Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman visiting the University of Oklahoma to protest the Vietnam War
Born	Abbot Howard Hoffman (1936-11-30)November 30, 1936 Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Died	April 12, 1989(1989-04-12) (aged 52) Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Occupation	Writer, activist, psychologist, speaker
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Alma mater	Brandeis University and University of California, Berkeley
Period	1967-1989
Genres	Nonfiction, politics
Subjects	Political philosophy, social revolution, guerrilla theater, anarchism, gift economics
Literary movement	Yippie, 1960s counterculture
Notable work(s)	Revolution for the Hell of It, Woodstock Nation, Steal This Book
Influences Marshall McLuhan, Che Guevara, Antonin Artaud, Andy Warhol, Herbert Marcuse, Abraham Maslow, Groucho Marx, John Lennon, George Metesky, the Weathermen, Lenny Bruce, Régis Debray, the Diggers, the Cuban Revolution, the Viet Cong, counterculture of the 1960s, the Black Panthers, John Sinclair
Influenced Bob Black, the Yippies, opposition to the Vietnam War, the Weathermen, Penn Jillette, Dana Beal, Jello Biafra, The Coup, Boots Riley, Steve Conliff, Naomi Wolf, System of a Down, Jonah Raskin, CrimethInc.

Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies").

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; when Seale's prosecution was separated from the others, they became known as the Chicago Seven. While the defendants were initially convicted of intent to incite a riot, the verdicts were overturned on appeal.

Hoffman came to prominence in the 1960s, and continued practicing his activism in the 1970s, and has remained a symbol of the youth rebellion of that era.^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

Hoffman was born November 30, 1936 in Worcester, Massachusetts to John Hoffman and Florence Schamberg, both of Jewish descent. Hoffman was raised in a middle class household and had two younger siblings. As a child of the 1950s, he was a member of what has been described as "the transitional generation between the beatniks and hippies". On June 3, 1954, the 17-year-old Hoffman was arrested for the first time, for driving without a license. During his school days, he became known as a troublemaker who started fights, played pranks, vandalized school property, and referred to teachers by their first names. In his sophomore year, Hoffman was expelled from Classical High School, a now-closed public high school in Worcester. When he wrote a paper questioning God's existence, his teacher tore up the paper and accused him of being a "communist punk". Hoffman jumped on the teacher and started fighting him until he was restrained and removed from the school.^[2] After his expulsion, he attended Worcester Academy, graduating in 1955. Hoffman did many of the things typical of rebellious young men in the 1950s such as driving motorcycles, wearing leather jackets, and sporting a ducktail haircut. He enrolled in Brandeis University, where he studied under professors such as noted psychologist Abraham Maslow, often considered the father of humanistic psychology.^[3] He was also a student of the Marxist theorist Herbert Marcuse, whom Hoffman said had a profound effect on his political outlook after studying his philosophy. Hoffman would later cite Marcuse's influence during his activism and his theories on revolution. Hoffman graduated with a B.A. in Psychology in 1959. Later he enrolled at University of California, Berkeley to earn a Master's Degree in Psychology. Soon after, he married his pregnant girlfriend Shelia Karkli in May 1960.

Early protests[link]

Prior to his days as a leading member of the Yippie movement, Hoffman was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized "Liberty House", which sold items to support the Civil Rights Movement in the southern United States. During the Vietnam War, Hoffman was an anti-war activist, who used deliberately comical and theatrical tactics.

