Herman Cain (wikipedia)
Herman Cain was born on December 13, 1945,[1] in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain, a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain, who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for The Coca-Cola Company President Robert W. Woodruff.
.. In 2006 Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in his colon and metastases to his liver and given a 30 percent chance of survival. Cain underwent surgery and chemotherapy following the diagnosis, and has since reported that he is in remission.[8]
Disclosures filed during his campaign in 2011 categorized Cain’s wealth at that time as being between $2.9 and $6.6 million, with Cain’s combined income for both 2010 and 2011 being between $1.1 and $2.1 million.[9]
Cain also serves as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10.[10] The church is part of the National Baptist Convention[11] and is politically liberal and theologically conservative; the church’s senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, did not share Cain’s political philosophy.[12][13]
.. After completing his master’s degree from Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury,[17][18] soon becoming director of business analysis[19] in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.[20][21]
.. At age 36, Cain was assigned in the 1980s to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years.[17][22] According to a 1987 account in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pillsbury’s then-president Win Wallin said, “He was an excellent bet. Herman always seemed to have his act together.”[20] At Burger King, Cain “established the BEAMER program, which taught our employees, mostly teenagers, how to make our patrons smile” by smiling themselves. It was a success: “Within three months of the program’s initiation, the sales trend was moving steadily higher.”[23]
Cain’s success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather’s Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain told employees, “I’m Herman Cain and this ain’t no April Fool’s joke. We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everyone else that we will survive.”[20] Godfather’s Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988.[17] Under Cain’s leadership, Godfather’s closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability.[9] In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, executive vice president and COO Ronald B. Gartlan, and a group of investors bought Godfather’s from Pillsbury.[17]
.. Cain left Godfather’s Pizza in 1996 and moved to Washington, D.C. From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served.[26] Cain’s lobbying work for the association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians.[9] Under Cain’s leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.[27]
Cain was on the board of directors of Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader’s Digest, and AGCO, Inc.[20][28][29]
.. Cain’s senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain’s 9–9–9 tax plan ..
.. Cain’s addresses to conservative groups were well received,[66][67] and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won the straw polls of the Florida Republican Party, TeaCon, and the National Federation of Republican Women‘s Convention.[68][69] “My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates,” said GOP pollster Frank Luntz. “Don’t underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential.”[68][70]
.. For President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express chose Cain to give its second annual response.[95
.. Although Mitt Romney was endorsed by Cain on May 15, 2012,[100] he would eventually lose the general election to President Obama.[101] Cain then told Bryan Fischer that the Republican Party no longer represented the interests of conservatives in the United States and that it did not have “the ability to rebrand itself.” He believed that “a legitimate third party” would be needed to replace it.[102]