Herman Cain 2012 Website - December 3, 2011

Herman Cain

Campaign Suspension Speech Transcript

December 3, 2011

Herman Cain Georgia Campaign Headquarters

Atlanta, Georgia

Thank you. Thank you my friends. Well you all are great. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. I love y’all too. (Crowd chants Gloria, Gloria, Gloria…).

Well let me first say that as usual the Cain supporters are not warm weather supporters, and I can’t thank all of you enough for what you’ve done, how far we have come, and the things that we have done.
The things that we have been able to achieve. You know I chose to run for President because the politicians in Washington, DC wouldn’t do their jobs. That’s why I chose to run.

They have failed to provide economic growth, they have failed to get spending under control, they have failed to make us less dependent on foreign oil. These are some of the reasons that inspired me to run for President. And if you look, if you look at the last forty years, we’ve seen that same kind of failure. It’s just that the mess has just gotten bigger.

You were frustrated, I was frustrated, millions of other people were frustrated, and it was out of that frustration that I made the decision to run because the people in Washington, DC are either playing the blame game or pointing fingers or throwing crumbs to the American people, rather than bold solutions to fix the problems.

America deserves more than that. (Cheers) And since the politicians have continued to fail, I decided to run for President and you all responded as you are responding now. And I thank you and I am honored by the deep support of so many people across this country, because it expresses the frustration of so many people across this country.

And when I made the decision to run, I didn’t fit the usual description of somebody that ought to be running for President.
(Applause) I had never held public office before (cheers), I didn’t have high name ID, but right now my name ID is probably 99.9.
(Applause) And I didn’t have a bajillion dollars. Because what we learned is that the voice of the people is more powerful than the voice of the media. (Applause)

And secondly we have learned that message is more powerful than money.
And you know we proved something else. You see I grew up in a world of segregated water fountains, my father was a chauffeur, my mother was a maid, and we showed that you didn’t have to have a degree from Harvard in order to run for President. (Applause) We showed that you didn’t have to have a political pedigree to run for President. And one of the biggest things that we have shown is that “We the People” are still in charge of this country. (Applause)

And so today we are one month away from the Iowa Caucuses. With over 300 million Americans in our nation we stand here, I stand here because of you. And if you look at the top three Republican candidates right now and you consider the President in the White House, we can say I’m in the final four. (Applause) We’re in the final four! And when you think of where I came from on Pelham Street in Fifth Ward right here in Atlanta and now to be in the final four for the Presidency, this is a great nation. (Applause) That’s why this nation is so great.

And I tell you what; it’s a powerful and humbling position to be in.
Proving this, that we could do this, was one of the greatest things, one of the greatest gifts that you and I could give to this country.
I’ve often said one of America’s greatest strengths is its ability to change. And we have created some significant change on this journey so far. I am proof of that and you are proof of that. (Cheers, Applause) Because I am proof that a common man could lead this nation. Because I consider myself one of you, not one of the political elites. I’m one of you.

Our nation is tired of hearing the politicians blame each other; it’s time for solutions. But as false accusations about me continue, they have sidetracked and distracted my ability to present solutions to the American people. Now I have made many mistakes in life. Everybody has.
I have made mistakes professionally, personally, as a candidate in terms of how I run my campaign, and I take responsibility for the mistakes that I’ve made. And I have been the very first to own up to any mistakes that I have made, even if the political elites do not think that I handle it in the way the political elites handle it. I handle it my way, because that is the type of person that I am.
(Cheers, applause)

But because of these false and unproved accusations it has paid and had a tremendous painful price on my family. These false and unproved allegations continue to be spinned in the media and in the court of public opinion so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family. That spin hurts. It hurts my wife, it hurts my family, it hurts me, and it hurts the American people because you are being denied solutions to our problems. (Crowd chants Herman. Herman,
Herman…)

Now here’s why it hurts, because my wife, my family, and I, we know that those false and unproved allegations are not true. (Cheers,
applause) So one of the first declarations that I want to make to you today is that I am at peace with my God, I am at peace with my wife, and she is at peace with me. (Applause) (Crowd chants Gloria, Gloria,
Gloria…)

And I am peace with my family and I am at peace with myself, which is one of the most important things. Now that being said, becoming President was Plan A, and before you get discouraged, today I want to describe Plan B.

So as of today with a lot of prayer and soul searching I am suspending my presidential campaign. I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I'm not a fighter, it’s just that when I went through this reassessment of the impact upon my family first, the impact on you my supporters--your support has been unwavering and undying--as well as the impact on the ability to raise the necessary funds to be competitive. We had to come to this conclusion, but we had to come to this conclusion that it would be best to suspend this campaign. That’s the bad news.

Here’s the good news. The pundits would like for me to shut up, drop out and go away. Well as my grandmother who lived to be 104 years old used to say when somebody was dead wrong, “Bless their little hearts.”
I am not going to be silenced and I’m not going away. And therefore as of today, Plan B. Plan B, and I call it the TheCainSolutions.com. Let me explain why. You see there are three audiences out there folks that we have dealt with, that I have had to deal with. There’s the media class, there’s the political class, and there’s we the people.

It is we the people that got us to this point this far. It is we the people that wants change in Washington, DC. It is we the people that are responsible for this massive movement that’s going on across this country. I call it the citizen’s movement, the tea party movement, the conservative movement; it is a movement by we the people that are going to insist on change in the United States of America, and Plan B is that I will continue to be a voice for the people.

And that’s why today we are launching TheCainSolutions.com where the people will choose, not the media, not the politicians, and the people will show that the people are still in charge of this country.

Through this new organization I will still be promoting the biggest change and transfer of power out of Washington, DC back to the people since this nation began and that is the 9-9-9 plan. (Cheers,
applause) It’s not going away. I will still be actively supporting and promoting foreign policy that starts with peace through strength and clarity. I will still be promoting actively an energy independence plan for America. We can and we will become energy independent.

