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Herman Cain and his wife Gail
(by Aliyah Shahid, NYDailyNews.com) – Herman Cain has a theory on why black Americans reliably vote Democratic: They’ve been brainwashed.
“African-Americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view,” the Republican presidential candidate told CNN on Wednesday.
“I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative. So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open minded, pure and simple,” Cain added.
The latest remarks come on the heels of several other…comments the businessman has made about race this week.
He told Fox News on Tuesday that Americans are “over this first African-American president thing.” And in his upcoming memoir, obtained by U.S. News & World Report, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, claims President Obama supporters play the race card to cover up the commander in chief’s failures.
Still, Cain’s campaigning has been picking up steam since he won Florida’s straw poll over the weekend. And in a surprising Rasmussen poll released Wednesday, Cain trails Obama by just five points in a head-to-head match-up.
The most recent black Republican to run for President was Alan Keyes, a former diplomat who campaigned in 1996, 2000 and 2008.
Democratic candidates at the presidential level have traditionally won the majority of black votes. In 2004, John Kerry won 88% of the vote compared to George W. Bush’s 11%. In 2008, 95% of black voters went to the ballot for Barack Obama, compared to 4% for Sen. John McCain.
In the latest interview, Cain told CNN that he believes at least a third to half of black Americans are open-minded. “I meet them every day,” he said. “They stop me in the airport. And so this whole notion that all black Americans are necessarily going to stay and vote Democrat, vote for Obama, that’s simply not true. More and more black Americans are thinking for themselves. And that’s a good thing.”
[When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer then asked “…you think a third of African Americans will vote for you?” Mr. Cain responded “…They won’t be voting for me because I’m black. They’ll be voting for me because of my policies and because of what I’m offering to fix this economy, starting with my ‘999 Plan’. That’s what they’re responding to.”]Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from The New York Daily News. Visit the website at nydailynews.com.
Questions
1. Who is Herman Cain?
2. Why does Herman Cain think a large majority of black Americans always vote Democratic?
3. How do President Obama’s supporters cover up his failures, according to Mr. Cain in his new memoir?
4. Mr. Cain won the Republican straw poll in Florida this week. What was the outcome of a Rasmussen poll a few days later between Mr. Cain and President Obama?
5. For what reason does Mr. Cain think at least one-third of black Americans will vote for him?
6. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Mr. Cain “…you think a third of African Americans will vote for you?” Mr. Cain responded “…They won’t be voting for me because I’m black. They’ll be voting for me because of my policies and because of what I’m offering to fix this economy…That’s what they’re responding to.”
a) Do you think that African Americans who vote for Herman Cain will do so because they agree with his policies, or because he is black?
b) Why shouldn’t citizens vote for a candidate based on race or sex?
Background
HERMAN CAIN:
- Herman Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee, son of Luther Cain, Jr. and his wife Lenora Davis. His mother was a cleaning woman and his father was a chauffeur. He grew up in Georgia.
- Cain graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, and received a Master of Science degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1971, when he was also working full-time in ballistics for the U.S. Department of the Navy.
- He is the author of four books: Leadership is Common Sense (1997), Speak as a Leader (1999), CEO of SELF (October 2001), and They Think You’re Stupid (May 2005).
- After completing his master’s degree from Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for The Coca-Cola Company as a business analyst.
- In 1977, he joined Pillsbury, where he rose to the position of Vice President by the early 1980s. He left his executive post to work for Burger King, then a Pillsbury subsidiary at the time, where he managed 400 stores in the Philadelphia area.
- Under Cain’s leadership, his region went in three years from the least profitable for Burger King to the most profitable . This prompted Pillsbury to appoint him President and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather’s Pizza.
- Aiming to cut costs, Cain over a 14-month period reduced the company from 911 stores down to 420. As a result of his efforts, Godfather’s Pizza finally became profitable.
- In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, Executive Vice-President and COO Ronald B. Gartlan and a group of investors bought Godfather’s from Pillsbury. Cain continued as CEO until 1996, when he was asked to resign by the board.
- Later that year Herman Cain became CEO of the National Restaurant Association – a trade group and lobby organization for the restaurant industry – where he had previously been chairman concurrently with his role at Godfather’s.
- Cain became a member of the board of directors to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992 and served as its chairman from January 1995 to August 1996, when he resigned to become active in national politics.
- Cain was on the board of directors of Aquila, Inc. from 1992 to 2008, and also served as a board member for Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader’s Digest, and AGCO, Inc. (from wikipedia)
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