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| Herman Cain with Moi when visting New Media Journalist at CPAC conference in Feb. 2011 |
“I came here to declare
my candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States
of America, this moment,” Cain said. “And, just to be clear, just to be clear,
in case you accidentally listen to a skeptic out there, let me say it again:
I’m running for President of the United States and I’m not running for second.
I’m not running for second.”
“Now, let me tell you,
because I’ve had reporters ask
me sometimes, ‘well, are you running just to get attention and maybe come in
second or maybe to get a cabinet position?’ I said you don’t know very much
about me,” Cain said. “I don’t run for second. I’m running to be number one.”
Cain said one of the
biggest reasons he’s running for president is because, “we have become a nation
of crises.”
“We have a moral crisis,” Cain said. “We got
an economic
crisis. We’ve got an entitlement spending crisis. We’ve got an immigration
crisis. We’ve got afoggy foreign affairs crisis. And, we’ve got a deficiency of
leadership crisis in the White House. There is a big difference between
leadership and positionship.”
Cain spokeswoman Ellen
Carmichael tweeted that on-site
security officials reported more than 15,000 people were at the rally.
The event’s emcee,
conservative radio host
Martha Zoller, hinted at some concerns critics of Cain’s candidacy have while
opening up the day. Zoller pointed
to a recent Gallup poll that found only 29 percent of all Republicans nationwide
are aware of Cain. “But he has the most enthusiasm of his supporters of anyone
out there,” Zoller said, pointing to the fact that the Gallup poll also found
that 25 percent of all Republicans have a strongly favorable opinion of Cain.
Zoller describes Cain as
“a man of integrity” and said she thinks “it is a plus for him that he is not
from inside the beltway.”
Since the Fox News GOP
primary debate in South Carolina at the beginning of the month, Cain has
performed better in polling. In the latest
Daily Caller/ConservativeHome presidential tracking poll, Cain placed third
behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
in terms of electability with 13 percent. Cain tied Christie in the poll for
who respondents would pick as their first choice for 2012, with 15 percent.
“He is a man that is
living the American dream every day,” Zoller said. “It is not dead.”
Cain ripped President
Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign buzzwords, hope and change, in his announcement.
“Hope and change ain’t working. Hope and change is not a solution. Hope and
change is not a job. Hope and change is not a new business,” Cain
said. “Hope and change is not a vision. We need a new vision in this country
and that means we need a new person leading this nation in the White House.” Read more:
