.”

Perry wasn´t “destroyed”, he shot himself in the foot. Repeatedly. In the end, he just couldn´t stem the blood loss.

In comparison, pushing an overly radical tax plan in the primaries is a small problem, it´s something you can flip-flop out of with some “adjustments”.

Regardless of how this turns out, we´re lucky to have Cain in it so it doesn´t turn into a Romney promenade.

[TexasFreeper2009]

lol

wow seriously you need to get your head examined, if you think Perry didn’t grow up poor on a farm in west Texas. And A&M is a STATE school with extremely low tuition.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Cain’s even worse. 9-9-9 will be DOA—before it ever reaches Congress. The general electorate will resoundingly reject it. He’s wedded himself to it, it’s what his campaign is all about, and it’s a stone cold loser.

IMHO that would only strengthen Cain's hand because he would then start cutting and would actually have the guts to follow through on it. think about how many times GOP pols have promised to abolish turkeys like NPR and the Dept. of Education, only to end up increasing their funding.

I also believe the 9-9-9 plan would be tied to a repeal of the 16th amendment just like the Fair Tax. And with all of the others poking fun at his plan I didn't hear anyone coming up with an alternative.

[Smokin' Joe]

You cannot win elections when you are telling the 50% of the population who pay zero taxes after filing all their deductions under the current tax code that they have to pay a mandatory 9% taxes on their income with zero deductions and an additional 9% national sales tax on every item they purchase including the basic items such as food and clothing.

I think a significant number of those folks vote Democrat, anyway. Not all, but a lot.

[org.whodat]

His father, was a life long demorat, and was a county commissioner. LOL poor people do not have a thousand +++ acre deer hunting lease.

[jgge]

True many are democrats but also many are Republicans and many are independents. Also among those who pay taxes and may pay slightly less under Cain plan many are democrat voters and they are not going to vote for Cain no matter what. The 999 tax plan is a political disaster.

[sushiman]

Cain / Greenspan 2012 ! : )

[Savage Beast]

Cain has weathered it all! That's part of the beauty of the man!

Any man who has survived poverty, cancer, racial discrimination, the corporate world, and everything else will certainly not be daunted by a bunch of milquetoast Republicans!

The Democrats are another matter. They will stop at NOTHING! This situation is very dangerous. They are brutal. They are violent. There is no limit to the depths to which they will sink. And most dangerous of all: they abhor truth, and Cain is armed with it.

Cain is a man of enormous strength, depth, intelligence, resourcefulness--he is brilliant!--but the Democrats, their henchpersons, their Propaganda Machine (the MSM) will literally do ANYTHING to stop Herman Cain and the truth he represents!

He's going to need all the help he can get! And then some!

But if anybody can prevail over American Decadence and those who are drowning in it, it's Herman Cain.

[Savage Beast]

"Cain/Gingrich would be awesome"

And not just awesome! Downright peachy!

That's my first choice too!

The Double Peach Ticket!

[TomGuy]

I gotta give Santorum credit. He was the only one I saw who really went after nein-nein-nein.

When Santorum asked the audience to react to those two questions about 999, and got dead silence, that was devastating to 999.

SANTORUM: Well, I already put forward a plan.

You know, Mitt, I don’t want to go to a trade war, I want to beat China. I want to go to war with China and make America the most attractive place in the world to do business. And we need to do that with the agenda that I outlined, which, unlike Herman’s plan, which could not pass, because no — how many people here are for a sales tax in New Hampshire? Raise your hand.

There you go, Herman. That’s how many votes you’ll get in New Hampshire.

We’re not going to give the federal government, Nancy Pelosi, a new pipeline, a 9 percent sales tax for consumers to get hammered by the federal government.

How many people believe that we’ll keep the income tax at 9 percent? Anybody?

There. That’s why people won’t trust giving people –