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.

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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.

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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.

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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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