Thanks, Carol.  Thank you.

Good morning.  [audience: "Good morning"]  Oh, I love that kind of greeting.  That's good.  Sound like you all are energetic and ready to go.  So am I.  Happy to be here in Iowa at the State Fair.

I heard you all have something called a pork chop on a stick.  I just sent my staff out to get me one.  [laughter]  In Georgia, we eat pork chops for breakfast, lunch or dinner, so I feel right at home.

I'm glad that you're here and thank you for stopping by.  They've given me an opportunity to share with you a few of my thoughts about this great country that we live in.  The first announcement I want to make, that may be different than the way that some other people feel—we are an exceptional nation, the United States of America.  [cheers, applause]  And in a Cain presidency I will never do an "apology tour."  [applause]  We have nothing to apologize for.

You know the Founding Fathers, they got it right.  The Founding Fathers got it right when they said we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  It didn't say anything about a guarantee.  It said the pursuit of happiness.  It didn't say we need to establish a Department of Happy in Washington, DC.  [laughter]  We don't have a Department of Happy in Washington, DC.  But the pursuit of happiness is under attack.  It's under attack, but we can take it back.  That's one of the reasons I'm running for president. 

We have become a nation of crises, but we can fix them.  We have an economic crisis.  We've got an entitlement spending crisis.  We've got an immigration crisis.  We've got a energy crisis.  We've got a foggy foreign policy crisis.  And the biggest crisis we have is a deficiency of leadership crisis.  [applause]  The biggest one.

And next to national security, getting this economy going is job one.  Here's how we do it.  First recognize that the engine to economic growth is the business sector.  [applause]  Not government—the business sector.  And in order to get the engine driving this economy, we've got to put some fuel in the engine.  That's why in the first 90 days as president I'm going to ask Congress to give me legis—send me legislation that will lower the top corporate and personal tax rate to 25-percent, take zero taxes on repatriated profits, and take the capital tax gains rate to zero, and make all of those permanent.  That's how we put fuel in the engine.  [applause]

Now once we get the economic engine moving, then we can address a lot of the other issues that we face, a lot of the other issues that we face.

You know when I was growing up as a young man in Atlanta I never said or dreamed that I would run for president one day.  That wasn't what I wanted to do.  When I was growing up I came from a very humble family.  My mother was a domestic worker.  My father was a barber, a janitor and a chauffeur all at the same time.  Because Dad knew that he needed one job to put food on the table, the second job to keep a roof over our head, and that third job to save for his American Dreams.  Because just like your parents, Dad wanted us to get a little bit better start in life.  And we did.

Dad was able to achieve his American Dreams even though he walked off of a farm at the age of 18 literally with just the clothes on his back.  Dad achieved his American Dreams the old-fashioned way.  He worked for it.  [applause]

And that's one of the reasons that I'm running for president.  Because I want our children and our grandchildren to be able to have the same opportunity that we had.  I want our children and our grandchildren to be able to grow up in a nation where we get government out of the way, government off our backs, and government out of our pockets.  [applause]  Because it's gotten out of hand.

Like I said, the Founding Fathers got it right when they talked about the pursuit of happiness.  The Founding Fathers got it right when they talked about limited government.  The Founding Fathers got it right when they talked about individual responsibility and individual liberties.  And that's what we've got to get back to. 

When I was doing my radio show in Atlanta—before I started running for president I was on the radio for five years.  But when you run for president according to McCain-Feingold rules you have to become unemployed [laughter].  So I'm now unemployed to run for president.  Now you would think that you would be able to keep a job while you're running.  No.  Now those that are already in office, they get to keep their job, but they told me I couldn't keep my job.  I think that's a little bit of a double standard, but that's not going to stop me because I'm learning that the American people have an appetite, the American people have an appetite for a non-politician.  [applause] 

I have never held public office.  I am a business problem-solver; that's what I have done all of my life.  And I happen to believe that those same skills will work in Washington, DC from the White House.  I happen to believe that.  [applause]

And when I give my speeches inside the Beltway sometimes, I'll have someone stand up and say, your ideas about taxes and replacing the tax code with the Fair Tax, that all sounds well and good but you can't do that.  My response is what do you mean I can't do that?  'Well you don't know how Washington works.'  My response is yes I do—it doesn't.  [cheers, applause]

It doesn't work.  So why do I need to learn how it does not work?  You would be sending me to Washington, DC to change Washington, DC not become a part of the culture in Washington, DC.  [applause]

Here's how we're going to change it.  Former Sen. Everett Dirksen popularized the statement, when they feel the heat, they will see the light.  See the heat comes from the people.  That's you. 

