Cain Would Beat Obama In Face-off, Poll Says

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Cain 43%, Obama 41%
The Rasmussen Reports


Whether Herman Cain’s surge in the polls is temporary or has staying power, he’s enjoying a big enough bounce to take a very slight lead over President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. At the moment, the Georgia businessman is the only Republican with a lead of any kind over Obama, although former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has held a similar advantage several times and is currently trailing the president by just two points.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Cain attracting 43% support, while Obama earns 41%. Given such a matchup, eight percent (8%) prefer some other candidate, and another eight percent (8%) are undecided.

Cain is tied with Romney for the lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Nobody else is even close at the moment.

Last week, Cain trailed Obama by three. The week before, he was behind by five. “Cain now has the chance to make the case for why he should be the challenger to Mitt Romney,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Many others have auditioned for the role and fallen flat, and it remains to be seen whether Cain’s fate will be similar.” Rasmussen interviewed Cain for the Rasmussen Report on radio show.

[RBP]

Interesting.

[Muddy]

Who do you think would win in a 'dance off' though?

[Loser]

If cain and obama were to air a live debate, cain would spank that motherfucker like a cheap whore. flat out.

[Acid Trip]

If cain and obama were to air a live debate, cain would spank that motherfucker like a cheap whore. flat out.

Hopefully we'll get to see that next year.

[Godfather]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cl2uAFP0uc&feature=player_embedded

[Muddy]

All jokes aside.. that 9-9-9 does sound like a pizza deal.. :lol:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Hopefully we'll get to see that next year.

Cain/Gingrich 2012 :thumbsup:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

If cain and obama were to air a live debate, cain would spank that motherfucker like a cheap whore. flat out.

:qft:

[Muddy]

Queasy Fart Tumor ?

[DemonGeminiX]

Fuck the face-off, I wanna see the death match. Let's get Jerry Springer on it!

:tup:

[Deepsepia]

If cain and obama were to air a live debate, cain would spank that motherfucker like a cheap whore. flat out.

Unclear. Do you know what your taxes would be under 9-9-9 ?

For middle income folks, that's a big tax increase. For wealthy folks, its a significant tax reduction.

I'd expect Obama would make that point. Maybe voters don't care about their taxes going up . . . seems like they do, though . . .

Cain is a professional motivational speaker, and he's a good one.

"Motivational speaker" doesn't impress me any more than "community activist" as relevant experience for the Presidency.

[Muddy]

Unclear. Do you know what your taxes would be under 9-9-9 ?

For middle income folks, that's a big tax increase. For wealthy folks, its a significant tax reduction.

Cain is a professional motivational speaker, and he's a good one.

"Motivational speaker" doesn't impress me any more than "community activist" as relevant experience for the Presidency.


I thought Cain also was the CEO of Godfathers pizza and brought them back from the verge of extinction..?

[DemonGeminiX]

I'm tellin' ya, guys... flying elbows, drop kicks... if Springer won't put it together, I'm sure Don King will!

:tup:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I thought Cain also was the CEO of Godfathers pizza and brought them back from the verge of extinction..?

He did....Deep left that out ;)


Business career

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, soon becoming director of business analysis in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.

At age 36, Cain was assigned in the 1980s first to analyze and ultimately to take the reins of Burger King, where he managed 400 stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain's leadership his region went, in three years, from the least profitable for Burger King to the most profitable. 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." 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."

His successes at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. Cain arrived on April 1, 1986, and 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." Aiming to cut costs, Cain, over a 14-month period, reduced the company from 911 stores to 420. As a result of his efforts, Godfather's Pizza became profitable. 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. Cain continued as CEO until 1996, when he resigned.

Later in 1996 he became CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobby organization for the restaurant industry, where he had previously been chairman concurrently with his role at Godfather's Pizza.

Cain became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992 and served as its chairman from January 1995 to August 1996, when he resigned to become active in national politics.

Cain was on the board of directors of Aquila, Inc. from 1992 to 2008, and also served as a board member for Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.

[DemonGeminiX]

Steel cage match!!!

