Herman Cain speaks at a Tea Party Tax Day rally this April outside the Statehouse in Concord, N.H. The former Atlanta talk show host and businessman is testing a possible presidential run.
NPR has been profiling some of the Republicans who are considering a presidential run in 2012, to find out what first sparked their interest in politics. Read more of those profiles.
In 1994, President Clinton was crisscrossing the country to sell his health care reform plan. Among the skeptics were small businesses.
Cain, then-president of the National Restaurant Association, poses during an interview in Chicago in 1998.
Cain, then-president of the National Restaurant Association, poses during an interview in Chicago in 1998.
Herman Cain was living in Omaha, Neb., then, and was the CEO of Godfather's Pizza. At a town hall meeting, he stepped forward to question the president.
"If I'm forced to do this [pay for health insurance for employees not currently covered]," he asked Clinton, "what will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate?"
During the exchange, President Clinton asked Cain why he couldn't raise the price of pizza by a small amount to cover the cost ? but Cain didn't back down.
"What if all your competitors were just like you?" the president asked. "Wouldn't you be able to do it then?"
"First of all, Mr. President," Cain said, "with all due respect, your calculation on what the impact will do quite honestly is incorrect."
Cain told Clinton that he could raise prices, but the bigger companies could absorb more of the new cost ? and that would ultimately drive him out of business.
"Larger competitors have more staying power before they go bankrupt than a smaller competitor," he said.
I'll never forget Ted Koppel that night: 'The pizza man from Omaha stumped the president last night over his health care bill.' This was surreal.
As he recalls the moment, Cain is clearly proud. "I almost didn't go to that town hall meeting that day, but I think it was meant to be," he says. "The next day, I was on every TV morning news show. I'll never forget Ted Koppel that night: 'The pizza man from Omaha stumped the president last night over his health care bill.' This was surreal."
'A Professional Problem Solver'
Cain became a hero to conservatives who said he helped derail the Clinton health care plan.
"What that incident did ? it caused people to read the fine print and not take the word of the president just because he was the president, in terms of what it was going to do to businesses," he says.
In 2004, the African-American businessman stepped into his first political campaign ? challenging Johnny Isakson for a U.S. Senate seat back in his home state of Georgia. He ran several TV ads, including one aimed at the federal budget debate that was going on back then.
"I'm not a professional politician," Cain says in the ad. "I'm a professional problem solver, and I believe we should cut the salaries of senators and congressmen 10 percent until they balance the budget. I call that conservative common sense."
Cain, Johnny Isakson (left) and Mac Collins (reflected in the mirror on the wall) wait before the start of a debate in Atlanta in 2004. The three were running for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Zell Miller.
Cain, Johnny Isakson (left) and Mac Collins (reflected in the mirror on the wall) wait before the start of a debate in Atlanta in 2004. The three were running for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Zell Miller.
Cain didn't come close to winning the Senate race, and he says it's an asset that's he's not a political insider.
'Stupid People Are Ruining America'
Now 65 years old, he has been CEO of the National Restaurant Association, an AM radio talk show host, and has written a number of books.
In his campaign and business office in Stockbridge, Ga. ? in the studio where he hosted his radio program ? an American flag is tacked up on one wall and a picture of Abraham Lincoln on another.
A Tea Party favorite, Cain has been spending a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire. Also known as the Herminator, low poll numbers don't faze him.
"It's all about engaging the American people in the dialogue about solutions, not engaging the American people in just discourse, no," he says. "Here's an approach to this problem that I'm gonna propose to the United States Congress, and I want the American people to understand it and support it. Because I happen to believe if they understand it, they will demand it."
He talks about the country's economic crisis, immigration crisis, energy crisis and what he calls a deficiency of leadership in the White House. At this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Cain said voters have a responsibility to stay informed.
"Stupid people are ruining America," he said to applause and cheers.
In Des Moines last month, Cain told the crowd he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2006 and given only a 30 percent chance of survival. But he said he beat the disease.
"You want to know why?" he asked. "God said, 'Not yet, Herman.' God said, 'Not yet ? I got something else for you to do, and it might be to become president of the United States of America."
Cain knows he's considered a long shot. But back in 2008, he says, President Obama was a little-known senator from Illinois who came out of nowhere to win the Democratic Party's nomination. His business colleagues say if conservative voters get a chance to know Herman Cain, they'll like him.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/135768988/herman-cain-a-political-outsider-and-proud-of-it?ft=1&f=1001
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