Herman Cain
Announcement
of Candidacy
Centennial
Olympic Park
Atlanta,
GA
Saturday, May
21, 2011
[TRANSCRIPT by 4president.org /Democracy
in Action]
Love ya. Love ya. Love ya. Love y'all. Love y’all. My, my my. Love ya.
Aww, shucky ducky as the man would say. I got to tell ya. Let
me—. Thank you. I see some Antioch people out there, a few
of them back there yelling. I understand that my Aunt Bessie is here.
Oh, there she is. Now do you know why it is so momentous that my Aunt
Bessie is here? She hasn't decided if she can vote for me yet. But I'm
going to change her mind. Just like we’re going to change the
mind of a lot of folk in America.
But I want to thank all of you from the absolute bottom of my
heart for you being here, because there were some skeptics as you know
who didn't think anybody would show up for an announcement from me. And
the last time I heard there are 15,000 of you'all right here.
Centennial Olympic Park. Thank you. Thank you.
You know it has been this kind of encouragement
that has gotten me to this point. And it is this kind of encouragement
that I believe, that I know is going to take us to where we are trying
to get to.
You know, many of you know that I grew up right here in Atlanta,
Georgia. Right here in Atlanta, Georgia. I stand in the shadows of my
upbringing. I stand here today as the son of a chauffeur and a domestic
worker, who taught me and my brother three of the most important values
we could have ever learned. Belief in God. Belief in what we
could do for ourselves. And belief in this exceptional nation called
the United States of America. Believe in it.
You know that the people that are struggling the most are the ones who
don't believe in this nation. They don't believe in the values of this
nation. My parents never uttered the words—victim, because they
never felt like a victim, having the opportunity to be in this nation
despite its challenges. So I stand here today as Luther’s and Lenora’s
oldest son, in my hometown. I stand here today in this hour, in
the shadow of the Olympic flame, which represents not only the
determination of those that go to the Olympics every four years with
their own determination, but it also signifies the great spirit of this
great country, the spirit of America. That’s what it signifies.
And it is the spirit of America and the determination of America and
the determination of its people that we are going to take our country
back. We're going to take it back. This day, this hour, in the
spirit of America and the spirit of the Olympics here in this park.
When people go to the Olympics every four years, they don’t go to the
Olympics to come in second. They go to the Olympics to win.
And you see, just like the spirit of the Olympics, number two is not in
America’s DNA. We don’t do number two. Right here, this day, this hour,
this moment. Reminds me of the words to the closing song of the 2000
Olympics: Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it’s never
easy when there’s so much on the line, but you and I can make a
difference. There’s a mission just for you, there’s a mission just for
me. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do.
Right here, this day, this hour, and this moment, I have looked inside
of me and at this moment, this day amongst thousands and thousands of
my friends, and with my family here with me and associates that I have
known throughout the years, this day, this hour, this moment I came
here to declare my candidacy for the Republican nomination for
President of the United States of America. This moment.
This moment.
And, just to be clear, just to be clear. in case you accidently
listened to a skeptic or a doubting Thomas out there. Just to be clear,
let me say it again. I’m running for President of the United
States, and I’m not running for second. I’m not running for
second. One. This day. (crowd chants: Herman, Herman...)
Now let me tell ya. Because I’ve had reporters ask me sometimes.
Well, are you running just to get attention and maybe come in second or
maybe to get a cabinet position? I said you don’t know very much about
me. You don’t run for second—I don’t run for second. I’m running to be
number one.
Now let me tell you some of the reasons of why I am running for
President of the United States. One of the biggest reasons is that we
have become a nation of crises. We have a moral crisis. We’ve got
an economic crisis. We’ve got an entitlement spending crisis. We’ve got
an immigration crisis. We’ve got a foggy foreign affairs crisis. And
we’ve got a deficiency of leadership crisis in the White House.
There is a big difference between leadership and positionship, a big
difference between leadership and positionship. Let’s look at the facts
relative to all of these crises. We have anemic economic growth.
In the first quarter of this year our GDP only grew by 1.8%. That is
anemic, especially when China is growing at 10% compound. And if we
don’t increase our growth rate, they‘re going to be as big as we are in
five years if you take out the differences in exchange rates.
And like I said earlier, if we allow China to become as economically
powerful as us, you know that they are going try to develop their
military might as big as ours. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not
going to allow America to be number two in the economy or number two
militarily, not on our watch. Not on our watch.
We are a nation of crises. Look at the facts; don’t listen to the
rhetoric. A 9% unemployment rate, with nearly 15 million people out of
work. 47 million people on food stamps; that’s 14 million more
than there were when the current occupant of the White House took over.
Four dollars a gallon for gas and it’s not over yet. One trillion
dollars in spending to stimulate the economy and it didn’t stimulate
diddly.