In October 1967, David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam asked Jerry Rubin to help mobilize and direct a March on the Pentagon.^[4] The protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial as Dellinger and Dr. Benjamin Spock gave speeches to the mass of people.^[5] From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division^[5] who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps.^[4] Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitate the Pentagon^[5] claiming he would attempt to use psychic energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end.^[6] Allen Ginsberg led Tibetan chants to assist Hoffman.^[5]

Hoffman's symbolic theatrics were successful at convincing many young people to become more active in the politics of the time.^[6]

Another one of Hoffman's well-known protests was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of real and fake dollars down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. ^[7] Accounts of the amount of money that Hoffman and the group tossed was said to be as little as $30 to $300.^[8] Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically, that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press", wrote Hoffman, "at that time we really had no notion of anything called a media event." The press was quick to respond and by evening the event was reported around the world. Since that incident, the stock exchange has spent $20,000 to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass.^[9]

In late 1966, Hoffman met with a radical community-action group called the Diggers^[10] and studied their ideology. He later returned to New York and published a book with this knowledge.^[10] Doing so was considered a violation by the Diggers. Diggers co-founder Peter Coyote explained:

Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on the Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York -- which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids from Scarsdale.^[11]

Chicago Eight conspiracy trial[link]

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in anti-Vietnam War protests, which were met by a violent police response during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.^[12] He was among the group that came to be known as the Chicago Seven (originally known as the Chicago Eight), which included fellow Yippie Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, future California state senator Tom Hayden and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale (before his trial was severed from the others).

Presided over by Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie, which Abbie joked about throughout the trial^[13]), Abbie Hoffman's courtroom antics frequently grabbed the headlines; one day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes, while on another day, Hoffman was sworn in as a witness with his hand giving the finger. Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the Chicago Seven defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face.^[14] Abbie Hoffman told Judge Hoffman "you are a 'shande fur de Goyim' [disgrace in front of the gentiles]. You would have served Hitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room."^[14] Both Davis and Rubin told the Judge "this court is bullshit." When Abbie was asked in what state he resided, he replied the "state of mind of my brothers and sisters".

Other celebrities were called as "cultural witnesses" including Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Norman Mailer and others. Abbie closed the trial with a speech in which he quoted Abraham Lincoln, making the claim that the President himself, if alive today, would also be arrested in Chicago's Lincoln Park.

On February 18, 1970, Hoffman and four of the other defendants (Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden) were found guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. All seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. At sentencing, Hoffman suggested the judge try LSD and offered to set him up with "a dealer he knew in Florida" (the judge was known to be headed to Florida for a post-trial vacation). Each of the five was sentenced to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.^[15]

However, all convictions were subsequently overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The Kerner Commission later found that in fact it had been a "police riot."

Controversy at Woodstock[link]

At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman reportedly interrupted The Who's performance to attempt to speak against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Pete Townshend was adjusting his amplifier between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his right shoulder. Townshend reportedly ran at Hoffman with his guitar and hit Hoffman in the back, although this was later denied by Townshend.^[16] Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment, he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the actual show. The incident took place during a camera change, and was not captured on film. The audio of this incident, however, can be heard on The Who's box set, Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident").

In Woodstock Nation, Hoffman mentions the incident, and says he was on a bad LSD trip at the time. Joe Shea, then a reporter for the Times Herald-Record, a Dow Jones-Ottaway newspaper that covered the event on-site, said he saw the incident. He recalled that Hoffman was actually hit in the back of the head by Townshend's guitar and toppled directly into the pit in front of the stage. He does not recall any "shove" from Townshend, and discounts both men's accounts.

Underground[link]

In 1971, Hoffman published Steal This Book, which advised readers on how to live basically for free. Many of his readers followed Hoffman's advice and stole the book, leading many bookstores to refuse to carry it. He was also the author of several other books, including Vote!, co-written with Rubin and Ed Sanders.^[17] Hoffman was arrested August 28, 1973 on drug charges for intent to sell and distribute cocaine. He always maintained that undercover police agents entrapped him into a drug deal and planted suitcases of cocaine in his office. In the spring of 1974, Hoffman skipped bail, underwent cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance, and hid from authorities for several years.