:cheerlead:

[Muddy]

He did....Deep left that out ;)

I don't think Obama ever had a paying job did he?

[Deepsepia]

I thought Cain also was the CEO of Godfathers pizza and brought them back from the verge of extinction..?

He did run a pizza company -- a long time ago.

From what I gather, his last involvement with Godfather's was in 1995. He seems to have taken over a troubled -- but not bankrupt-- company in 1986, and managed it relatively well, though I haven't seen any actual numbers on Godfather's performance, so its hard to say.

Since 1996, he's been a motivational speaker and radio personality, not an executive. Judging from what he actually does, it appears that he likes talking about running things more than he likes actually running things.

[Acid Trip]

In addition to working as a Vice President for Burger King and CEO of Godfather's I guess being CEO of the National Restaurant Association, on the board of directors of the KC Fed, and on the board of directors of five companies since 1996 isn't executive experience.

Oh wait, all of those are executive experience. Silly me.

[Loser]

Unclear. Do you know what your taxes would be under 9-9-9 ?

For middle income folks, that's a big tax increase. For wealthy folks, its a significant tax reduction.

I'd expect Obama would make that point. Maybe voters don't care about their taxes going up . . . seems like they do, though . . .

Cain is a professional motivational speaker, and he's a good one.

"Motivational speaker" doesn't impress me any more than "community activist" as relevant experience for the Presidency.

What my taxes would be? Well, considering HALF my check is taken due to taxes at the moment, it would mean I would see about a 41% increase on each paycheck, minus whatever I purchase. *which isn't much*

Please, educate me how this would equate to a big tax increase?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

What my taxes would be? Well, considering HALF my check is taken due to taxes at the moment, it would mean I would see about a 41% increase on each paycheck, minus whatever I purchase. *which isn't much*

Please, educate me how this would equate to a big tax increase?

Everybody seems to call it a huge tax "increase" because suddenly people that pay no taxes yet use the most resources will actually have to start shouldering the burden. The working class (like most people at this forum I would assume) would see a decent tax cut.

That's why the buzzword right now is "regressive taxation" because the uber liberals believe that they shouldn't be responsible for paying their fair share of things.

[Acid Trip]

What my taxes would be? Well, considering HALF my check is taken due to taxes at the moment, it would mean I would see about a 41% increase on each paycheck, minus whatever I purchase. *which isn't much*

Please, educate me how this would equate to a big tax increase?

It doesn't. I'll write out the Math. I'll use an income of $50k for these numbers.

$50,000 - $4,500 (9% income tax) = $45,500 in take home pay.

If you spent every dollar you had left on new purchases you'd pay 9% of $45,500 in federal sales tax which comes to $4,095.

So, if you made $50,000, paid your 9% income tax and your 9% federal sales tax you'd pay a total of $8,595 in federal taxes.

$8,595 is approximately 17% of $50,000. What is the current federal tax rate for earners of $50k? 25%. The 25% doesn't even include all the other taxes that are added on (like Social Security and Medicare taxes).

Do I want to pay OVER 25% in federal taxes or 17%? I'll take the 17%.

[Deepsepia]

In addition to working as a Vice President for Burger King and CEO of Godfather's I guess being CEO of the National Restaurant Association, on the board of directors of the KC Fed, and on the board of directors of five companies since 1996 isn't executive experience.

Oh wait, all of those are executive experience. Silly me.

No, actually being a member of the board of directors of something is not considered executive experience. A director of a company -- unless ex officio with some other explicit executive role (EG Steve Jobs was President and Chairman of the Board of Apple, whereas Al Gore is merely a director at Apple) -- is not an executive, and has no authority except as a director. Boards of Directors of public companies typically meet once a quarter to hear a report from management, and when a vote of the Board is required. In US public companies, they typically do very little, unless management has screwed up egregiously, or they represent an "activist" shareholder -- because generally their appointment is the choice of management, and they're quite happy to do management's bidding in exchange for a check and minimal responsibilities. (in private, venture backed companies, VC Directors typically have a much more "hand-on" role, devoting 1/2 a day to a day a week to their companies, but that's very different from a public company)

The National Restaurant Association is a lobbying organization, not a company. There's no "business", just issue advocacy-- so he was a lobbyist with at best minimal "executive" responsibility (had to hire a secretary or public relations firm, I'm sure, but most of a job like that is shmoozing politicians)

His experience at Burger King goes back even before Godfathers.

