U.S. Border Control

Hillary Clinton is making no sense

Herman Cain
November 5, 2007

When asked during the October 30, 2007 Democratic presidential debate whether she supported Governor Elliot Spitzer’s proposal to provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, Hillary Clinton said, “It makes a lot of sense, but I did not say it should be done.”

If something makes a lot of sense, then why not just do it? Or, is this another way of saying she is for it and against it, instead of not being able to tell if she is for it or against it. Either way, it gives no indication of where she stands on a very direct question about rewarding illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses. For the record, I’m against it!

Even two of her Democratic rivals for the party’s nomination criticized the response as making no sense. John Edwards of North Carolina called it another example of her “double talk” (USA Today article by Kathy Kiely, October 31, 2007), and Barack Obama stated, “I can’t tell whether she is for it or against it.”

Preceding her non-answer to the question, which was posed directly to her a second time by NBC’s Tim Russet of “Meet the Press”, Hillary said, “This is where everybody plays ‘gotcha’.”

I think people were just looking for an answer.

I suppose it was “gotcha” when Hillary proposed giving every baby born in the U.S. a $5,000 baby bond, but in less than a week retracted the idea. When she proposed giving a $1,000 matching contribution to everyone with a 401(k) retirement account, someone wanted to know how that idea related to Social Security. Hillary stated the accounts would not replace any part of Social Security, but she is committed to addressing the long-term challenges of that program. I suppose asking “How?” would be another “gotcha”.

So! While the Social Security system keeps on ticking (as in a financial time bomb), Hillary proposes to give people a few crumbs of their FICA taxes back in the form of a “matching refundable tax credit” to be perceived as getting retirement help from Uncle Sam.

Only the Hillary Kool-Aid drinkers do not see a pattern here. If she is asked a difficult question, she responds with that annoying cackle, as when she was asked about her health care proposal recently on four TV news programs. Or her allies will say she is being attacked. Or she responds to a question in doubletalk. Or, the questioner is playing gotcha.

In the last several weeks we have seen Hillary Clinton display her ability for issue avoidance, more government giveaway proposals, political doubletalk and opportunistically playing the gender card, while claiming to be the most experienced candidate. Some of us are still waiting to hear and see the evidence that she is the most experienced candidate.

Hillary has had the highest national name ID since the official beginning of the race for the White House. She has built upon her name ID with the backing of the Democratic establishment, the perception of leadership and the liberal preferences of the mainstream media.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post calls Hillary Clinton the “strong front-runner” among the Democratic presidential candidates. Each week, the polls report her increasing lead over Barack Obama and John Edwards. Democratic “strategists” seem eager to just skip the formality of the primary elections and crown her the nominee. As Marcus writes, “It’s Clinton’s Race to Lose”.

I believe it is America’s future to lose if we elect a president skilled at managing perceptions, but having no depth of experience in leadership and a demonstrated lack of common sense problem solving skills.

Hillary as president just does not make any sense.

Herman Cain was raised in Georgia. He 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, 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, THE New Voice, Inc. THE New Voice, Inc. packages his speaking and develops his products, including books, DVDs, 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 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 THE New Voice, Inc. 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.