Your morning jolt: Herman Cain and the power of ‘9-9-9′
The topic of the morning is the mnemonic device – that little trick of memory that allows us, or forces us, to associate a little thing with a larger thought.
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, derided as a pizza salesman with little political experience, may be demonstrating that he knows something more important than policy – at least as far as campaigns go. Cain is proving himself to be a master marketer.
Take a look at the video clip below from Channel 2 Action News. This is a catch-up piece – Cain makes no news. But after he and reporter Lori Geary are booted from the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta, a sidewalk interview turns up two passers-by who are able – 13 months before a general election – to connect a recently obscure candidate to his “9-9-9” policy:
The idea is easily understood: A 9 percent corporate tax rate, a 9 percent personal income tax rate, and a 9 percent national sales tax.
The implications of Cain’s pitch – selling a new, 9 percent sales tax in a general election? – haven’t been fleshed out. But for now, the Stockbridge resident has to be satisfied that voters are making the connection.
***
The previous GOP king of marketing today is re-launching his 1994 success – a new Contract With America. The Des Moines Register has been given an early copy.
Shannon McCaffery of the Associated Press’ Atlanta bureau previews the unveiling, and the former U.S. House speaker’s fortunes, with this stark lede:
A floundering presidential bid has fractured what was once a rock star Republican image. Not long ago, Newt Gingrich sat atop a lucrative political empire, the sought-after intellectual guru of the GOP.
Now, all but broke, he’s traveling coach. His vaunted political operation, American Solutions, has gone under. And he’s finding himself fighting for air time — if not respect — at Republican presidential primary debates.
Gingrich has become an asterisk in the race.
On Thursday, he will try to prove he’s still a player by rolling out a “21st Century Contract with America” — a campaign manifesto he hopes will evoke the glory days, when he stood at the helm of the Republican revolution in the 1990s as the GOP won the House and he won the speakership. Aides cast the new Contract with America as the start of a discussion with the American people about the direction the country is headed.
Is Gingrich still running for president? Or simply seeking to repair his brand, damaged by a campaign that imploded almost as soon as it began?
Maybe both.
Gingrich insists he has his eyes on the White House and argues that the campaign overcame a key obstacle simply by surviving the summer.
“Now we have to see if we can break out or not,” he said recently.
***
The seven-member Georgia Immigration Enforcement Review Board, charged with ensuring compliance with immigration-related state laws, meets for the first time at the Capitol today.
Thousands of people have signed petitions delivered to Nathan Deal urging the governor to rescind his appointment of Phil Kent to the board, calling his views on race and culture “extreme.”
Kent serves as national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control, which calls for deporting all illegal immigrants and opposes any amnesty or guest worker legislation.
Rascals in building claim tickets for the entertainment are going for as much as $150 per head. We counsel against paying more than $25.
***
State Democrats continued on Wednesday to press for a Senate ethics inquiry into an $80,000 settlement with an African-American secretary, allegedly for racial discrimination.
Walter Jones of Morris News Service was finally able to catch up with the two Republican senators who supervised the secretary, Ethel Blackmon, for three weeks during the special session. Barry Loudermilk of Cassville and William Ligon of Brunswick, both freshmen, say they know nothing about the matter:
“I have never discriminated against her or anyone else,” Ligon said. “The individual did work for my Senate office for a very short time, but she never raised these issues – or any other ones – to me.”
Loudermilk expressed his frustration in a telephone interview.
“I feel like I’ve been dragged down the street, and that’s all I know,” he said. “I don’t get a choice of my secretary. That’s above my pay grade.”
Loudermilk, by the way, is marketing a new book, called “And Then They Prayed,” – a collection of anecdotes from U.S. history. A description from the website:
Stories of these fascinating events which were once quite commonly known among Americans have, for the most part, been forgotten. Stories that were once prominent in our school textbooks, have been removed due to their references to God. As a result of this censorship, these inspiring and true events that shaped our nation have been nearly purged from our national remembrance.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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155 comments Add your comment
Progressive thoughts
September 29th, 2011
2:05 pm
Funny how people think a pizza salesman is more qualified than a community organizer. The community was the southside of Chicago. He was able to bring that community together which is what this country needs. People working together as one. Funny how people say Obama is ruining the economy. Wasn’t it bad when Bush was in office? After all Bush did sign the first stimulas and when he took office from Clinton we were in a surplus and when he left office we were in a deficit. If Obama is so bad then why is it so hard to find a candidate who all Republicans feel can beat him. Face it the Republican party has no direction, everyone is for self. Some want Christie, Some want Cain, Rommney is a mormon so the bible belt dosent want him, Paul this, Perry that. Your true colors are now obvious to the independent voters. To all Republicans would you vote for Regan today? Keep in mind how often he raised taxes and he also passed the immigration bill. Those who argue Cain is good for the private sector isnt that what got us in this mess? The private sectors on wall street. Banks were bailed out and sat on the money and you still depend on the private sector to do whats good for the common man. Obama is awful!!! Ok fine, where is your candidate that can beat him? It shouldn’t be that hard. Watch Fox news and you will see the lack of confidence in the candidates. Remember my fellow Republicans you need the independent votes to win. Which candidate offers something good for the country is the question. The rest of America is not in the south so your true thoughts about, Jews, gays, blacks, latinos and hispanics don’t appeal to those independent voters in the midwest, west coast and upper east coast. They vote based on politics not on race or class. GOOD LUCK MY SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS!!!!! The rest of America listens to your concerns and can see you are hiding your true feelings behind politics.