So my job after I'm president is to be a president of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Not for the politicians; not for Washington, DC.  [applause]  That means I'm going to listen to you, not listen to the lobbyists or listen to the establishment.  Listen to the people because the people in this country are crying out to the top of their voice.  We the people are still in charge of this country, and we want to take it back.  That's what the people are saying.  [applause]

And so when people ask me why am I running for president, like I said it's for the children and the grandchildren.  I'll never forget when I looked into the face of my first grandchild back in 1999.  I looked into that little face and the first thought that crossed my mind was what do I do to make this a better nation and a better world?  I didn't know the answer then.  Twelve years later, I believe I know the answer.  Twelve years later, I believe I know the answer after a lot of prayer, a lot of soul-searching, a lot of prayer, and a lot of soul-searching.  And that's when I made the decision to run. 

Now I love it when people say that I don't have a chance of getting the nomination, that I don't have a chance of winning the presidency.  All that does is it inspires me to work a little harder and work a little longer.  Love it when they try to count me out.  [applause]  Love it.

But you see here's something they don't know about Herman Cain.  I have been going against the odds all my life.  This isn't anything new for me. 

When I took over Godfather's Pizza in 1986, Godfather's was supposed to fail.  They had already predicted that it was going to go bankrupt.  It didn't go bankrupt when I got there, surrounded myself with the right people.  Why didn't we fail?  I didn't get the memo that we were supposed to fail.  [laughter]  I didn't get the memo that America can't fix its problems.  That's why I'm running. 

But I have been going against the odds throughout my life.  Let me tell you about another instance back in 2006 where I beat the odds, which is another reason I'm running for president of the United States.  In 2006 I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  The doctors told me that I had a 30-percent chance of survival  Three out of seven.  And I said, well doc, I'm not going to be in the 30, I'm going to be in the ones where you survive—the thirty-percent, not the seven.  And back in 2006, against the odds, I had to go through chemotherapy, double surgery, where they took out 30-percent of my colon, 70-percent of my liver, more chemotherapy, and now as of two weeks ago today, after my latest annual check-up, I have been cancer-free for five straight years against the odds.  [cheers, applause]  Against the odds.

When I was on Neil Cavuto, and I showed him the letter that I got from my doctor with my five-year clean bill of health, Neil Cavuto said God just didn't want to deal with you yet.  [laughter]  I said maybe he didn't, but I happen to believe that God wanted me to stay here so I could try and make a difference right here in this community and in this country.  [applause]  He said not yet.

And so that's another reason that I'm running folks, because I happen to believe that we were all put here on this planet to make a difference.  Everybody can make a difference in a different way with your talents, your time, your treasure, your abilities.  We all have a responsibility to make a difference in this world.  [Member of audience: Amen]  And I happen to believe that after achieving my American Dreams, that I'm supposed to do something else other than just retire or go on cruise control.  See, I don't believe that you retire; you refocus.  You're going to do something with that time.  And so I just happen to believe that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right here at this moment in time. 

And I am optimistic that we are going to get this nation back on track because of what I call the spirit of America.  The same spirit of America that inspired the Founding Fathers, the same spirit of America that has brought this nation through some of its most turbulent times.  That same spirit of America is going to cause the American people to stand up, speak up and rise up and put this nation back on track.  [applause]

I was asked last night after the debate, name a president that I would pattern my leadership style after.  And I said Ronald Reagan.  Ronald Reagan.  [applause]  And then the reporter said, well he wasn't perfect.  No, but he was Ronald Reagan.  You don't have to be perfect, folks; you have to be yourself.  And people connect when your yourself.  And so it was Ronald Reagan's leadership that helped to turn this nation around, and he did.  And it is in that same spirit that I'm running for president. 

And Ronald Reagan reminded us of this thing called liberty when he said that freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction.  We can't pass it on in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for and protected or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our grandchildren what the United States of America used to be like.  I am not going to have that conversation with my grandkids, and I don't think you want to have that conversation with your grandkids.  The Founding Fathers got it right.  That's why we must become the Defending Fathers; we must defend the Declaration of Independence.  We must defend the Constitution of the United States of America.  [applause]  We must defend the life of the unborn.  We must be the Defending Fathers for the greatest country in the world.  [applause continues]

And I happen to believe that we are going to be able to do that folks, because on all of our currency, on that money that you're going to have to pay for that pork chop on a stick [laughter], it says in God we trust.   And in the fourth verse of the national anthem there is a phrase in the middle of it that says in God is our trust.  That's why I believe that the United States of America is going to get back on track.  My name is Herman Cain dot com and I'm running for president.  [cheers, applause]


Transcript Copyright © 2011 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.