Your morning jolt: Herman Cain, Vietnam, and his dad’s gun
If you’re looking for a copy of Herman Cain’s campaign autobiography, head for a book store in some Democratic enclave.
I bought what may be the last copy of “This Is Herman Cain!” in Cobb County, after three hours of searching.
:Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain signs a copy of his book, "This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, " on Thursday at a book store in The Woodlands, Texas. AP/The Courier, Karl Anderson
The surging GOP presidential candidate was born in Memphis, but raised in Atlanta. Yet he left soon after graduating from Morehouse College in 1967, and didn’t re-establish himself in the metro area until 2000, after a far-flung business career.
So there’s much that even his hometown doesn’t know about him.
More later, but a couple points about the book:
– For a man born in 1945, at the leading edge of the Baby Boomer era, the most notable word missing from Cain’s 222-page life story is this: “Vietnam.” Not there.
Immediately after graduating from college, Cain took a job as a civilian mathematician for the U.S. Navy in Dahlgreen, Va. A spokesman confirmed that the job exempted Cain from the military draft of that era “for a while” – but that his lottery number was never called.
– On orders from his father, Cain said he stayed away from the “trouble” of the civil rights movement. But Cain describes his father, a private chauffeur for Coke CEO executive and philanthropist Robert Woodruff, as anything but a pantywaist.
For anyone familiar with the South at that time, the most fascinating anecdote in Cain book deals with Woodruff’s gifts to the Cain family. Cash at first, then Coke stock. The man in charge of Woodruff’s finances, a white fellow identified as Joe Jones, objected:
One day Dad said to Jones, “Mr. Jones, I’d like to see you outside for a minute.” They walked out to the driveway and Dad said, “Do you see this gun I’m carrying?” – Dad had a permit to carry one because he was with Woodruff – “Do you know how good I can shoot this gun?”
“No,” Joe Jones replied.
“I can throw a silver dollar up in the air and hit it four times before it hits the ground. That’s how good a shot I am,” my dad said. “if you ever tell Mr. Woodruff not to do something for me again, you’re going to find out how good I am with this gun!”
There are many, many exclamation marks in the book.
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We’ve got a copy of the final draft of that Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association study of the economic impact of the state’s new illegal immigration bill. Click here to see it.
***
There was a whole lotta blinking going on Thursday. Does it not strike you as ironic that while this was going on:
For most of the day, the governor’s office said Deal would not act until the little-used and much-vilified lanes have operated for a full month. But a late-afternoon press release promised immediate action.
“In the short term, the toll rate will lower — starting with Thursday afternoon’s commute,” the release said. The reduction will amount to more than 40 percent, Deal spokesman Brian Robinson [said].
A project that could have built a rail line from MARTA’s Arts Center station to the Cumberland area of Cobb County lost $167.5 million in regional funding from the proposed project list. Instead, that money would go to road projects — such as an interchange at I-75 and Windy Hill Road….
The Cumberland line was the last construction project on the list capable of breaking the borders of Atlanta’s Fulton and DeKalb rail district, established four decades ago with the MARTA system.
***
The team that has stepped up investigations of judges in Georgia is getting a little push-back. From Richard Belcher and Channel 2 Action News:
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At the Georgia National Fair down in Perry this weekend, state senators will be competing with House members to discover which chamber is better at trotting out a little bull.
Yes, 4-Hers, we know we got the gender wrong. But the metaphor was that tempting. Runner-up was, “And a little bull shall lead them, as it always does.”
Each team of lawmakers will actually be tasked with showing off a heifer. We’re standing by for photos.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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139 comments Add your comment
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
October 7th, 2011
4:03 pm
Tea Party Hobbit
October 7th, 2011
3:58 pm
papist front for the Roman Anti-Christ doing the “divide and conquer” gambit.
Know thine enemy America: Th. Jefferson said it was the Roman Anti-Christ and everything they’ve done since proves him true.
deegee
October 7th, 2011
4:16 pm
Tea Party Hobbit, I have no doubt that Herman Cain believes everything he says. He’s no liar. He truly believes that people are poor because they have a mental block. I know people that think that education is the key to their success. They just can’t afford to pay for it.
