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Cain takes his message to a crowd in Bartlett, Tenn., on Oct. 14 Karen Pulfer Focht/ZUMA Press/Corbis
Last week the leaders of the Arizona Republican Party had to scramble when they suddenly realized, along with everyone else in politics, that Herman Cain was the new Republican front-runner. Cain was due to headline an Oct. 17 fundraiser at a Phoenix hotel. Then the world saw him dominate a Presidential debate and discovered his 9-9-9 tax plan. After that, a hotel would no longer do. The event was moved down the street to the Phoenix Convention Center, and still sold out.
Confident and beaming, Cain delivered a thunderous 40-minute oration that had the feel of a tent revival and repeatedly returned to his 9-9-9 plan. Although usually identified as the former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza or the onetime chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, Cain’s ardent professional passion during the last decade and a half has been motivational speaking and book publishing, and his address was brisk with problem-solving knowhow offered up in simple, easy steps.
Cain and his 9-9-9 plan got pilloried by the other candidates at the Republican debate in Las Vegas the next evening, confirming his arrival in the top tier, where laughter is a luxury the competition can no longer afford. As a first-time object of real scrutiny, he looked a little shaken. But it’s testimony to his pitchman’s skills that the overflow crowd in Phoenix recognized each provision of his plan and cheered lustily as they were introduced: a 9 percent personal income tax, a 9 percent corporate income tax, and a 9 percent sales tax, to replace the entire U.S. tax code. Cain wasn’t just selling his plan. He was also plugging his latest book, This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, which just debuted at No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller List. And although he has a Horatio Alger story to match anyone’s—raised poor in the Deep South, rose to the top of the corporate hierarchy—the adoring throngs and the sanctuary of this private event seemed to loosen his inhibitions. “My American dream,” he boomed, “was, when I grow up, I want to make me some money!”
Cain is making money, alright. Bloomberg News reported on Oct. 17 that his campaign paid more than $65,000 to his personal publishing company to buy copies of his books and pamphlets. In an interview before his address to the Arizona GOP, he told me that he continues to give motivational speeches to corporations at $25,000 a pop even as he campaigns for President. “I’m still doing paid speeches,” he confirmed. “But I have not raised my prices. This economy’s on life support, so I’m very mindful of those companies that would like to have me come and speak. But I’m not gonna take advantage of my newfound popularity just to put more dollars in my pocket.” Even so, Cain estimates that he has earned $250,000 this year through his speeches.
Running for President has been good to him, even if no one is certain that the White House is his most coveted destination. Opponents, reporters, and many of his own aides are skeptical. In June, four of his top staffers in Iowa and New Hampshire quit because, as one of them put it, Cain “wasn’t willing to make the commitment to Iowa necessary to win.” Over the past few months, as his popularity has swelled, he has turned his back on the early primary states he once courted diligently and set off on a national book tour to promote This is Herman Cain! He has a bare-bones staff, a thin calendar, and hasn’t registered his name on the ballot in numerous primary states, although he has registered appearances on the Today show and dozens of others to pitch his book.
