Herman Cain: Stupid people are ruining America

Dayton Business Journal by Joe Cogliano, Senior Reporter

Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 2:54pm EST

Photo by Joe Cogliano, Dayton Business Journal

Herman Cain went on the offensive during a campaign rally in Dayton on Wednesday, saying he was not backing down in his efforts to win the Republican nomination for president.

Herman Cain showed no signs of backing down from his Presidential bid at a campaign rally in Dayton on Wednesday afternoon, bringing an energetic message to an enthusiastic crowd.

The GOP hopeful appeared composed and confident when he spoke to more than 300 supporters at a packed room at the Dayton Marriott.

Cain barely spoke about recent sexual misconduct allegations, other than to take a dig at those he said were “assassinating his character” to get him to drop out of the race.

“The American people are going to raise some ‘Cain’ in 2012,” Cain said, which drew cheers from the crowd.

Cain encouraged supporters to stay involved, inspired and informed.

“Stupid people are ruining America and we have to out-vote them,” Cain said.

Note: Click here to vote in poll asking which GOP candidate you support.

Cain also pounded away at his message for a stronger military, which sounded positive for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base    and the Dayton economy.

He said the Defense Department has been weakened by cuts, which are only going to get worse because of automatic cuts set to take place in the wake of the Supercommittee’s failure.

There may be a need to assess and reorganize priorities, but the military needs to be strengthened, he said.

At the rally, Cain continued to pitch his 9-9-9 idea, which would revamp the entire tax system.

“We have to reinvigorate the free market system,” he said. “Politicians propose ideas they think they can pass, business men and women propose ideas to fix the problem.”

Cain — who was introduced by Rob Scott, president and founder of the Dayton Tea Party — said he was glad to be back in Dayton, referring to a Tea Party rally in 2010 where he was keynote speaker.

And while he did not make any mention of his rival GOP candidates, Scott commented on why he is supporting Cain.

Scott, in his introduction of Cain, said that when looking for a keynote speaker for the local Tea Party event last year, he found that Sarah Palin wanted $100,000 to appear and Newt Gingrich would not return his calls. But Scott said that Cain’s response was simply to ask when and where to show up.

The Rev. William Shanklin kicked off the event with an invocation.

E-mail jcogliano@bizjournals.com. Call (937) 528-4424. Twitter.com/joecogDBJ