Ordinary American
September 29th, 2011
2:14 pm
Danny X – Explain how liberal thinking made those companies successful? World corporations, not American? Explain please. Creating thousands of new jobs, how many in this country?
Ordinary American
September 29th, 2011
2:26 pm
Progressive Thoughts- Appropriate name, progressive thoughts alright, Amazing! Have you met Independent voter?
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
2:33 pm
“Danny X – Explain how liberal thinking made those companies successful?”
All those liberal colleges with their liberal professors have been cranking out highly qualified individuals for years. All the liberal graduates are all working for their liberal new companies, with all their liberal benefits, and all there liberal policies. The silicone valley workforce is almost all blue. Facebook is building a huge new headquarters in high tax California, why not low tax Georgia?
Conservatives LOVE liberals. Music, technology, tv, movies, fashion are all dominated by liberals. Of course conservatives only see the liberals as poor, ignoring the liberal log in their eyes.
In the meantime…..Georgia welcomes KIA to Alabama!
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
2:34 pm
progressive thoughts I agree with you 100% the southern states are still the racist states and they would never vote for president obama. Georgia is the worst of all and look they so busy bashing Obama instead of getting georgia out of poverty.
UGA 1999
September 29th, 2011
2:36 pm
Danny….by far the most ignorant comment of the day. Congratulations.
UGA 1999
September 29th, 2011
2:37 pm
Independent….Georgia never lead in unemployment and poverty until the state became the “black mecca” of the U.S.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
2:42 pm
“Facebook is building a huge new headquarters in high tax California, why not low tax Georgia?”
Here’s your chance UGA 1999, what do you got?
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
2:43 pm
Wow..They think I went to public school in Georgia I am sure the republicans fell the poor children of Georgia out of there education. The republican are the party of name calling.
UGA 1999
September 29th, 2011
2:44 pm
DannyX……..NCR moved their headquarters to Gwinnett County…..your thoughts?
UGA 1999
September 29th, 2011
2:44 pm
DannyX….Primerica has their headquarters located in Georgia and they are moving their international headquarters to Duluth, Ga. Your thoughts?
UGA 1999
September 29th, 2011
2:46 pm
UGA 1999…..Coca Cola has their global headquarters in Atlanta…..thoughts?
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
2:51 pm
“NCR moved their headquarters to Gwinnett County”
LMAO!!! You had to go way back 5 years! Since then Georgia has slashed corporate taxes!
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
2:55 pm
I wonder why they move NCR headquarters to gwinnett county
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
2:57 pm
Independent Voter…. You are the problem with the United States. First of all, you are clearly either uneducated or just have poor grammar skills. Secondly, instead of trying to better yourself with education and hard work you choose to blame other people for your short comings. Are there racist people in the south? Yes there are still some racist people in the south… of all ethnicity’s. Those people are ignorant, much like yourself. Before you pull the race card on why Southerns will not vote for Obama, you may wanna check who they voted for before he got into office. I am pretty sure the South turned conservative long before Obama came into the picture.
Tea Party Hobbit
September 29th, 2011
3:07 pm
NCR…they consolidated their operations, and Georgia’s tax structure is less oppressive to business than it was in Dayton, Ohio. Also Georgia is a right-to-work state, which means NCR no longer has to worry about unions! Makes sense to me.
Jay
September 29th, 2011
3:09 pm
999 = 9 inch pizza with 9 toppings for 9 dollars
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
3:12 pm
Back when Democrats were in charge of Georgia giant, prestigious companies were re-locating to Metro-Atlanta all the time.
Stopped cold almost hasn’t it. What happened?
Tea Party Hobbit
September 29th, 2011
3:13 pm
DannyX, your last post made no sense. NCR’s consolidation was in 2009, that’s when they officially moved to Duluth. And lowering corporate taxes, as Deal wants to do, will help in luring companies here, although our rates are already among the lowest in the nation. So, despite not being quite as friendly as Florida or Tennessee in having no personal income tax (they make up for it with higher sales taxes), Georgia has focused on keeping the corporate rates low. Personally I’d like to throw out the personal income tax in lieu of a higher sales tax as well, but the legislature seems deadlocked on that issue at least for now.