Some believed Abbie made himself a target. In 1998, Peter Coyote opined:

The FBI couldn't infiltrate us. We did everything anonymously, and we did everything for nothing, because we wanted our actions to be authentic. It's the mistake that Abbie Hoffman made. He came out, he studied with us, we taught him everything, and then he went back and wrote a book called Free, and he put his name on it! He set himself up to be a leader of the counterculture, and he was undone by that. Big mistake.^[18]

Despite being "in hiding" during part of this period (Hoffman lived in Fineview, New York near Thousand Island Park, a private resort on Wellesley Island on the St. Lawrence River under the name "Barry Freed"), he helped coordinate an environmental campaign to preserve the Saint Lawrence River (Save the River organization).^[19] During his time on the run, he was also the "travel" columnist for Crawdaddy! magazine. On September 4, 1980, he surrendered to authorities; on the same date, he appeared on a pre-taped edition of ABC-TV's 20/20 in an interview with Barbara Walters. Hoffman received a one-year sentence, but was released after four months.

Back to visibility[link]

In November 1986, Hoffman was arrested along with fourteen others, including Amy Carter, the daughter of former President Jimmy Carter, for trespassing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.^[20] The charges stemmed from a protest against the Central Intelligence Agency's recruitment on the UMass campus.^[21] Since the university's policy limited campus recruitment to law-abiding organizations, Hoffman asserted in his defense the CIA's lawbreaking activities. The federal district court judge permitted expert witnesses, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and a former CIA agent who testified about the CIA's illegal Contra war against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in violation of the Boland Amendment.^[22]

In three days of testimony, more than a dozen defense witnesses, including Daniel Ellsberg, Ramsey Clark, and former Contra leader Edgar Chamorro, described the CIA's role in more than two decades of covert, illegal and often violent activities. In his closing argument, Hoffman, acting as his own attorney, placed his actions within the best tradition of American civil disobedience. He quoted from Thomas Paine, "the most outspoken and farsighted of the leaders of the American Revolution: 'Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.'"

Hoffman concluded: "Thomas Paine was talking about this Spring day in this courtroom. A verdict of not guilty will say, 'When our country is right, keep it right; but when it is wrong, right those wrongs.'" On April 15, 1987, the jury found Hoffman and the other defendants not guilty.

After his acquittal,^[21] Hoffman acted in a cameo appearance in Oliver Stone's later-released anti-Vietnam War movie, Born on the Fourth of July.^[23] He essentially played himself in the movie, waving a flag on the ramparts of an administration building during a campus protest that was being teargassed and crushed by state troopers.

In 1987 Hoffman summed up his views.

You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.^[20]

Later that same year, Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers wrote Steal This Urine Test (published October 5, 1987), which exposed the internal contradictions of the War on Drugs and suggested ways to circumvent its most intrusive measures. He stated, for instance, that Federal Express, which received high praise from management guru Tom Peters for "empowering" workers, in fact subjected most employees to random drug tests, firing any who got a positive result, with no retest or appeal procedure, despite the fact that FedEx chose a drug lab (the lowest bidder) with a proven record of frequent false positive results.^{[citation needed]}

Stone's Born on the Fourth of July was released on December 20, 1989, more than eight months after Hoffman's suicide on April 12, 1989. At the time of his death, Hoffman was at the height of a renewed public visibility, one of the few 1960s radicals who still commanded the attention of all kinds of mass media. He regularly lectured audiences about the CIA's covert activities, including assassinations disguised as suicides. His Playboy article (October, 1988) outlining the connections that constitute the "October Surprise," brought that alleged conspiracy to the attention of a wide-ranging American readership for the first time.^[24]

Personal life[link]

In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin^[2] and had two children: Andrew (born 1960) and Amy (1962–2007), who later went by the name Ilya. They divorced in 1966.

In 1967, Hoffman married Anita Kushner in Manhattan's Central Park.^[25] They had one son, america Hoffman, deliberately named using a lowercase "a" to indicate both patriotism and non-jingoistic intent.^[26] Although Abbie and Anita were effectively separated after Abbie became a fugitive, starting in 1973, and he subsequently fell in love with Johanna Lawrenson in 1974, while a fugitive, they were not formally divorced until 1980.

His personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. By their own admission, they kept a file on him that was 13,262 pages long.^[27]

Death[link]

Hoffman was 52 at the time of his death on April 12, 1989, which was caused by swallowing 150 phenobarbital tablets along with hard liquor. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980.^[28] At the time he had recently changed treatment medications and was reportedly depressed when his 83-year old mother was diagnosed with cancer (she died in 1996 at the age of 90). Some close to Hoffman claimed that as a natural prankster who valued youth, he was also unhappy about reaching middle age, combined with the fact that the ideas of the 1960s had given way to a conservative backlash in the 1980s. (Jezer, 1993). Hoffman's body was found in his apartment in a converted turkey coop on Sugan Road in Solebury Township, near New Hope, Pennsylvania. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by about 200 pages of his own handwritten notes, many about his own moods.

His death was officially ruled a suicide.^[29] As reported by The New York Times, "Among the more vocal doubters at the service today was Mr. Dellinger, who said, 'I don't believe for one moment the suicide thing.' He said he had been in fairly frequent touch with Mr. Hoffman, who had 'numerous plans for the future.'" Yet the same New York Times article reported that the coroner found the residue of about 150 pills and quoted the coroner in a telephone interview saying 'There is no way to take that amount of phenobarbital without intent. It was intentional and self-inflicted.' ^[29]

A week after Hoffman's death, a thousand friends and relatives gathered for a memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts at Temple Emanuel, the synagogue he attended as a child. Senior Rabbi Norman Mendel officiated. Two of his colleagues from the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial were there: David Dellinger and Jerry Rubin, Hoffman's co-founder of the Yippies, by then a businessman.

As The New York Times reported: "Indeed, most of the mourners who attended the formal memorial at Temple Emanuel here were more yuppie than yippie and there were more rep ties than ripped jeans among the crowd..."^[30]

The Times report continued:

Bill Walton, the radical Celtic of basketball renown, told of a puckish Abbie, then underground evading a cocaine charge in the '70s, leaping from the shadows on a New York street to give him an impromptu basketball lesson after a loss to the Knicks. 'Abbie was not a fugitive from justice,' said Mr. Walton. 'Justice was a fugitive from him.' On a more traditional note, Rabbi Norman Mendell said in his eulogy that Mr. Hoffman's long history of protest, antic though much of it had been, was 'in the Jewish prophetic tradition, which is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.'^[30]

Hoffman was posthumously awarded the Courage of Conscience award September 26, 1992.^[31]

Portrayals[link]

It has been suggested that Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2009.

• In the 1973 award winning book "The Big Fix" by Roger L Simon, the author based his character "Howard Eppis" on Abbie Hoffman.^[32]
• In the 1975 work The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Hoffman briefly appears, having a discussion with Apollonius of Tyana.
• Michael Lembeck portrayed Hoffman in the 1987 HBO television film Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8.
• Hoffman was portrayed by Richard D'Alessandro in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, speaking against "the war in Viet-fucking-nam" at a protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool facing the Washington Monument.
• Hoffman's life was dramatized in the 2000 film Steal This Movie!, in which he was portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio.^[33]
• Hank Azaria's voice is heard as the animated Hoffman in the film Chicago 10 (2007).
• Thomas Ian Nicholas portrays Abbie in the 2010 film titled The Chicago 8^[34]
• Bern Cohen played the lead role in the 2011 Off Broadway play Abbie.^[35][36]

Bibliography[link]

Books[link]

