Herman Cain Quotes

I well remember, as a young teenager, seeing signs printed in large black letters at the fronts of buses: "White seat from front, colored seat from rear." One day when I was thirteen, my friends and I were riding home from school in a half-empty bus — this was at the time that the civil rights movement was just getting off the ground and some police officers were just looking for a reason to shoot a black person who "got out of line." So, counter to our real feelings, we decided to avoid trouble by moving to the back of the bus when the driver told us to.
By that time, the sit-ins and the Freedom Rides had kind of broken the ice, even though things hadn't fully changed. So we saw it every day on TV and read about it in the news. Dad always said, "Stay out of trouble," and we did.

The American dream is under attack because our government has been hijacked by the liberals in Washington, D.C. ... They want you to believe that they're going to drag out enough prisoners and dead people to win the election. Well, let me tell you a little secret. Conservatives that are alive outnumber the dead people and prisoners. ... I have a message for the political elites in Washington, D.C.: The United States of America is not going to become the United States of Europe, not on our watch.

And in November 2012, the day after the election, when we wake up that morning and all the votes are counted, and they declare not only all of the local election results, the statewide election results, the senatorial results, and when we wake up and they declare the presidential results, and Herman Cain has been elected, we'll be able to say: "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty this nation is free at last again."

Lawrence O'Donnell: Where do you think black people would be sitting on the bus today if Rosa Parks had followed your father's advice?
Herman Cain: My father was not giving Rosa Parks advice. Here again, Lawrence, you are distorting the intent of what I said. I was a high school student. The college students were doing the sit-ins. The college students were doing the Freedom Rides. If I had been a college student, I probably would have been participating.
Lawrence O'Donnell: Mr. Cain, in fact, you were in college from 1963 to 1967, at the height of the civil rights movement, exactly when the most important demonstrations and protests were going on. You could easily, as a student at Morehouse, between 1963 and 1967, actively participated in the kinds of protests that got African Americans the rights they enjoy today. You watched from that perspective at Morehouse when you were not participating in those processes. You watch black college students from around the country and white college students from around the country come to the South and be murdered fighting for the right of African Americans. Do you regret sitting on those sidelines at that time?
Herman Cain: Lawrence, your attempt to say that I sat on the sidelines is an irrelevant comparison that you are trying to deduce from that—
Lawrence O'Donnell: It's in your book. It's in your book.
Herman Cain: Now, Lawrence, I know what's in my book. Now, let me ask you a question. Did you expect every black student and every black college in America to be out there, in the middle of every fight? The answer is no. So for you to say, why was I sitting on the sidelines, I think that that is an inaccurate deduction that you are trying to make. You didn't know, Lawrence, what I was doing with the rest of my life. You didn't know what my family situation may have been. Maybe, just maybe, I had a sick relative, which is why I might not have been sitting in, or doing the Freedom Rides. So what I'm saying, Lawrence, is, with all due respect my friend, your deduction is incorrect, and it's not logical, okay?

We don't need to rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America, we need to re-read the Constitution and enforce the Constitution. We don't need to re-write, let's reread! And I know that there are some people that are not going to do that. So for the benefit of those who are not going to read it because they don't want us to go by the Constitution, there's a little section in there that talks about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". You know, those ideals that we live by, we believe in, your parents believed in, they instilled in you. When you get to the part about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," don't stop right there, keep reading. 'Cause that's when it says "when any form of government becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it". We've got some altering and some abolishing to do!

Wolf Blitzer: Why is the Republican party basically posion for so many African Americans?
Herman Cain: Because many African Americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view. I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative. So it's just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple.
Wolf Blitzer: That's a strong word to talk about your fellow African Americans, "brainwashed"?
Herman Cain: For two thirds of them, Wolf, that is the case.

Herman Cain: My reaction is, that is very insensitive. There are some words that do not basically inspire the kind of negativity like that particular word. And I know that you've refrained from saying that word, so I'm going to say what the word was on the rock. The name of the place was called "Niggerhead". That is very insensitive. And since Governor Perry has been going there for years to hunt, I think that shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off of that rock and renaming the place. It's just a basic case of insensitivity.
Christiane Amanpour: It was painted over.
Herman Cain: Yes, it was painted over. But how long ago was it painted over? So I'm still saying that it is a sign of insensitivity.

If Obamacare had been fully implemented when I caught cancer, I'd be dead and here's why. Here's why. I was able to go to the doctors that I wanted to go to. As fast as they could do the test. I didn't have to wait six months like you do in other countries to get a CAT scan, and sometimes people die before they get the CAT scan, because the cancer in my body was spreading so fast. But because I was able to get the treatment as soon as I could, and to get the quality care that I did, that's what has me alive today. You ought to be able to make those choices if you get a serious illness, not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.

Engage the people. Don't try to pass a 2,700 page bill — and even they didn't read it! You and I didn't have time to read it. We're too busy trying to live — send our kids to school. That's why I am only going to allow small bills — three pages. You'll have time to read that one over the dinner table. What does Herman Cain, President Cain talking about in this particular bill?

I could eat black walnut all the time, it's not a flavor of the week!

Let me be clear. I am, you know, exploring this whole Presidential run. Let me just tell you what the Cain Doctrine would be as it relates to Israel, if I were President: You mess with Israel, you are messing with the United States of America. It's that simple. I want to protect that relationship because they have been our only consistent ally in that part of the world.

We need a leader, not a reader.

They have only three tactics: S.I.N. They shift the subject, they ignore the facts, and they name-call. Am I right? That's all they do.

Sean Hannity: For what possible reason would he possibly want to destroy America's economy and place in the world. Where is that coming from?
Herman Cain: Where I'm coming from is if you weaken the United States militarily, economically, and culturally, then America is gonna suffer from the same problems that all of— a lot of the other countries suffer from, and that opens the door to some dramatic change in how we run this country.
Sean Hannity: Would that fit into black liberation theology, social, Marxism, redistribution, G.D. America, America's chickens have come home to roost—?
Herman Cain: It fits into what I would call anti-American, anti-Constitutional, anti-Declaration of Independence. That's what it fits into.

Hey, Neil, a reporter asked me would I appoint a Muslim to my administration. I did say no, and here's why. The reporter didn't tell you this. I would have to have people totally committed to the Declaration and the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this country.