Businessman, radio host, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and former United States Senate candidate Herman Cain of Georgia began a campaign for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States shortly after the 2010 midterm elections. Although he was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate, Cain stopped short of a full-fledged candidacy before the beginning of 2011. Although he was characterized as "inexperienced",[8] and a Washington outsider, as of October 19, 2011, polls showed him to be one of the front runners in the Republican primaries.[9] Cain spent a considerable amount of time campaigning throughout the early primary states (particularly Iowa and New Hampshire) for most of 2010. Nearly two weeks after the beginning of the year, Cain filed his organization with the Federal Elections Commission as an exploratory committee, under the name Friends of Herman Cain. Cain is a supporte! r of the Tea Party movement and the gold standard.[10] Contents 1 The campaign 1.1 Exploratory committee 1.2 Official announcement 1.3 Campaign progress 1.3.1 Dark horse 1.3.2 Building momentum 1.3.3 Top-tier 1.3.4 Front-runner 1.4 Controversies 1.4.1 Legality of campaign funding 1.4.2 Sexual harassment claims 2 Political positions 2.1 Economic issues 2.2 Foreign policy 2.3 Education 2.4 Global Warming 2.5 Health Care 2.6 Immigration 2.7 Energy and the environment 2.8 Occupy Wall Street 2.9 Social issues 2.9.1 Islam and American Muslims 2.9.2 Affirmative action 2.9.3 Abortion 2.9.4 Gay and lesbian issues 3 Media coverage and reactions 4 Presidential campaign staff 5 Endorsements 5.1 Elected officials 5.2 Others 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links [edit] The campaign [edit] Exploratory committee Following the 2010 midterm elections, Cain announced his intentions to run for president in December 2010, stating that there is a 70% chance that he would attempt to seek the off! ice.[11] Following the New Year, Cain announced on January 12,! 2011, o n Your World with Neil Cavuto, that he had officially formed an exploratory committee, in order for him to travel and raise funds more effectively for a presidential run.[12] [edit] Official announcement Cain formally announced his candidacy on May 21, 2011 in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia to a crowd of 15,000 cheering supporters.[13] [edit] Campaign progress [edit] Dark horse Cain speaking at the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011 . A January 2011 analysis of the Republican presidential field in Sabato's Crystal Ball placed Cain in the fourth tier of candidates, saying he was "a favorite among some activists [... with] a blunt, no-holds-barred style," but that he was limited by having had no elective experience and by "the perception that he is too far right to win a general election."[14] The same month, Cain finished seventh out of twenty-one candidates in the New Hampshire Straw Poll, gaining four percent of the vote of a group of state Republican P! arty members.[15] In February 2011, the Tea Party Patriots organized and hosted the American Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. The 1,600 attendees were polled regarding their preference for a 2012 presidential candidate. Cain won the poll with 22%. Runners up were Tim Pawlenty (16%), Ron Paul (15%), and Sarah Palin (10%). Ron Paul won the Summit's online poll.[16] [edit] Building momentum On May 5, 2011 Fox News presented a presidential campaign debate. Cain was one of five potential candidates who participated. (The others were Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum as the higher-profile candidates declined Fox's invitation.) Cain was declared the overwhelming winner by pollster Frank Luntz after a show of hands among 29 debate witnesses who were chosen by Fox to act as a post-performance focus group.[17][18] On June 3, 2011, an Insider-Advantage poll showed Cain leading the field of Republican primary candidates among Georgia Republicans.[19] A July 2011 ! Zogby poll showed Cain in second place nationally, with 18% of! the vot e, behind Michele Bachmann and ahead of Romney.[20] Cain finished fifth in the Iowa Straw Poll on August 13, 2011 with 8.6% of the vote. Cain said he was satisfied with the result, writing in an email to supporters, "I have said from the beginning that I would not buy a straw poll victory. We worked hard. We organized. We turned our supporters out to the Straw Poll. While I did not place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, I am happy with our strong placing. I spent less money, had less name ID than the front runners, but our strong showing is evidence of the deep support for a non-politician problem solver who has the courage and conviction to change the way things work in Washington. I beat better known, better funded politicians...including those who have held titles like Governor and Speaker of the House."[21] [edit] Top-tier As a follow up to a September 22, 2011, debate performance in Orlando, Florida, at which Cain received high marks from focus groups and pundits,[22] Cain won the Sep! tember 24 Florida GOP Presidency 5 Straw Poll with 37% of the votes cast by Republican party activists in attendance; Cain's nearest competitor was Rick Perry, who garnered the support of 15% of attendees at the event.[23][24] A national interactive opinion survey released in September 2011 by IBOPE Zogby International showed Cain with a ten-point lead against the nearest competitor, Rick Perry, among likely 2012 Republican primary voters.[25] "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that Obama earns 39% support while Cain attracts 34%". Rassmussen went on to say, "In a match-up against President Obama, just 61% of Republicans are ready to vote for Cain. Eighteen percent (18%) would prefer a third option and 11% are not sure. Among unaffiliated voters, 33% prefer Cain, 31% Obama, and 36% aren't ready to commit to either candidate."