In other words, this guy hasn't actually had a position with significant executive responsibilities since 1996.

He has earned his living with his mouth, serving on boards, and selling books, not by actually running anything for the last 15 years. And we actually don't know much about his heralded success at Godfathers beyond what he's told us. It sounds like he accomplished a turnaround of a unit which had languished inside a big conglomerate (Pillsbury), but the only number that we know much about is that he closed more than half the Godfathers' stores.

[DemonGeminiX]

... why the buzzword wight now...

:-s

Wight now?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbqv3MwwVd8

[Muddy]

No, actually being a member of the board of directors of something is not considered executive experience. A director of a company -- unless ex officio with some other explicit executive role (EG Steve Jobs was President and Chairman of the Board of Apple, whereas Al Gore is merely a director at Apple) -- is not an executive, and has no authority except as a director. Boards of Directors of public companies typically meet once a quarter to hear a report from management, and when a vote of the Board is required. In US public companies, they typically do very little, unless management has screwed up egregiously, or they represent an "activist" shareholder -- because generally their appointment is the choice of management, and they're quite happy to do management's bidding in exchange for a check and minimal responsibilities. (in private, venture backed companies, VC Directors typically have a much more "hand-on" role, devoting 1/2 a day to a day a week to their companies, but that's very different from a public company)

The National Restaurant Association is a lobbying organization, not a company. There's no "business", just issue advocacy-- so he was a lobbyist with at best minimal "executive" responsibility (had to hire a secretary or public relations firm, I'm sure, but most of a job like that is shmoozing politicians)

His experience at Burger King goes back even before Godfathers.

In other words, this guy hasn't actually had a position with significant executive responsibilities since 1996.

He has earned his living with his mouth, serving on boards, and selling books, not by actually running anything for the last 15 years. And we actually don't know much about his heralded success at Godfathers beyond what he's told us. It sounds like he accomplished a turnaround of a unit which had languished inside a big conglomerate (Pillsbury), but the only number that we know much about is that he closed more than half the Godfathers' stores.

I thought he rolled out the $9.99 deal also? :dance:

[JoeyB]

I thought he rolled out the $9.99 deal also? :dance:

I did that with all my ho's and the 'quickie suckie suckie'. People loved it!

[Muddy]

All BS aside... Deep does have a point... It's easy to make a company look profitable when you come in and cull out all the non performers.. Isn't really rocket science.. :lol:

[JoeyB]

All BS aside... Deep does have a point... It's easy to make a company look profitable when you come in and cull out all the non performers.. Isn't really rocket science.. :lol:

Unless you sell rockets.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

All BS aside... Deep does have a point... It's easy to make a company look profitable when you come in and cull out all the non performers.. Isn't really rocket science.. :lol:

Odd....for something that you say isn't rocket science, it seems that it can't be grasped even remotely by all the people we already have in Washington :-k

[DemonGeminiX]

Odd....for something that you say isn't rocket science, it seems that it can't be grasped even remotely by all the people we already have in Washington :-k

:-s

And that surprises you?

[Muddy]

Odd....for something that you say isn't rocket science, it seems that it can't be grasped even remotely by all the people we already have in Washington :-k


Im with you, but really...

What are our biggest expenditures as a country? Anyone have the breakdown?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:-s

And that surprises you?

Doesn't surprise me at all, but it seems to surprise everyone else. Everyone complains about the "same old BS" in Washington yet they keep voting for the same thing every election whining that there is never an alternative. Now when we finally have an alternative, all those same people are saying "I can't vote for that guy, he has no experience" :hand:

[JoeyB]

Im with you, but really...