Tom (Independent)
October 7th, 2011
4:16 pm
JV – Thank you, right on the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mum
October 7th, 2011
4:17 pm
What people should take issue with is that certain segments of the population support anyone that tell them what they want to hear. History shows that whenever the economy get bad, people turn on the “others” teh “different”. I bet you that if the economy was booming along, Obama would not have been villified as he has been and everyone in government would be taking credit. As it stands, the blame has to go somewhere and the “otherness” of others are ripe for being blamed.
Republicans are praying that thing start looking better in the economy by the 2012 elections so they aren’t voted out in the next cycle if they win. The next time any politician tells you that they have a better “plan” ask them if they can guarantee that it’s going to work…bet they can’t…and if they say they can, they are lying.
Javon
October 7th, 2011
4:19 pm
African-Americans aren’t going to vote for a rich Uncle tom like cain! He’s going against his people and sucking up to racist white republicans.
td
October 7th, 2011
4:26 pm
GaBlue
October 7th, 2011
2:08 pm
td @ 1:50,
–”Everyone knows it and everyone seems to be ignoring the fact.” — Actually, NOT everyone knows that. If your claim were true, then (a) your statement would not be necessary
Sorry, I should have said anyone knows it that has any common sense. There were several reports in the media that Harry Reid won re election by ACORN an the unions registering illegals and getting them to the polls. I am sure Obama’s team has a similar plan for the swing states like Colorado, NC and Virginia.
I did not say all illegals are voting but I will submit to you that you can not prove that there are NO illegals voting.
td
October 7th, 2011
4:29 pm
deegee
October 7th, 2011
4:16 pm
If you do not believe Herman then please tell us why people are poor?
zinoDawg
October 7th, 2011
4:31 pm
Big Jim doing everything he can to sink the Herman Cain ship. What branch of the military did you serve in?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Roekest
October 7th, 2011
4:34 pm
Why do I get the sense that Galloway, and by extension the AJC, is trying to torpedo Cain’s rising star? Is it jealousy? Anger that he’s a black conservative? Are you all mad because, like so many other Americans, he started out poor and worked hard to gain success? Or do you all just not like Burger King and Godfather’s Pizza??
Maybe instead of trying to dismantle the man in the pages of this 3rd rate rag-of-a-newspaper, you all should be showing just an ounce of support, or at least respect, for the hometown boy.
ramguy68
October 7th, 2011
4:38 pm
td October 7th, 2011 11:05 am
was not paid by Soros and the unions like these nutjobs will be so I did not go to any.
I guess more of a Koch Bros kinda guy eh?
Jackie
October 7th, 2011
4:44 pm
Do you ever remember Onesider ever asking anything about what we didn’t know about Obama? Do you ever rember any questions from Onesider about Obama’s experience, his friends, his past beliefs or associations.
Me either.
Onesider is a one note song.
td
October 7th, 2011
4:45 pm
ramguy68
October 7th, 2011
4:38 pm
I will take a communist hater over and communist lover any day.
deegee
October 7th, 2011
4:51 pm
I just told you, td. Education is the key to success. Some folks simply don’t have the intellect to complete a scholastic program. Some have the intellect but not the time or money.
Midtown Liberal
October 7th, 2011
4:53 pm
Hopefully, the Occupy Wall Street “mobs” (Eric Cantor is an idiot) will do more than the Tea Party who got a bunch of uneducated Hillbillies elected to Congress.
Herman Cain is a pawn of the GOP. He didn’t fight for the rights of his people after college because he didn’t have guts, even though “white” people died in the fight for Civil Rights during this time. He’s a coward and a goof “don’t blame Wall Street, blame yourself.” He won’t be elected to anything, thank GOD!
Big Daddy
October 7th, 2011
4:56 pm
Tum Cain wants Rumney to pick him as v.p., so he can hep fix the ecunuhmy. And, perhaps Willard can teach Hummun how to use the vowel o.
if the deficit is our #1 criteria for a president...
October 7th, 2011
4:59 pm
then Bill Clinton must have been the greatest president of our time!
if the deficit is our #1 criteria for a president...
October 7th, 2011
5:00 pm
wait – who’s in the lead for the GOP nomination this week?
Palin?
Bachmann?
Romney?
Perry?
Cain?
I can’t keep up! they are all so wonderfully talented that the frontrunner changes every week…. right
if the deficit is our #1 criteria for a president...
