The first in a series – I’ll be breaking down each candidates stance on particular issues, like the economy, defense, health care, etc…  I’ll close it out with the current state of affairs for the particular candidate’s campaign.

First up Businessman Herman Cain, or as I like to call him “The Herminator” or whatever name pops into my head as I type.

Bio
Cain is truly one of the self-made men in this race.  His parents were literally dirt poor, growing up on dirt farms.  Born and raised in Atlanta Georgia, Cain put himself through Morehouse College getting his degree in Mathematics and earned his Masters in Computer Science at Purdue University.  He was working full time for the U.S. Navy while at Purdue.  He rose to the top of every organization he went to work for.  His last big business venture was as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.  He was also on the Board of Directors for several major companies, like Pillsbury, Coca Cola, Nabisco, and Whirlpool.  Prior to entering the race for President, Cain was a radio host and syndicated columnist in Georgia.

Political Experience
Cain’s experience with elections/campaigns comes from a failed senate bid for the Georgia seat in 2004.  He failed to win the party primary to challenge the democrat in the state wide election.  He briefly challenged George Bush in 2000 for president, withdrawing very early to back Steve Forbes.  Before all that, Cain was Bob Dole’s chief economic advisor during the 1996 presidential campaign.

The Issues

Economy
Well you should have all heard the Herminator’s economic plan by now, called the 999 Plan.  It’s a 9% business flat tax.  A 9% national sales tax and a 9% payroll tax.

Business’s in this country currently pay around 40%.

The national sales tax is in addition to your state sales tax, but only on new items not used, such as cars.

The current payroll tax for most of us is around 15%.

Once the country get comfortable with that plan Herm plans to move on to Phase 2 which would be the Fair Tax.  That’s much like the Flat Tax Steve Forbes trumpeted back in 2000, and what Gov. Perry is putting forward in this election.  Basically it means everybody pays a flat rate.  Perry’s is 20%.  It’s called the Fair Tax because in theory everyone would pay their fair share as 20% of 30 million a year is higher in dollar amount than 30 thousand a year but relatively equal in percent of income.  So the wealthy would pay a relative amount to their income.

Health Care
Opposed to “Obamacare” Cain will work to repeal it when he takes office if it’s not struck down by the supreme court before then.  His only real idea to change healthcare is to loosen the malpractice law, making it harder for people to bring lawsuits against doctors so doctors can feel more free to do their job without fear of frivolous lawsuits.  This is commonly referred to as Tort Reform.  You will hear this phrase a lot in the general election debates.

He wants to make the loser in malpractice suits pay the entire expense of the lawsuit.  So for example if a doctor takes out your right kidney instead of the damaged left one and you lose the lawsuit, you would be on the hook for the entire legal expense for yourself and the doctor.

He also would like to see people start their own personal healthcare account.  This would require you to put money away for your own healthcare instead of paying insurance premiums.

Education
The Herm favors school vouchers, seeking to expand the program so kids and parents can go where they want and not be stuck at the local public school, especially if that school is failing or unsafe.  He also wants to implement performance based pay and incentives for teachers.  This is a business model he used to great success in almost every endeavor.  He feels it will work in the school system.   Although not ready to dissolve the Department of Education like Ron Paul, he wants to limit it’s power, letting the states and local school boards run the schools.

Entitlements
These would include things like medicare and social security.  Cain has no specific stance on them other than he believes they are jeopardizing the country’s future.  Like his view on personal healthcare accounts, I would think Cain is in favor of privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Again requiring you to manage the money on your own, letting you decide on how much you put away to help in the lean years and letting the free market dictate prices for medical services.

Energy, National Security & Immigration
Cain has no specifics on these topics.  He speaks only in generic terms of  supporting the military and making America energy independent.

Current State of Affairs
Front runner beware.  The Herminator is under attack, almost 24/7.  He has next to no money plus he’s being piled on non-stop.  Now there are reports of sexual harassment suits against him when Herm was head of the National Restauranteurs Association.

It wasn’t that big of a deal until his campaign began fumbling and stumbling through explanations about it.  Cain’s campaign manager went on the Sunday morning talk shows and said all of it was completely untrue.  Then Herm says there may be something but he can’t recall.  By Tuesday he was recalling somethings but his answers changed 3 times from the morning talk shows till the time he got to Bill O’Riely’s No Spin Zone on Fox.  Bill was not a friend to Herm.  He asked great questions and called Herm out on some really bad answers.

The toughest part of that interview came from the national security question not the sexual harassment issue.  Herm said he viewed China as a military threat to the U.S. because China has signaled their intent to acquire nuclear capabilities.  Well Herm that ship sailed in the 1960s, when China began testing and eventually developing nuclear weapons.  In other words China developed a successful nuclear missile program while Cain was graduating from Morehouse College.

Still leading the polls, Herm is in for a rough ride.  There is even some twitter rumors that the Perry campaign actually leaked the sexual harassment issue to the media.  Perry responded that it wasn’t him, he likes Herm.  But Perry went on to say he would not put it past the Romney camp to do something like that.

Stay tuned folks. This story is not going away.  This will be a great lesson in politics.  It’s not the issue that hurts a candidate, it’s the way a candidate responds to it in the first few hours that will make or break their campaign.

Next week – Rick Perry profile.