What are our biggest expenditures as a country? Anyone have the breakdown?

By far, the military.

[RBP]

Im with you, but really...

What are our biggest expenditures as a country? Anyone have the breakdown?

Federal Expenditures

http://i.imgur.com/sKUun.jpg

[Muddy]

Fuckin Christ! 21% on pensions??

[Deepsepia]

All BS aside... Deep does have a point... It's easy to make a company look profitable when you come in and cull out all the non performers.. Isn't really rocket science.. :lol:

I wouldn't want to say that its not an accomplishment.

Most people don't want to fire people, and you do need someone with the brass to say, "love you, hope you find a nice job somewhere else, but this job is done".

My rap on Cain is that he last did this sort of thing 15 years ago. Since then, he's been a talker and a lobbyist.

Romney and Perry are much more substantial -- you can point to big organizations that they've run, recently.

Me, I look at the Presidency as a management job, not an ideological one. The country needs a good manager more than anything else . . . not another good talker.

[RBP]

I wouldn't want to say that its not an accomplishment.

Most people don't want to fire people, and you do need someone with the brass to say, "love you, hope you find a nice job somewhere else, but this job is done".

My rap on Cain is that he last did this sort of thing 15 years ago. Since then, he's been a talker and a lobbyist.

Romney and Perry are much more substantial -- you can point to big organizations that they've run, recently.

Me, I look at the Presidency as a management job, not an ideological one. The country needs a good manager more than anything else . . . not another good talker.

Where was this during the last election cycle???

[Muddy]

I wouldn't want to say that its not an accomplishment.

Most people don't want to fire people, and you do need someone with the brass to say, "love you, hope you find a nice job somewhere else, but this job is done".

My rap on Cain is that he last did this sort of thing 15 years ago. Since then, he's been a talker and a lobbyist.

Romney and Perry are much more substantial -- you can point to big organizations that they've run, recently.

Me, I look at the Presidency as a management job, not an ideological one. The country needs a good manager more than anything else . . . not another good talker.


With the proper VP he could be something... Or maybe him as the VP to 'keep it real'..

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Im with you, but really...

What are our biggest expenditures as a country? Anyone have the breakdown?

Most liberals will use the rallying cry of "The Evil Military" but that's a huge misnomer and a bit disingenuous. Yes, the defense spending is the biggest section of the discretionary spending part of the budget, but discretionary spending is only about 1/3 of the Federal budget and defense spending is only a portion of the discretionary spending section of the budget. Mandatory spending is 2/3 of the budget and that's what's crippling the economy because that's the part of the budget that is growing and growing and most of it is social spending (Medicare and Social Security being the 2 biggest chunks).

Here's an interactive chart of what the administrations 2011 budget proposal was:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html

[JoeyB]

Most liberals will use the rallying cry of "The Evil Military" but that's a huge misnomer and a bit disingenuous.

Cost of war...not included...

[Muddy]

How much of our budget is paying back this debt?

[Muddy]

Most liberals will use the rallying cry of "The Evil Military" but that's a huge misnomer and a bit disingenuous. Yes, the defense spending is the biggest section of the discretionary spending part of the budget, but discretionary spending is only about 1/3 of the Federal budget and defense spending is only a portion of the discretionary spending section of the budget. Mandatory spending is 2/3 of the budget and that's what's crippling the economy because that's the part of the budget that is growing and growing and most of it is social spending (Medicare and Social Security being the 2 biggest chunks).

Here's an interactive chart of what the administrations 2011 budget proposal was:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html

I would add in veterans benefits into military..

[Deepsepia]

Where was this during the last election cycle???

I supported Romney in 2008 for precisely this reason.

Had McCain said "the country is in a jam, and I'm picking the most experienced financial manager in either party as my VP" -- well I dunno if he'd have won, but he'd have gotten my vote.

[JoeyB]

I would add in veterans benefits into military..