October 7th, 2011
5:02 pm
you may think I’m a communist, lefty, pinko – but i’d vote for Ron Paul. Too bad he’s so into the constitution that even the GOP won’t get behind him…
John
October 7th, 2011
5:08 pm
Herman Cain has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unaware of of basic American civics principles, such as the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; he’s also prone to pontificating about foreign policy matters then displaying a marked ignorance of the very area he’s sermonizing on (such as Israeli-Palestinian issues).
Now, if I might slink to an ad hominem assault, is there anyone who has ever eaten a Godfather’s pizza when there was any alternative? Aren’t they mostly sold in gas stations now?
Truth
October 7th, 2011
5:08 pm
Herman Cain has my vote in the primary and hopefully in the general election.
mum
October 7th, 2011
5:11 pm
@td, to use an old tern, believe some of what you hear and none of what you see. So, try not to just regurgitate what Fox says happened beacause that’s just brainwashing of another stripe. If you and they can’t prove that “illegals” ARE voting in numbers to change elections, then please don’t say so. There were ruplican operatives calling blacks in the last election telling them that the voting was closed or the polling place had moved. Don’t hear too much drama about that though because I guess some people think that’s ok. There are con games played on both sides, which does not excuse anyone. The scare tacticts of telling people illegals are voting works because people are willing to believe anything these days.
Vote Ron Paul
October 7th, 2011
5:12 pm
Herman Cain believes that the Federal Reserve should continue to control our money system.
Thomas Jefferson, 1803 – If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
mum
October 7th, 2011
5:20 pm
Wonder if Mr. Cain still believe that planned parenthood is trying to exterminate black babies by putting their centers in black neighborhoods? As a front-runner, the footage from him from his senate campaign are interesting to listen to. I really don’t know if he even realizes the things he’s saying.
Becky
October 7th, 2011
5:24 pm
Bring back the Clinton years. 8 years of peace and prosperity for all.
Vote Clinton/Clinton in 2012.
duke
October 7th, 2011
5:52 pm
Whether true of not, the story about the gun makes a valid point. Gun rights are especially important for women and minorities. There was a saying among Blacks during the years after the Civil War: “Abraham Lincoln made men equal, but Sam Colt (as in Colt 45 pistol) made them free.” When a ruler intends to become a tyrant, one of the first things he does is to confiscate private weapons.
All the liberal policies are exactly the opposite of what they claim to be. The worst victims of those policies are the people whom they claim to be helping. The civil rights movement tries to keep Black people oppressed so that their votes can be exploited. For successful Blacks like Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, and Condoleeza Rice, the civil rights movement is among their worst enemies. Several years ago, the civil rights movement in Atlanta refused to let General Colin Powell march in their snotty little parade.
The civil right movement is about the advancement of communism, not the advancement of Black people.You will never make sense of the modern world until you realize that Senator Joe McCarthy was right. Read “None Dare Call It Treason”, by John Stormer.
RGB
October 7th, 2011
6:03 pm
I love all the “sophisticated liberal elites” who look down their noses at Herman Cain and sniff that he just isn’t sophisticated enough to be president.
By your own standards we have the most sophisticated president ever and yet we have the most destructive president at the same time.
I’ll take someone with intelligence, relevant work experience, leadership qualities, pragmatism, a record of accomplishment, and good character over the opposite (which is what we now have). I’ll bet Herman doesn’t need a teleprompter to have a cabinet meeting either.
And if Mr. Cain is elected to the presidency, I think I’ll call all you leftist-statists “haters”, “racists”, and “chablis elitists”. Fact is you folks don’t know a demand curve from your hind end.
Corey
October 7th, 2011
6:06 pm
Becky, we would have to also bring back the dot com bubble which fueled that growth. And could we really stomach all the crap played out daily by the Republicans while Mr. Clinton was in office? Have you forgotten? Compared to the treatment Mr. Obama has received from the Republicans they were absolutely ruthless against the Clintons. Never in the history of this republic had so much venom and scorn been spewed and heaped on a sitting POTUS by the opposition.
hiram bronson granbury
October 7th, 2011
6:27 pm
@ Centrist
Here is a link that you might want to share with the naysayers.
Non-citizens voting in Georgia elections
http://www.the-two-malcontents.com/2010/10/non-citizens-voting-in-georgia-elections/
Amazing
October 7th, 2011
6:36 pm
It is ok for tea party to protest but no else for they shall be called mobs (quote from Cantor). It is ok to say one thing and do another thing for you shall be called a Republican!
Frederick Douglass
October 7th, 2011
7:04 pm
duke @ 5:52
Hey Buddy, John Bleakly Ford’s service department just called, they tuned up and lubed your Edsel, have a safe trip back to 1958.
sho'nuff
October 7th, 2011
10:08 pm
Run Herman Run. Thiis is stupendous. The Repo and Demo have each got to compete for our Vote with all of their might. And, they heave got to produce. For neither side will argue that the other side can’t or won’t do anything for you people. Beautiful. PASS THE PRESIDEN’T JOBS BILL NOW. WHY WON’T CHAMBLISS, ISSAKSON, AND WESTMORELAND SPEAK OUT. Explain to us how you can stay opposed to the Jobs bill, when Georgians need work. We are number 4 in home foreclosures. Why are none of the candidates talking about solutions to real problems instead of this nonsense.
double
October 7th, 2011
10:39 pm
I doubt illegals vote in our elections.Why would they? Unless the employer the conservative right,ones with all the money,and government connections influence them to vote.Show proof this happends.This is like calling the President communist just more lies.
Centrist
October 7th, 2011
10:54 pm
Hey double – look at hiram’s post @ 6:27. Just the tip of the iceberg – those are only via non-citizens found from jury duty exclusions. You purposely ignore the ILLEGAL immigrants who are scamming Social Security and the IRS, who don’t have a fear of coming out of the shadows.
I usually don’t respond to you because of your past posts – making an exception here.
Bootnewt
October 8th, 2011
12:09 am
One shoe or the other will drop from Citizen Cain….
whatever
October 8th, 2011
12:35 am
@Will Jones=Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis. “Cain “loves his country so much” he avoided the honor of doing sworn, military service with 9.2 million other Americans, preferring the ranks of craven hypocrites like Isakson, Chambliss, Romney, Gingrich, Quayle, Bush, and virtually all other “Republican” Vietnam “susceptible” politicians.” You forgot some names in that illustrious group. How about Bill Clinton who refused to go. Or Al Gore who’s Daddy bought his way out of the draft.Or Joe (the asthmatic) Biden. Who did not serve because of deferments. and when those ran out he found a Doctor to would label his as an Asthmatic. Are they more patriotic that Mr Cain who worked for the military who’s draft number was NOT called? Honestly you can’t have it both ways..
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
October 8th, 2011
9:02 am
Gore had a legitimate in-country MOS shared by thousands of others – notice how his personality changed after Election night…from wooden to warm? They probable threatened to kill his children, needing to get the homosexual draft-dodger into office for the long-planned 9/11 abomination. Clinton is Winthrop Rockefeller’s “yard-baby,” and I have no doubt Biden, like everything else in Delaware, is owned by the DuPont’s.
Cain’s graduation year makes him pre-lottery and the job he got came from Robert Woodruff so he could dodge the draft.
The focus of the People must be on Truth and Justice, that G-d be glorified by Our Nation’s “Annuit Coeptis.” We know G-d is perfect, infinite, eternal, and ineffable. Everything matters.
Bush and Cheney committed 9/11. America needs leadership obedient to Our Creed, with no false gods…including Mammon and Satan.
Show me a man or woman of good character…the gauge is Truth and Justice. An American submits to none but G-d. Here, we measure G-d’s presence by the presence of Truth and Justice.
Ron Paul, Romney, John Lewis, Barack Obama…all on the national stage are compromised souls, incomplete or failed men. Our Founders were anointed of G-d. So must we be if America shall prosper once more.
The Snark
October 8th, 2011
2:56 pm
Red: No, I’m saying its hypocritical to evade the draft, make excuses about having done it, and then pose in public as if you’re a big patriotic defender of the military. And attack the opinions of others who actually did put their bodies in harm’s way (e.g., Swift Boaters, Saxby Chambliss’ attack on Max Cleland.)
That sort of thing should bother you regardless of whether your beliefs lean left or right.
Cain's Truth
October 8th, 2011
5:04 pm
This story effectively answers Jim Galloway’s accusations:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/lawrence-odonnells-offensive-interview-with-herman-cain/246328/
Jim, why do you blog without bothering to check facts?
javon
October 9th, 2011
9:10 am
If cain gets elected, hopefully he does a lot more for African-Americans than obama has—minorities need a lot more money which obama was supposed to get, but so far he’s not creating more government benefits like he promised.