• Fuck the System (pamphlet, 1967) printed under the pseudonym George Metesky
  • Available online
• Revolution For the Hell of It (1968, Dial Press) published under the pseudonym "Free"
  • Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5 Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial (2005 reprint, ISBN 1-56025-690-7)
• Woodstock Nation: A Talk-Rock Album (1969, Random House)
• Steal This Book (1971, Pirate Editions)
  • Steal This Book (1996 reprint, ISBN 1-56858-217-X)
  • Authorized online location
• Vote! A Record, A Dialogue, A Manifesto – Miami Beach, 1972 And Beyond (1972, Warner Books) by Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Ed Sanders
• To America With Love: Letters From the Underground (1976, Stonehill Publishing) by Hoffman and Anita Hoffman
  • To America With Love: Letters From the Underground (2000 second edition, ISBN 1-888996-28-5)
• Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture (1980, Perigee, ISBN 0-399-50503-2)
  • The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman (2000 second edition, ISBN 1-56858-197-1)
• Square Dancing in the Ice Age: Underground Writings (1982, Putnam, ISBN 0-399-12701-1)
• Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America (1987, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-010400-3) by Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers
• The Best of Abbie Hoffman (1990, Four Walls Eight Windows, ISBN 0-941423-42-5)
• Preserving Disorder: The Faking of the President 1988 (1999, Viking, ISBN 0-670-82349-X) by Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers

Record[link]

• Wake Up, America! Big Toe Records (1970)

Theatre Festival[link]

The Mary-Archie Theatre Company in Chicago started the "Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins" Theatre Festival in 1988. This festival runs every year for 3 consecutive days as a celebration of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969. Festival website

Media[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Abbie Hoffman

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Abbie Hoffman

Interviews[link]

• Viking Youth Power Hour interview Abbie during the Chicago Seven trials in Chicago 1969
• Ken Jordan interview from January 1989, published in Reality Sandwich, May 2007

Appearances in documentary films[link]

Hoffman is featured in interviews and archival news footage in the following documentaries:

• Growing Up in America (1988), documentary on radical politics in the 1960s, First Run Features, ISBN 6304564775^[37]
• Lord of the Universe (1974), satirical documentary, winner of the DuPont-Columbia Award in broadcast journalism, ISBN 0-89774-102-1^[38][39]
• My Name Is Abbie (1998), Hoffman's first interview after seven years in hiding, Mystic Fire Video, ISBN 1-56176-381-0^[40]
• Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune (2010), biographical documentary on the life and times of the singer-songwriter, First Run Features^[41][42]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hoffman, Jack, and Daniel Simon (1994). Run Run Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman. Tarcher/Putnam. ISBN 0-87477-760-7
• Raskin, Jonah (1996). For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20575-8

External links[link]

• Abbie Hoffman's Spirit Is Alive
• Scans of Abbie Hoffman's writing in The Realist during formation of the Yippie movement, including call to others to meet in Chicago.
• FBI file on Abbie Hoffman
• Biography and Photos at the Worcester Writers' Project

Herman Cain
Cain in October 2011
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
In office 1995–1996
Preceded by	Burton A. Dole, Jr
Succeeded by	A. Drue Jennings
Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
In office 1992–1994
Preceded by	Burton A. Dole, Jr
Succeeded by	A. Drue Jennings
Personal details
Born	(1945-12-13) December 13, 1945 (age 66) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Gloria Cain (m. 1968) «start: (1968-06-23)»"Marriage: Gloria Cain to Herman Cain" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Herman_Cain)[1]
Children	Melanie Cain Vincent Cain
Residence	Sandy Springs, Georgia, US[2]
Alma mater	Morehouse College (BS) Purdue University (MS)
Occupation	Business executive, radio host, columnist
Religion	Baptist[3]
Website	cainconnections.com

	This article is part of a series about Herman Cain	Herman Cain
2012 presidential campaign Political positions 9–9–9 Plan This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House 9-9-9 An Army of Davids

Herman Cain (born December 13, 1945)^[4] is an American author, business executive, radio host, syndicated columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia.^[5][6][7] He was a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.^[5]

Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.^[8] Cain pursued graduate studies at Purdue University, and graduated with a Master of Science in computer science in 1971,^[9] while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy.^[10][11][12] In 1977, he joined Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president.^[13] During the 1980s, his success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury Company to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.^[14]

Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991.^[15] He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and chairman, from 1995 to 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.^[15] In 1995, Cain was appointed by Newt Gingrich to the Kemp Commission,^[16] and was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign.^[17] Cain became the CEO of the National Restaurant Association,^[18] in which he served as president and CEO from 1996 to 1999.^[18][19] During the Presidency of Bill Clinton, Cain publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993, about which he questioned the president at a town hall meeting.^[20] Cain has served as a member of the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO.^[14][21][22]