Lib in Cobb
September 29th, 2011
3:15 pm
UGA: Your comment about GA being “a black mecca” is truly distasteful. There should be no wonder why so many feel the south is filled with those like you who still hold on to the old ideas of racial inequality. Shame on you.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
3:25 pm
DannyX, why is most of Hollyweird moving and filming more and more in Georgia and Lakewood?
can’t wait for this one.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
3:25 pm
Tea Party Hobbit, California has high taxes and has added 250,000 jobs since the peak of the Bush Depression.
In the meantime Metro Atlanta has lost more jobs than any other region in the country in the last year.
What on earth is going on in Georgia??? Exactly when do we see this “low tax” payoff?
Tea Party Hobbit
September 29th, 2011
3:29 pm
Lib in Cobb, not sure who originally coined the term “black mecca”, but it became a popular term for Atlanta from a 2002 issue of Ebony magazine. Unless there is something about that magazine that I’m not aware of, I can pretty safely say it wasn’t meant in a racist context.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
3:29 pm
“DannyX, why is most of Hollyweird moving and filming more and more in Georgia and Lakewood?”
It sure is showing up in the employment stats RAMBLE ON,
Hollyweird has gained 20,000 jobs the past year, Metro Atlanta has lost 31,000.
Progressice Thoughts
September 29th, 2011
3:30 pm
@UGA1999 Atlanta is the black mecca not the state of Georgia. There are more black millionaires living in metro Atlanta than anywhere in the world. Last time i checked the test scores and poverty is worse in north and south Georgia than it is in metro Atlanta. Metro Atlanta is the black mecca. North and South Georgia is mostly white. Georgiia along with all southen states have been a poverty state since the south lost the civil war. While the south was trying to preserve it’s heritage nothern states were progressing. Miami, and Atlanta or the most prgressive cities in the south. North Ga, South Ga, Miss, Alabama, Tenn are all still trying to preserve their southern ways. One guy in the town owns everything and he has everyone else thinking blacks and others are the reason the middle and lower class whites can’t get ahead. Poor and middle class whites protect and defend big companies who send jobs oversees while they get laid off and blame Obama. Take a stand against big companies not the government. If the government is not responsible for job creation then stop blaming Obama or any president and blame the private sector for laying off people while making record profits.
Tea Party Hobbit
September 29th, 2011
3:32 pm
DannyX, California is also nearly bankrupt. Georgia has their budget troubles too, but we’re not in danger of default from having added thousands of people to the government payroll (that’s what Cali did). Meanwhile, the economy has been rough on Atlanta in particular because of the construction sector. We were rapidly growing up until the recession, and of course that’s the first thing to go. A good chunk of those jobs are either directly or indirectly related to the construction industry. Unfortunately, I don’t see that picking up again for a while either, unless Georgia tries something more revolutionary with its tax code.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
3:33 pm
“Tea Party Hobbit, California has high taxes and has added 250,000 jobs since the peak of the Bush Depression. ”
Oh sure, and Cal. and Ga. are equal in population and cost of living too. Isn’t that right DannyX?
250K new jobs huh, how many lost DannyX?
Sounds like DannyX is making a very credible case that Texas is being run better than anyone.
Never would have known DannyX is that huge of a Perry fan.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
3:37 pm
“DannyX, California is also nearly bankrupt.”
Really? Then why did S&P raise California’s rating to “stable” from “negative” just this past June?
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
3:40 pm
DannyX…. Your job numbers are wrong. Georgia actually has a lower unemployment rate than California. California actually has the second highest unemployment rate next to another liberal state of Nevada. Quite frankly you can also stop calling it the “Bush Depression”, it wasn’t Bush’s policies that lead to the sub prime mortgage fiasco or the housing bubble burst. Does he incur some of the blame yes, but these series of depression came at the end of his administration and so far no policies of either party has helped to spark the economy.
Furthermore, Metro Atlanta’s job problem has nothing to do with taxes or other policies but the lack of educated or qualified candidates. The APS scandal hurt more than any tax structures ever could and if I remember correctly is Atlanta not run by majority democrats?
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
3:50 pm
My numbers are not wrong, I never said California has a low unemployment rate, I said California is adding jobs. Texas has also been adding jobs and also has higher than average unemployment rate. California is adding more jobs than it loses right now.
Georgia on the other hand is still losing more jobs than it gains. There has been no progress here, worst in the country.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
3:54 pm
worst in the country DannyX, ever heard of Detroit Michigan?