Now I know that many of you are disappointed. I understand that. I know that many of you’ll are disappointed and I certainly understand that, and I am disappointed that it came to this point, that we had to make this decision. One of the reasons that I ran for President of the United States was such that I could change Washington, DC from the inside.

Plan B is that we’re going to have to change it from the outside.
It'll take a little longer, we’re going to have to work a little harder, but we will change it from the outside.

One other thing, I will be making an endorsement in the near future. I will be making an endorsement, and I can tell you right now it will not be the current occupant of the White House. That will not be my endorsement.

America has learned something about this process of running for President. It’s a dirty game. It's a dirty, dirty game. But I happen to believe that the American people are sick of this mess. And if I’m not the outsider to get there, I happen to believe that the day will come when the American people will reject all of the distractions, all of the false accusations and unproved accusations, and it will make a change because that’s what we have got to do to get real change in this country and get it on the right track.

And as I think about my parents who raised my brother and I right here in Atlanta area. And they taught us three very valuable lessons that you share, belief in God, belief in ourselves, and belief in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America.

And even though I have had to suspend my campaign, I have not given up on America; I have not given up on the United States of America and here’s why. Because look at our history when we have been challenged the most, it's when we the people have risen to the occasion the most.
And I happen to believe that we will do it again, because we the people are still in charge of this country.

Let me leave you with this, and I believe these words came from the Pokémon movie. The media pointed that out; I’m not sure who the original author is, so don’t go write an article about the poem. But it says a lot about where I am, where I am with my wife and my family, and where we are as a nation. “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line, but you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me, just look inside and you will find just what you can do. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do.”

I've had to look inside to find what I can do, and here’s what I can do. Here’s what we can do. We can put United back into the United States of America and move the shining city on a hill back to the top of the hilltop where it belongs. And I will never apologize for the greatness of the United States of America.

God Bless you. I love you and thank you.

Source: Speech transcript © by Mike Dec/4President.us

Cain Commentary, “Brokenhearted, but not Broken”

You’re not defeated as long as you never stop fighting. And while my presidential campaign is suspended, it’s important to remember that my pursuit of the presidency was only a means to an end. As long as the end is achieved, victory will be at hand.

My incredible army of supporters, whom I can never thank enough for all they have done so far, have not labored in vain. The real prize is still ours for the taking.

I did not want to become president just for the sake of being president. I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve accomplished in my life and I don’t need the ego boost. Rather, I sought the presidency because our nation has some big problems to deal with, and it’s clear that our political class has neither the will nor the ability to solve them.

For that very reason, I was not surprised that I was viciously attacked once I rose in the polls. I was surprised by the nature of the attacks. Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they’d come up with that one. But I knew the establishment would not like the idea of my success, because I will not get along by going along like so many do. I will not kick the can down the road to the next generation of leaders, because our problems are serious and they need to be solved now.

That threatens people who know there may be a political price to pay for enacting solutions that will work, and would rather wait things out and let someone else take the heat. That would not have been possible during a Cain presidency.

But if real solutions are achieved, it will not matter who achieved them. If Congress and the president take the right measures to ensure our fiscal strength, protect our national security, achieve energy independence, spur economic growth and accomplish health care reform that actually works – it won’t matter to me whose signature is on the bills. Only that the bills become laws that get us to the goal.

And while I am disappointed, there are more than a few silver linings to doing this work outside the context of a presidential campaign. The process by which we choose our nation’s leader is ridiculous. There is little focus on policy substance and even less on candidates’ governing skills. If you’re not warding off some wild accusation, you’re explaining away a “gaffe,” which is usually the sort of slip of the tongue that anyone can make, but because some reporter heard it, it turns into a news-cycle narrative with a shelf life of six or seven days.

That’s behind us. All I need to do now is advocate for solutions that work, under the auspices of TheCainSolutions.com, and that will have two essential elements.

One is to better educate the American people about the nature of the problems we face. There is still too little understanding of the severity of our debt and fiscal crisis. That is why members of Congress lack the political will to solve the problem. They perceive that they will pay a steeper price for taking action than they will pay for doing nothing. That is no excuse for such poor leadership, but the fact remains that if we can change the political dynamic – so that the people are demanding action rather than rewarding inaction – we will be able to change the results.

The second element is to advocate for solutions that actually work. I was amused by the criticism I received for frequently mentioning my 9-9-9 tax reform, particularly by those who referred to it as a “catch phrase” and so forth, clearly demonstrating that they didn’t grasp what it’s all about. The 9-9-9 plan is the biggest transfer of power from government back to the people since the beginning of this nation. That’s what they are afraid of.

I talked about 9-9-9 so often during the campaign because it’s a major reform that would completely change the way we pay taxes, the way we do business and the way people manage their personal budgets. We need reform like that. Political consultants are forever telling candidates to “stay on message,” but I guess that doesn’t apply when the message is a substantive reform that would actually solve problems. Be that as it may, I am far from finished staying on message. The Cain Solutions effort will relentlessly push for an understanding of the real stakes our nation faces, and for a groundswell that demands real solutions.

As I said during my announcement on Saturday, becoming president was Plan A. Anyone with a big goal needs to recognize that you might need a Plan B, and our Plan B has a lot going for it.

Six months ago, most of you had never heard of me. You have now. A lot of what you’ve heard is not true, but I’ve got your attention. Keep listening, and if you care about the future of our country like I do, get involved. Unlike a presidential campaign, what we’re doing now can’t be stopped by scandal-mongering or polls. We’ll only be defeated if we give up.

And we’re not going to do that.

Source: Herman Cain 2012 Website