In May 2011, Cain announced his presidential candidacy. His proposed 9–9–9 tax plan, along with his debate performances, made him the Republican front-runner in fall of 2011, during which he briefly led President Obama in the polls.^[23] In November his campaign struggled to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct, which resulted in Cain suspending his campaign on December 3.^[24][25][26] The Pew Research Center reported that, of the Republican candidates, "Herman Cain was the most covered candidate in 2011."^[27][28] After suspending his campaign, Cain first endorsed Newt Gingrich,^[29] and then on May 15, 2012 Cain endorsed Mitt Romney.^[30]

Family and personal life[link]

Herman Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain, a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain, Jr., who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff. Cain has said that as he was growing up, his family was "poor but happy." Cain related that his mother taught him about her belief that "success was not a function of what you start out with materially, but what you start out with spiritually". His father worked three jobs to own his own home – something he achieved during Cain's childhood – and to see his two sons graduate.^[12][31][32]

Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia, attending school and Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually Cain's father saved enough money and the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He attended Archer (public) High School, graduating in 1963.^[33]

Cain married Gloria Cain (née Etchison), of Atlanta, soon after her graduation from Morris Brown College in 1968.^[34][35] His wife of 43 years is a homemaker, with experience as a teacher and a librarian.^[34] The couple have two children and three grandchildren.^[34]

In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in his colon and metastases to his liver and given a 30-percent chance of survival. Cain underwent surgery and chemotherapy following the diagnosis, and has since reported that he is in remission.^[36]

Disclosures filed during his campaign in 2011 categorized Cain's wealth as of that time as being between $2.9 to $6.6 million, with Cain's income for both 2010 and 2011 combined being between $1.1 to $2.1 million.^[37]

Cain also serves as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10.^[38] The church is part of the National Baptist Convention^[39] and is politically liberal and theologically conservative; the church's senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, does not share Cain's political philosophy.^[40][41]

Education and career[link]

Cain grew up in Georgia^[8] and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

Accepted for graduate studies at Purdue University, Cain received a Master of Science in computer science there in 1971,^[9] while he also worked full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy as a civilian.^[10]

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,^[42] soon becoming director of business analysis^[43] in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.^[14][44]

Burger King[link]

At age 36, Cain was assigned in the 1980s to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years.^[13][45] 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."^[14] 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."^[46]

Godfather's Pizza[link]

Cain's success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain 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."^[14] Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988.^[13] Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability.^[37] 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.^[13]

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City[link]

Cain served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 1991.^[15] He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992.^[15] He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996,^[15] when he resigned to become active in national politics.^[47]

National Restaurant Association[link]

Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to Washington, D.C. From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served.^[18] Cain's lobbying work for the Association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians.^[37] Under Cain's leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood-alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.^[48]

Cain was on the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.^[14][21][22]

After Cain's term with the restaurant advocacy group ended in 1999, he returned to Omaha for about a year, then moved to his hometown of Atlanta in 2000.^[49]

Media work[link]

Cain writes a syndicated op-ed column, which is distributed by the North Star Writers Group.^[50]

Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary An Inconvenient Tax.^[51] From 2008, until February 2011, Cain hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station WSB.^[52][53] On January 19, 2012, Cain began working for WSB again by providing daily commentaries, while occasionally filling in for Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz.^[53]

Recognition[link]

Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award^[54] and has received honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, University of Nebraska, New York City Technical College, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.^[21]

Political activities[link]

Role in the defeat of 1993 Clinton health care plan[link]

Cain publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993. As president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, he challenged Bill Clinton on the costs of the employer mandate contained within the bill and criticized its effect on small businesses. Bob Cohn of Newsweek described Cain as one of the primary opponents of the plan:

The Clintons would later blame "Harry and Louise", the fictional couple in the ads aired by the insurance industry, for undermining health reform. But the real saboteurs are named Herman and John. Herman Cain is the president of Godfather's Pizza and president-elect of the National Restaurant Association. An articulate entrepreneur, Cain transformed the debate when he challenged Clinton at a town meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. Cain asked the president what he was supposed to say to the workers he would have to lay off because of the cost of the "employer mandate". Clinton responded that there would be plenty of subsidies for small businessmen, but Cain persisted. "Quite honestly, your calculation is inaccurate," he told the president. "In the competitive marketplace it simply doesn't work that way."^[20]

Joshua Green of The Atlantic has called Cain's exchange with Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage".^[55]

Conservative politician and former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp was so impressed with Cain's performance that he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. Cain credits Kemp with his becoming interested in politics.^[56]

Senior advisor to 1996 Dole campaign[link]

Cain was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign in 1996.^[17]

2000 presidential campaign[link]

Cain briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000; he says it was more about making political statements than winning the nomination. "George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for." However, Cain went on to state, "I believe that I had a better message and I believe that I was the better messenger."^[57] After ending his own campaign, however, he endorsed Steve Forbes.^[58]

2004 U.S. Senate candidacy[link]

In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and did not win in the primaries. He was pursuing the seat that came open with the retirement of Democrat Zell Miller. Cain sought the Republican nomination, facing congressmen Johnny Isakson and Mac Collins in the primary. Cain and Collins both hoped to deny Isakson a majority on primary day in order to force him into a runoff.^{[citation needed]} Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate,^[59] citing Cain's support for affirmative action programs, while Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed the legality of abortion except when the mother's life is threatened.^[60] Cain finished second in the primary with 26.2% of the vote, ahead of Collins, who won 20.6%, but because Isakson won 53.2% of the vote, Isakson was able to avoid a runoff.^[61]

Americans for Prosperity and America's PAC[link]

Starting in 2005, Cain worked for the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) alongside Mark Block. Block would later become campaign manager for Cain's 2012 Presidential run and would be joined in Cain's campaign by several other AFP employees. Cain continued to receive honorariums for speaking at AFP events until he announced his campaign for the Republican nomination.^[62] Cain's senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, had served on the AFP board.^[63] In 2006, Cain voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican; the ads were funded by a group called America's PAC and its founder J. Patrick Rooney.^[64]

2012 presidential campaign[link]

Cain speaking at the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011.

In 2010, "Cain addressed more than 40 Tea Party rallies, hit all the early presidential states, and became a YouTube sensation."^[8] On September 24, 2010, Cain announced that he was considering a run for president in 2012 on the Republican Party ticket.^[65] In December, Cain was the "surprise choice" for 2012 GOP nominee in a RedState.com reader poll.^[8] Cain announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on January 12, 2011,^[66][67] and officially announced his candidacy on May 21 in Atlanta.^[68]

Straw poll victories[link]

A popular speaker, Cain's addresses to conservative groups were well received,^[69][70] and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won the straw polls of the Florida Republican Party, TeaCon, and the National Federation of Republican Women's Convention.^[71][72] "My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates," says GOP pollster Frank Luntz. "Don't underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential."^[71][73]

9–9–9 Plan[link]

In July 2011, an advisor suggested that his campaign's tax policy plan be called "the Optimal Tax", but Cain rejected the name, saying "[w]e're just going to call it what it is: 9–9–9 Plan."^[74] The plan would replace the current tax code with a 9-percent business transactions tax, a 9-percent personal income tax, and a 9-percent federal sales tax. During a debate on October 12, Cain said his plan "expands the base," arguing that "[w]hen you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9-9-9."^[75] An analysis released to Bloomberg News by the campaign claimed that the rate for each of the three taxes could in fact be as low as 7.3%, but "poverty grants" — which Cain has described as a lower rate in targeted "empowerment zones"^[76] — necessitated a national rate of 9%.^[75] Paul Krugman has criticized the plan, saying it shifts much of the current tax burden from the rich to the poor.^[77] Arthur Laffer,^[74] Lawrence Kudlow,^[78] the Club for Growth,^[79] and Congressman Paul Ryan^[80] have spoken favorably of "9-9-9". On October 21, Cain told a crowd in Detroit that the plan would be 9-0-9 for the poor, saying that "if you are at or below the poverty level ... then you don't pay that middle 9 on your income."^[81] Cain's 9-9-9 plan attracted skepticism from his fellow candidates at numerous Republican debates.^[82]