All of that, and now to have a 14 trillion dollar national debt and the
debate in Washington, DC is going on about do we raise the debt ceiling
again? Let me tell you what the Cain Doctrine would be. We ain’t
raising the debt ceiling. We’re going to cut the
spending. It’s called reduce. So look at the facts. Don’t just
listen to the rhetoric. Look at the facts. The stuff is not working.
It’s not working. So the only thing that I can conclude is it’s time to
get real folks. It’s time to get real.
Hope and change ain’t working. Hope and change is not a solution. Hope
and change is not a job. Hope and change is not a new business. Hope
and change is not a vision. We need a new vision in this country and
that means we need a new person leading this nation in the White
House. It ain’t working.
Now I want to ask you a few questions. Is America ready for real
results? (Crowd: Yes) Is America ready for common sense solutions?
(Crowd: Yes) Is America ready to rekindle the spirit of America?
(Crowd: Yes) And Is America ready for a real leader, not a
reader? (Crowd: Yes) Do you want a leader? Or you want a
reader?
Now since— (crowd chants: Herman, Herman...) I know, I know it took
some
people to connect the dots on that last statement. …They were a little
slow, but they finally got it. Now since you answered yes to those
questions, let me describe our new vision. I don’t call it my vision,
my job as the leader is to define it, key it up, share it with you; it
becomes our vision. Because, you know what, I can’t do this by
myself. This will be our vision, not a political vision, not the agenda
of one person, but it has to be the agenda of the people of this
country. I call it our vision.
And in order for us, in order for us to be able to achieve and make
reality out of our vision, we’re going to need some new plans, set some
new priorities, and certainly get some new people around the President,
this President (points to himself) that are better than the ones we
got in terms of the vision.
Our new vision—real economic growth, not anemic growth and in order to
do it, we’ve got to lower tax rates for corporations and
individuals. We’ve got to suspend taxes on repatriated
profits. We got to take the capital gain taxes to zero. We got to
give the workers of America a real payroll tax holiday and then put a
bow around it and make the tax rates permanent. That would
lead economic growth.
Our vision. A real energy independence plan. A real one. Not one
that someone just reads off of a teleprompter. No. A real one. One of
things that is so frustrating about it is that we have the resources to
become energy independent, we simply need to pull the resources
together in order to make it happen. That’s our vision.
You know, I will never go to a foreign country or Brazil, loan them
money and then tell them we are going to be their best customer for
their oil. Let me share with you another one of the Cain Doctrines.
America is going to be its own best customer. Drill here. Drill
now. Right here in the U.S.A.. We will be our own best
customer.
And as President of the United States I’m going to make sure that we
are our own best customer when it comes to our energy needs and our
energy resources. It’s not that we don’t have the resources; we just
got too much bureaucracy that keeps getting in the way.
Our new vision means immigration through the front door and not through
the back door, not through the side door. This nation was
built upon immigrants. Legal immigrants. And if we attack the right
problem—which is we got four problems, not one. We got to secure the
border, we got to enforce the laws that are there, we got to promote
the path to citizenship that’s already there, clean up the bureaucracy.
We don’t need a new path to citizenship; we already have one. Why don’t
you ask the millions of people who came here legally. They’ll
tell you. And then the fourth thing that we have to do in order to deal
with the illegals that are already here, the federal government is not
going to solve the problem. In our new vision we will empower the
states to solve the problem of those that are here. That’s how we
take care of that problem.
And the last thing that you will get from a Herman Cain presidency is
suing a state because they are trying to protect themselves. We
shouldn’t be suing Arizona; we ought to send them a prize. A
peace prize. Suing a state of the United States of America.
There’s a major disconnect.
Our new vision. Real energy—economic growth, real energy independence,
immigration through the front door, not the back door or the side door,
and then real, clear foreign policies. Real clear. I love it when
the skeptics want to criticize me because of “lack of foreign policy
experience.” Let me tell you what I know about foreign policy
experience. I know that you don’t throw your friends under the
bus. That’s what I know about foreign policy. You don’t
need to have years in the State Department to figure that out. Know who
your friends are. Know who you enemies are. And don’t throw your
friends under the bus. I was shocked last week, I think it was
Thursday, when President Obama threw Israel under the bus.
Let me tell you what the Cain Doctrine would be, relative to our
friends, and I’ll share with you later my doctrine relative to our
enemies. I got some stuff for them too. But, relative to Israel,
that most of us have appreciated the relationship for decades. The Cain
Doctrine to the world would simply be if you mess with Israel, you’re
messing with the United State of America. Don’t mess with us.
Don’t mess with us. Is that real clear? Is that real clear?
That’s what I mean by real clear foreign policy. Know who your
friends are. Know who your enemies are.
And it’s our new vision; not the establishment, not the politicians. It
is our new vision. Let me— and lastly this nation has gradually over
the years slipped in to an entitlement society. Well I got to tell you
folks, not only do I believe it is possible, but I also know that it’s
time with restructuring programs, instead of reshuffling programs we
can take this entitlement society to an empowerment
society. Empower people. Empower the states. Empower
businesses. We can become an empowerment society with our new vision.