[26] [edit] Front-runner On September 24, 2011, Cain won a surprise victory in a Republican presidential ! straw poll in Florida, with 37 percent of the 2,657 votes cast! . The fr ont-runner Rick Perry, who had been leading in the polls, came in second with 15 percent.[27] Continuing with his success, on October 1, 2011 Cain won the TeaCon Midwest straw poll by a landslide with 77% of the vote.[28] Cain also won the National Federation of Republican Women straw poll by a wide margin with 48.9%. The nearest contender was Rick Perry with 14.1%, followed closely by Mitt Romney with 13.3% and Newt Gingrich with 12.5%.[29] Of the delegates voting, 80% said they were satisfied with the field of candidates; asked whether they identified with the Tea Party, about half said yes and half said no.[30] A Fox News poll administered on October 23–25, showed Herman Cain as the front-runner receiving 24%, and Mitt Romney coming in at second place with 20%.[31] [edit] Controversies [edit] Legality of campaign funding On October 30, 2011, allegations surfaced that the Cain campaign may have been illegally funded by Mark Block's Prosperity USA.[32][33] As a tax-exempt! charity, Prosperity USA is not allowed to donate money or services to a political campaign.[34] Prosperity USA was apparently funded by the Koch family funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has previously employed both Cain and Block.[35][36] On October 31, 2011, Block denied that the Koch family had funded the Cain campaign.[37] [edit] Sexual harassment claims On October 31, Politico reported that two women had made sexual harassment claims against Cain while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.[38] When asked about the allegations in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Cain recalled that one of his accusers was a writer in the Association's communications department and stated that "my general counsel said this started out where she and her lawyer were demanding a huge financial settlement, I don't remember a number, but then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settle! ment." Cain said he did not recall the other woman's accusatio! n that h e had made an unwanted sexual advance during a trip to Chicago.[39] In the days following the publication of the original Politico story, accusations of sexual harassment from a third and then fourth woman came to light. The fourth woman, Sharon Bialek, became the first to come forward, identify herself, and present her story, which she did in a November 7, 2011 press conference with her attorney Gloria Allred. Bialek accused Cain of groping her in a car after a dinner in 1997 and claimed that "he also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch." Bialek said she had been seeking help from Cain, whom she had met before, after she had lost her job at the National Restaurant Association. In response to the accusations, the Herman Cain campaign immediately released a statement which said that "All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone."[40] [edit] Political positions Main article: Political positions of Herman ! Cain [edit] Economic issues The "centerpiece"[41] of Cain's 2012 presidential campaign has been the "9–9–9 plan",[42] replacing most current federal taxes with a 9% tax on business transactions, personal income and sales. Cain would eliminate the payroll tax, capital gains tax, and the estate tax. The federal tax deduction for charitable contributions would remain in effect, but all other federal tax deductions would be repealed.[43] Purchases of used goods would be exempt from the federal sales tax.[43] Federal excise taxes on cigarettes, beer, and gasoline would remain in effect.[44] Grover Norquist has questioned Cain's plan on the basis of adding a federal sales tax will allow for future increases in it.[45] Cain's "lead economist" Rich Lowrie has claimed that Cain's plan would collect $2.3 trillion in taxes while le
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Salon coverage: sharon bialek Rush Limbaugh and Dick Morris begin sliming Herman Cain's accuser! , but not every prominent conservative follows Read the rest
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Sharon Bialek is first woman to publicly accuse Cain of inappropriate behavior after three other accusers chose not to go public Read more by Corbett B Read the rest
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Sharon Bialek, a Chicago woman who worked at the National Restaurant Association in the mid-1990s has come forward to say that Herman Cain sexually harassed her while Read the rest
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WASHINGTON — Sharon Bialek is a straight-shooting single mom, the men in her life say. "She is very honest. She would not make anything up," her Read the rest
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Sharon Bialek said Cain made the unwanted advance after dinner in Washington when she asked for help finding a job after she was laid off by the National Read the rest
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Sharon ! Bialek i s the fourth woman to make sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain, but she is the first to voice her allegations in public. Read the rest
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NEW YORK — The three different all-news television networks took three different approaches to covering Monday's emergence of a fourth woman to accuse Read the rest
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Herman Cain accuser Sharon Bialek plans "as of now" to appear on two morning television shows Tuesday, her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said! . Bialek's allegation that Cain Read the rest
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Flanked by lawyer Gloria Allred, Sharon Bialek held a press conference Monday alleging sexual harassment by Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain. She says he Read the rest
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Sharon Bialek alleges Herman Cain of sexually inappropriate conduct. Sharon Bialek says Herman Cain was sexually inappropriate towards her in 1997 – but says she Read the rest