Career*
The Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, MN, vice president/corporate systems and services, 1977-82; Burger King Corporation, Philadelphia, PA, regional vice president, 1982-86; Godfather’s Pizza Inc., Omaha, NE, president, 1986-88, president/CEO, 1988–.

Conservative credentials or liberal RINO?

Back in the 90′s when Cain ran for the U. S. Senate, he was quoted by several groups at spofga.org** where we see the following things:

Herman Cain. He has served as the CEO of Godfather Pizza. He also has been endorsed by Georgia Right to Life. Herman Cain has identified himself with conservative causes. As a speaker, he articulates conservative values very well. Herman Cain has also made the cause of civil rights a major issue. Herman Cain favors Federal Government intervention in the work place on the behalf of blacks and minorities. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herman Cain issued a glowing statement commemorating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, read it on his web site www.cainforussenate.org.

Government intervention in the workplace for blacks and minorities is proving to be unfair and problematic to businesses today, and is being used mainly by liberals to enhance their voting base.  This could explain why Cain tries to avoid showing his true colors on social issues so far.

From the same article referencing Cain’s lack of conservative creds in the late 90′s** we see this troubling statement:

“He wasn’t in favor of doing away with affirmative-action programs that treat one class of people special and discriminate against another class of people, so what WOULD happen if a bill was introduced in Congress on that issue? Hmmmmmm..”

Mr. Cain wanted  to run against GWB in 1999, and when his own run against Bush fizzled, Cain endorsed Steve Forbes, who was (and, likely, still is) known to be quite moderate on the abortion issue and continued his anti-Bush campaign, saying that by electing Bush, Republicans will have “shortchanged ourselves as a party.” (Source: Conservative News Service, July 1, 1999) Statements like these could show Cain to be kind of a renegade against the old guard GOP of today, which could enhance his Teaparty creds, but at what expense would this come to towards his GOP creds in looking for any RNC support? For a person who has been very politically active and worked in various positions with such GOP heavyweights as Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole, Mr. Cain has never won an election in his life. He failed in a 2004 Senate run back in Georgia in his only real campaign.  When people try to separate the fiscal conservative issues from the social issues, as Cain does, they are basically in denial of the fact that social issues can have a  dramatic effect on fiscal issues. For example, welfare will cost us over $10 trillion dollars under Obama’s tenure. ***   That is the cost of producing a nanny state, directly the result of Liberals and GOP Rino’s irresponsibility. No wonder Mr. Cain avoids discussing the social issues today.

Mr. Cain has an interesting, seemingly libertarian, anti-governmental view on energy with this recent statement:  ” We have a path to energy independence in this country and it just baffles me as to why the leadership of either party in Congress or the White House doesn’t pursue it,” said Cain. “We simply need to remove the regulatory barriers and stop overreacting to the concerns of the environmentalists.”  That could also qualify as a decent conservative view, if it was further explained as to exactly how we would completely remove the government from our energy sector.

Mr. Cain presents a confusing collage of ideologies, part Libertarian, part liberal, part Conservative. While his views on energy independence and government regulation shade him towards the Libertarian and Conservative platforms, his thoughts on government intrusion in matters of social justice put him firmly at odds with both Libertarians and Conservatives. Perhaps these are some of the reasons Mr. Cain has yet to win any election he’s run in. Mr. Cain is a very natural speaker, who uses a decent platform of delivering the coveted smaller government message to the grassroots movement of the Teaparty. His lack of political experience seems to be considered both a plus by the Teaparty and a huge negative by the longtime GOP operatives that think they know how to win elections. Take note that the GOP failed miserably against a Jr. Senator from the far left with zero credibility in any area of politics or business, one  Barack Hussein Obama.

Mr. Cain would certainly make  some great media clips if he follows through with a Presidential primary campaign in 2012, and you can sure bet that many of the establishment, big name, big spending Rinos in the GOP  do not want to square off against Cain in any Primary debates.In the end, I look for Cain to drop out early, after accepting a deal to support another candidate for *further considerations or appointments*. Using my own formula of common sense, plus political research, conservative rating system, I give Mr. Cain a 46% rating.

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On The Web
Official Herman Cain Campaign Website
Herman Cain on Twitter
Herman Cain on Facebook
Herman Cain on YouTube

Updates
April 4th, 2011
Exclusive Newsmax interview with Herman Cain  here:
Mr. Cain has moved up in some recent polls for the 2012 elections, and here we can see why, as he articulates why America needs a ” proven problem solver ” instead of just another GOP career politician to lead America.

*Update*
Cain has officially announced his candidacy : Herman Cain Announces Presidential Run in Atlanta

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Sources:

* Answers.com
** Spofga.org
*** Heritage.org