City and state run by Democratic for many of moons now.
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
3:56 pm
How can you be adding jobs when your unemployment rate continues to rise? In January, California had 15,904,603 employed workers in August they had 15,830,249. To me that looks like a loss of 74,354 jobs. Once again check your numbers.
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
3:58 pm
Georgia have a high poverty rate and the southern states are ran by the republicans which all the southern states have the most poverty.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
3:58 pm
“How can you be adding jobs when your unemployment rate continues to rise”
cause the Daily Kos and MSNBC says so.
Tea Party Hobbit
September 29th, 2011
3:58 pm
I think DannyX may be just looking at government employment numbers…hey isn’t that what we all aspire to!?!
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
4:00 pm
Hey Teaparty could I ask you question. Where was the teaparty doing Bush days?
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
4:09 pm
Independent Voter.. You are saying the only evidence you have that the Tea Party is racist is because it was formed during the presidency of a multi-racial man who grew up in a middle class white family. Yeah if that’s the case then yeah, Tea Party is definitively racist.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
4:09 pm
“worst in the country DannyX, ever heard of Detroit Michigan?”
Yes I have, in fact Detroit added 24,500 jobs in the past year, metro Atlanta lost 31,000.
You guys might want to update your talking points.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
4:13 pm
“I think DannyX may be just looking at government employment numbers…hey isn’t that what we all aspire to!?!”
If I wanted a government job I would move to Texas. Texas has added 125,000 government jobs since 2011, 47% of all the new government jobs in the country.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
4:14 pm
Independent voter,
Umm, unemployment was 7% when he left office and averaged 5% for his 8 years.
The bank bailout’s didn’t happen till the last month of his Presidency. Where would you like for us to have been?
I’m no English major and can use some improving on my grammar, but dear Lord, could you please proof read your nonsense and get a spell checker?
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
4:15 pm
DannyX, would you please provide us with these links you keep getting your nonsense from?
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
4:16 pm
DannyX Georgia is a backward state which the governor dont have any clue why georgia needs more job.
Georgia about to cutt half million people unemployment check who can live on less then $330 a week. I wonder if these republicans can live on $330 a week in Georgia. I wish they cut they pay check to help the economy.
85% of American think teaparty are racist people.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 29th, 2011
4:20 pm
Independent voter,
Sorry, hate to use the phrase, but you are a useful idiot.
Ordinary American
September 29th, 2011
4:22 pm
Danny X – Thank you for your response, it was very entertaining. Can you sing too? Liberals poor? never thought that….very funny one and weird.
So what are they doing so well that this current president can’t understand and apply to the rest of the country?
You seem to be down on KIA. Wonder what those folks(especially liberal) who work there are thinking about you down grading them like that. Not very liberal-sensitive are you? Now give some more entertaining liberal views.
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
4:25 pm
Danny…. Detroit Jan 2011 Employed- 721,841
Aug 2011 Employed- 720,391 Net loss of 1450.
How many times do you have to be proved wrong. Change our talking points, how about you chose a talking point on which you can actually produce some accurate numbers.
Independent Voter… Really 85% of American’s think they are racist. I don’t know where you would get such a bogus number, maybe Jesse or Al, but that number isn’t right either. Last time I checked to I think Walmart, Lowes, and McDonalds are all hiring.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
4:41 pm
http://www.ajc.com/business/atlanta-top-metro-area-1190904.html
I’m right yet again. This has been all over the AJC, do you Tea Party people read?
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
4:48 pm
Why does these teaparty think people are not looking at them as racist. Thanks danny for pointing that out about the jobless rate in atlanta. Atlanta is part of georgia so that tell you what the government is not getting people back to work in georgia.
Wikijunkie
September 29th, 2011
4:53 pm
Look at the statistics yourself. You can clearly see that Detroit had 728,505 employed workers in August 2010 and 720,391 in August 2011. That is still a loss in jobs. Atlanta on the other hand had 2,384,066 in Aug 2010 and 2,392,157 in Aug 2011. To me that looks like a net gain. I guess you Liberal never do your own research, too much work I guess.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUDV26198006?data_tool=XGtable.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUMT13120606?data_tool=XGtable
Independent voter
September 29th, 2011
4:58 pm
Goodbye everyone I am going to a independent voter meeting in Cobb to get out the vote for president Obama and also to see how we going to brings jobs back to Georgia without the republicans running our country in a disaster.
Independent Voters all the way for president Obama/Biden 2012
Vote the republicans/teabaggars out the office.
DannyX
September 29th, 2011
5:08 pm
You prove with every single post Wikijunkie that you don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Unemployment rates and job gains/lost are two completely different stats as I have already pointed out.
Now go to the AJC article I just linked you to, it spells it out for you.