Herman

Herman Cain

- Opinion/Right
Raised in rural Georgia, Herman Cain adopted the lessons of his parents - dedication to hard work and the importance of faith - and carried them with him to the pinnacle of the corporate world. Cain earned a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College in 1967 and later earned a master's degree in computer science from Purdue University, while working as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. He then worked as a business analyst for The Coca-Cola Company. In 1968, he married his wife, Gloria and they have two grown children.

In 1977, Herman Cain joined The Pillsbury Company and within three years, at the age of 34, rose to the position of Vice President of Corporate Systems and Services. Cain, reflecting his father's drive to seek greater challenges, then set his sights on a corporate presidency.

With this goal ahead of him and his mother's faith to support him, Cain resigned his senior position and started on another career path - the restaurant industry. He started from the ground up by making hamburgers at Pillsbury's Burger King division. Nine months later, he was managing 400 Burger King units in the Philadelphia region, the country's poorest performer. Within three years, his region had earned the reputation for excellence and was the company's best.

In 1986, Pillsbury appointed Cain to the presidency of the then financially troubled Godfather's Pizza, Inc. chain headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. In 14 short months, under Cain's leadership, the chain regained profitability. In 1988, he led his executive team in a buyout of the company from Pillsbury.

Cain was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association in 1998. In 1994 to 1995, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. While leading this association, he developed the organization into a pro-business voice via national debates and speeches concerning health care reform, employment policies, and taxation. Following this experience, he was appointed to serve on the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission in addition serving as Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He then became a senior advisor to the 1996 Dole/Kemp campaign for the Presidency.

Herman Cain continued the responsibilities of President and Chairman of Godfather's Pizza, Incorporated, while beginning a second career delivering national keynote speeches. Using his messages as the foundation, he created his own leadership consulting company, T.H.E. Incorporated (The Hermanator Experience). T.H.E. packages his speaking and develops his products, including books, videotapes and audio tapes, CDs of gospel music, and promotes his keynote speeches. He has authored three books to date on topics ranging from leadership to self-empowerment including "Leadership is Common Sense" and "CEO of Self." In 2002, he became an Executive Lecturer for the Gallup Organization.

In 1996, Cain became CEO and President of the National Restaurant Association. He had been a member of the NRA Board since 1988, and had served as its elected volunteer chairman in 1994/1995. Cain thus became the only volunteer chairman to become the full-time CEO and President of the Association while still a member of the Board. Cain headed the NRA in this position for two and a half years.

In 1999, Cain sought to leverage his restaurant experience with the technology market and he became CEO and President of RetailDNA. Its mission is to provide innovative marketing solutions to the retail sector.

Today, Herman is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host on “The Herman Cain Show” out of Atlanta’s WSB 750AM and is a FOX News Business Commentator. Cain remains President and CEO of T.H.E., Incorporated and serves on the Boards of Directors for AGCO Corporation, Aquila, Incorporated, Reader's Digest Association, Incorporated, Hallmark Cards Incorporated and Whirlpool Corporation. In 2004, he ran as a candidate for the United States Senate from Georgia.

The People Cry Out for Domestic Oil Drilling, But Democrats are Deaf

A recent Consumer Reports survey as reported on the Fox News Channel indicated that 77 percent of Americans blame Congress for our oil price crisis. This implies that the Democrats’ attempt to shift the blame to oil executives, OPEC and oil speculators did not work.

Seventy-four percent of likely voters, according to a recent Zogby poll, support oil drilling in U.S. coastal waters. And yet the Democrats blocked legislation in the Senate and the House several times within the last few weeks.

Congressman Lynn Westmoreland has gotten 183 of his congressional colleagues to sign a simple petition that says, “I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices”, and as of June 28, 2008, not a single Democrat had signed the petition.

One has to say that the Democrats have shown incredible unity on ignoring public opinion, online petitions, congressional petitions, thousands of e-mails and phone calls for the sake of increasing their chokehold on power in the United States Congress.

Congratulations to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for keeping the Democratic ducks in line on the wrong side of the issue, while our dependence on foreign oil gradually picks the pockets of consumers and chokes the life out of our economy.

The list of lame excuses for their dogged position of not exploring the various resources we have right here at home would insult the intelligence of a fifth grader. Maybe they assume that most of their Democratic followers did not get past the fourth grade. I think not, but how else do you explain their deafness to the people?

This is another fine example of the “new direction” the Democrats promised in the 2006 election cycle – namely, backwards again.

Our days of cheap oil are over because Congress has allowed this country to get too far behind as a potential player in the world energy market.

Our energy situation will only get worse because the mass availability of alternative fuels and vehicles will take time to become commonplace.

The faceless enemy of capitalism and American energy independence has the Democrats in Congress right in the palm of its hands.

There is no single solution to our energy dilemma, and there is no one action by Congress or the president that will have an immediate effect on our pain at the pump. Inaction of the past has put us in our situation today, while today’s inaction by Congress will compound our energy problems of the future.

If the Democrats’ deafness to the people is pure political strategy, then it is a very dangerous strategy. Thomas Jefferson said, “The American people will not make a mistake, if they are given all the facts.”

The Democrats in Congress may be deaf to the people, but the people will not be blind to the facts forever.