Most liberals will use the rallying cry of "The Evil Military" but that's a huge misnomer and a bit disingenuous. Yes, the defense spending is the biggest section of the discretionary spending part of the budget, but discretionary spending is only about 1/3 of the Federal budget and defense spending is only a portion of the discretionary spending section of the budget.
Here's an interactive chart of what the administrations 2011 budget proposal was:


How much of our budget is paying back this debt?

Here is what Lance doesn't get...and mind you he showed you a budget proposal chart, but...

Well over 50%, close to 55% of all tax money goes right to the military.

Why?

Because the pentagon and the defense budget is a misleading chunk...though, even by Lance's slight estimate it is 25%...who needs to be spending that much?

But, you also need to factor in a shit load of other monies included elsewhere in the budget that don't look like military expenditures. The government charts hide this information by not letting you know what in the other sections is actually military, and by overlooking the fact that social security, while part of the budget, is PRE PAID FOR BY WORKERS. The money has gone in for that already.

And, one important thing to remember is that 80% of the interest being paid on the national debt is related to military spending. Which means that the biggest chunk of the interest payments are there simply to pay back what the pentagon couldn't afford even with it's already ridiculously bloated budget.

But there you are, factoring in war and the above, you get nearly 55%. The military wants more, and the republicans and the tea party are refusing to cut the military budget.

Oh and Muddy, I accidentally gave you a bit of off information earlier, when I told you our military budget was equal to the next twenty countries combined...it's actually fifteen. And also, it only includes the straight pentagon budget, not past military spending, not veterans benefits, and not the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just...the straight pentagon chunk.

Think about that...the next fifteen highest spending countries in the world COMBINED spend slightly less than we do on the pentagon.

And who are these nefarious countries?

The Netherlands, Indonesia, Canada, Australia, Italy, Brazil, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Russia, and China.

Most of those countries are our allies.

Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, none of them even appear in the top 16.

The US accounts for nearly half of all military spending...of the entire world.

You decide if we overspend on it or not.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Ah, I was waiting for this kinda post, thanks for not disappointing. :)


Please tell me, and I'm being completely serious and sincere with this question, do you honestly think that that what China and Russia claim their current military budgets are is really what they are spending?

As far as all the European countries you listed that we spend more than, of course you left out the part where they don't need to spend as much because they rely heavily on the United States if any shit were to go down. We'd be there in a heartbeat to help defend our European allies and we spend a ton of money maintaining bases, troops, and equipment over there. So all we need to do is tell the Europeans to piss off and defend themselves, then we can lower our military budget here, that shouldn't upset our allies too much at all :)

And of course none of that military spending is ever used for humanitarian efforts when there are disasters around the world. We absolutely never send troops and supplies and aid anywhere when a disaster hits.

You should do a little research on Social Security as well....it's paying out more than it's taking in, you know, that's the whole reason it's going to be insolvent soon if drastic changes aren't made to the program? Not to mention that Congress keeps "borrowing" from it as well. That money isn't just sitting there in a pile waiting to be paid out to the SS recipients. Nice try though.

[Acid Trip]

I love how Deep said "For middle income folks, that's a big tax increase" and then completely ignored my Math showing how very wrong he was. If 50k in income isn't "middle income" what number would you prefer I use?

Board of Directors isn't executive experience eh? I don't know what planet you live on but everyone on our board is a current CEO or ex-CEO. I'll make sure to pass your comments on to my board to start our next meeting with a good laugh.

So what does just every site on the internet say about a board of directors? Sounds like it has a lot of executive duties involved...

The board of directors is the highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded company. It is the board's job to select, evaluate, and approve appropriate compensation for the company's chief executive officer (CEO), evaluate the attractiveness of and pay dividends, recommend stock splits, oversee share repurchase programs, approve the company's financial statements, and recommend or strongly discourage acquisitions and mergers.

Then you rail on Cain for cutting the fat to make Godfather's profitable? His job was to make the company profitable and he did that. You don't think someone needs to cut the fat from our bloated bureaucracy? You don't think Romney ever closed businesses and fired people doing takeovers? You voted for a community organizer last election and now you're totally AGAINST one of the guys with real world executive experience as though it's not enough?

:-k That's a curious line of thinking.