Allegations of sexual misconduct[link]

Cain in Scottsdale, Arizona in November 2011.

In late October 2011, Politico reported that Cain had been accused by two women of sexual harassment and misconduct during his time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.^[19][83] Harassment accusations have since been made by two additional women. Cain denies all allegations of sexual misconduct, while acknowledging that the restaurant organization made financial settlements to the complainants. Two of the four women have come forward publicly: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.^[84]

On November 28, 2011, Cain asserted that a woman named Ginger White would be claiming to have had an affair with him, and that the allegation was not true.^[85] An interview with White was aired an hour later on Fox 5 in Atlanta. In the interview, White said the affair lasted 13 years and ended right before Cain announced his presidential campaign.^[86] On November 30, 2011, Herman Cain denounced allegations of sexual harassment and adultery as "character assassination" during an event in Dayton, Ohio.^[87]

Campaign suspension[link]

On December 3, 2011, Cain announced he was "suspending" his campaign for the presidency following allegations of sexual harassment and adultery, which he denied,^[88] but were widely considered responsible for the sharp drop in his poll numbers.^[89]

Cain’s Solutions Revolution[link]

On January 4, 2012, Cain announced the "Cain’s Solutions Revolution". Cain's stated goal is to get commitments from members of Congress to support the 9-9-9 Plan before the 2012 elections.^[90] Cain stated that he started a new movement because the "biggest comment I got when I ended my candidacy was to keep 9-9-9 alive. That's what this is about, and I'm going to keep it alive with what I'm calling Cain's Solutions Revolution."^[91] In order to promote this movement, Cain is using both a bus tour and a new website.^[92] New York magazine stated that "it's Cain's earnest effort to keep 9-9-9 alive and focus on solutions."^[93] On January 20, 2012, Cain spoke at Stephen Colbert's "Rock Me Like a Herman Cain: South Cain-Olina Primary Rally".^[94] The Huffington Post reported that the crowd size was between 3,000 and 5,000 people. It has been called "the largest campaign rally so far during this GOP presidential primary season",^[95] and "the biggest political rally of the primary season".^[94]

State of the Union response[link]

For President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express chose Cain to give its second annual response.^[96] After Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave the official GOP response,^[97] Cain delivered his speech at the National Press Club.^[98] The speech was streamed live on the Tea Party Express website.^[97][99] Cain referred to Obama's address as a "hodgepodge of liberal ideas," adding that there were "no big ideas that would impact job growth" and "no big ideas that would stimulate economic growth in this country".^[100]

Bibliography[link]

• "The Intangibles of Implementation" in the technical journal Interfaces (Vol. 9, No. 5, 1979, pp. 144–147), published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
• Leadership is Common Sense (2nd ed.). Tapestry. November 2000 [first published 1997]. ISBN 978-1-930819-02-3. 
• Speak as a Leader. Lebhar-Friedman Books. December 1999. ISBN 978-0-86730-782-5. 
• CEO of SELF. Tapestry. August 2001. ISBN 978-1-930819-04-7. 
• They Think You're Stupid. Stroud & Hall. June 10, 2011 [first published 2005]. ISBN 978-0-9796462-7-0. 
• This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House. Threshold Editions. October 2011. ISBN 978-1-4516-6613-7. 
• 9-9-9 An Army of Davids. Velocity Mascot. May 1 2012. ISBN 978-1-62086-030-4. 

See also[link]

Conservatism portal

• Political positions of Herman Cain

References[link]