Herman Cain: Mine. Mine. MineBy Joshua Cain
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
October 19, 2011
Cain and his 9-9-9 plan got pilloried by the other candidates at the Republican debate in Las Vegas the next evening, confirming his arrival in the top tier, where laughter is a luxury the competition can no longer afford. As a first-time object of real scrutiny, he looked a little shaken. But it’s testimony to his pitchman’s skills that the overflow crowd in Phoenix recognized each provision of his plan and cheered lustily as they were introduced: a 9 percent personal income tax, a 9 percent corporate income tax, and a 9 percent sales tax, to replace the entire U.S. tax code. Cain wasn’t just selling his plan. He was also plugging his latest book, This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, which just debuted at No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller List. And although he has a Horatio Alger story to match anyone’s—raised poor in the Deep South, rose to the top of the corporate hierarchy—the adoring throngs and the sanctuary of this private event seemed to loosen his inhibitions. “My American dream,” he boomed, “was, when I grow up, I want to make me some money!”
Cain is making money, alright. Bloomberg News reported on Oct. 17 that his campaign paid more than $65,000 to his personal publishing company to buy copies of his books and pamphlets. In an interview before his address to the Arizona GOP, he told me that he continues to give motivational speeches to corporations at $25,000 a pop even as he campaigns for President. “I’m still doing paid speeches,” he confirmed. “But I have not raised my prices. This economy’s on life support, so I’m very mindful of those companies that would like to have me come and speak. But I’m not gonna take advantage of my newfound popularity just to put more dollars in my pocket.” Even so, Cain estimates that he has earned $250,000 this year through his speeches.
. . .
Cain may have discovered his own limits in the Las Vegas debate. He could try to recast himself as a serious candidate—assemble some respectable advisers, develop weighty policies and equip himself better to defend those he has already laid out, quit the ad-libbing and joking around. But that would mean sacrificing what his supporters find so appealing: the Hermanator Experience.
Cain shows no sign of doing any such thing. To the contrary, he has finally achieved the celebrity he seems to have been seeking all along, and it’s hard to imagine him giving this up willingly. He has inspired frustrated conservatives unwilling to reconcile themselves to Mitt Romney, and while this may not bring him the nomination, he stands to reap many handsome rewards. “Outspoken personalities like Cain are tailor-made for the media age,” says Jonathan Klein, president of the digital strategy company @Media, and the former head of CNN. “If he’s able to perform, books, radio, television, Twitter, and Facebook, even commerce—Glenn Beck sells gold—all of that will be wide-open to him. It’s almost a can’t-lose scenario. He’s already sold pizza. So why not everything else?” The thought must have occurred to Cain that there are much worse fates for a failed Presidential candidate than popular multimedia pitchman and conservative icon. In fact, that may have been the idea all along.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/herman-cain-mine-mine-mine-10192011.html 
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