Category: Herman Cain

DES MOINES, Iowa
Because of my late return from Monday’s event in Council Bluffs — I didn’t get back here until nearly 3 a.m. Tuesday morning — I decided to skip the road trip today, and only made one brief outing to the state capitol where I saw the Rick Perry supporters. So I missed the Herman Cain campaign’s Tuesday travels, but my former Washington Times colleague Susan Ferrechio, now with the Washington Examiner, caught up with the “Common Sense Solutions” bus tour:

Cain attracted a large crowd in Cedar Falls, with more than 100 people crowding into a hotel conference room to hear the former Godfather Pizza CEO talk about his plans to turn the economy around and create jobs by cutting taxes and reversing some of the policies put in place by the Democrats, including the health care reform law. . . .
These days, Cain is doubling his efforts here, campaigning non-stop across the Hawkeye State this week with three and four stops each day. . . .
“Some of the other folks may outspend me,” Cain pledged, “but they are not going to outwork me.”

Ferrechio’s story is mainly a harsh bummer, full of doom-and-gloom poll numbers purporting to show Cain’s Iowa support in the single digits. Meanwhile in Davenport, Ed Tibbetts of the Quad City Times reports:

Saying his rivals are trying to “stack the count,” Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain urged supporters in Davenport to “crank it up a notch” before the straw poll Saturday.
“Some of the other candidates, they’re going to be busing folk in, having them parachute in, anything they can do to try to stack the count,” Cain said in a speech outside the Masonic Temple in Davenport. “We’re more concerned about the intensity of our supporters. We want you to be there because you want to be there.”
The straw poll, a fundraiser for the state GOP, has long been seen as an organizational effort for presidential candidates, with campaigns, particularly those that are well-funded, paying for the tickets of supporters and busing them to Ames for the event.
Cain later told reporters he wasn’t suggesting the other candidates were doing anything illegitimate but that his approach is different.
“If they want to do it that way, that’s fine,” he said. “I prefer for my supporters to be there because they want to be there. And I happen to believe they’re going to turn out in big numbers.”

And in Cedar Rapids (not to be confused with Cedar Falls) there was a reunion of sorts:

Cain was introduced to a crowd of about 80 people by Keith Lacie and his son, Gunnar. Lacie began working for Godfather’s Pizza, the company Cain once owned, more than two decades ago. Lacie started sweeping the restaurant floors, and now, owns two Godfather’s Pizza stores in Cedar Rapids.
“I used to work for Herman Cain. Now, I want him to work for me,” Lacie said, endorsing Cain’s candidacy for president.

Wednesday the “Common Sense Solutions” tour continues across the north side of the state, with stops in Clear Lake, Rock Rapids and Okoboji. I’m still trying to catch up with Tim Pawlenty’s campaign, and he’ll have a rally in Ames at 7 p.m. Wednesday, so I’ll figure to go to that. During the day, I’ll probably drop by Iowa GOP headquarters and do some research leading up to Thursday’s Fox News debate.

Today’s most eye-catching Iowa headline is from Craig Robinson of TheIowaRepublican.com: “Perry’s South Carolina Announcement Is A Slap In the Face to Iowa Republicans.” Some readers have been upset by my use of “The Phantom Menace” to describe Perry’s campaign strategy, but as Robinson explains, many Iowans feel that the Texas governor has dissed them.