With our new vision.
You know the founding fathers they did their job. And they did a great
job at it. And they kept it simple. They wrote the Declaration of
Independence; they designed and wrote the Constitution of the United
State of America. And one of the other things that is part of our
vision is that we don’t need to rewrite the Declaration, we don’t need
to rewrite the Constitution of the United States. Rewrite it? We need
to reread the Constitution and enforce the Constitution. We don’t
need to rewrite, let’s reread.
And I know that there are some people that are not going to do that. So
for the benefit of those that are not going to read it, because they
don’t want us to go by the Constitution, there’s a little section in
there that talks about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. You
know those ideals that we live by, we believe in, your parents believed
in, they instilled in you. When you get to the part about Life,
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, don’t stop right there, keep
reading. Because that’s when it says “When any form of government
becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish it.” We’ve got some altering and some abolishing to
do.
In 2012, we are not only going to keep control of the House of
Representatives, we are going to also control the United States Senate
and take it back. And in 2012 we are also going to run the trifecta and
alter the occupant of the White House with a new President.
And lastly— (crowd chants: Herman, Herman...) Thank you. And for sure,
we’re all going to have to work a little harder, we’re going to have to
work a little smarter. We’re not going to convert everybody over to our
conservative way of thinking; we’re not going to sell everybody on our
new vision with new leadership, new people, new ways to think about it.
Because a good friend told me once, all you can do is save the
savable. And you know what? Between November now and November
2012, I think I’m going to save my Aunt Bessie. I think she’s got
hope.
We got a lot of work to do folks, but I believe that we can do this. If
I didn’t believe we could do this, I wouldn’t be doing it. So we all
got to do a little bit more. We all go to work a little bit harder in
order to take back this country. It’s going to be tough, I’m up for the
fight, I’m up for the challenge, and I know that you are too.
The founding fathers, the founding fathers did their job; we have to do
our job and be the defending fathers. And I have been blessed with two
adult kids; they’re grown and gone. We’ve got three grandkids and it’s
not about us. It’s not about us, and I know everybody here feels that
way from me traveling all over the country talking to groups day in and
day out, town hall meetings, large rallies, big rallies, small rallies,
the message has been consistent. It’s not about us, and people are
ready to do whatever it takes in order to take this nation back. And I
firmly believe in my heart that God is in this Journey, that God is in
this Journey.
And in November of 2012, the day after the Election Day, when we wake
up that morning and all of the votes are counted and they declare not
only all of the local election results, the state-wide election
results, the congressional results, the senatorial results, but when we
wake up and they declare the presidential results and Herman Cain is in
the White House, we’ll all be able to say-free at last, free at last,
thank God almighty this nation is free at last again. God bless
you. God bless the U.S.A.. (crowd chants: Herman, Herman...)
Thank you. Thank you very much. This is my family along with you, and I
wanted you to see them, because this thing is going to move so fast
that you may not see them much, so you better look quick. Thank you
again, ladies and gentleman. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Jim, Bessie. Thank you very much. God bless you.
God bless you. Stay tuned. God bless you. God bless each and
every one of you.
# # #
Ed. Cain spoke for almost exactly
half an hour; the crowd, reported at from 10-15,000, cheered and
applauded throughout.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, May 6, 2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ellen Carmichael
HERMAN CAIN TO ANNOUNCE
DECISION ON POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
(Stockbridge,
Georgia)-
Longtime
corporate
executive and conservative leader Herman Cain will announce
his decision regarding a potential presidential campaign on Saturday,
May 21, 2011 in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
The event will be a free rally open to the public. Media must be
credentialed to attend.
Cain is widely believed to have been the winner of the first 2012
Republican candidate debate Thursday evening in Greenville, SC, and has
steadily gained grassroots and financial support across the U.S. He is
best known for his executive positions in many major
American corporations, including Godfather's Pizza, Pillsbury and
Burger King. He also served as the President of the National Restaurant
Association and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
City,
Missouri.
###
Herman Cain is a longtime corporate
executive and Republican leader from Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Cain
previously served as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of Kansas City
and as the President and CEO of the National Restaurant
Association. He also has served as an executive of several major
American corporations, including Pillsbury and Burger King, as well as
on the boards of directors of Whirpool Corporation, AGCO and Hallmark.
He is known especially for his role in economic policymaking
and as a leader in the conservative grassroots movement. In January
2011, Mr. Cain established a presidental exploratory committee. For
more
information,
visit
http://www.hermancain.com,
http://www.facebook.com/THEHermanCain
and http://www.twitter.com/THEHermanCain.
Friends of Herman Cain
PO Box 2158
Stockbridge Georgia 30281
United States