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"FacebookPinterest\n\n At times, the GOP candidate pool looks about as capable of leading this nation as the cast of VH1's \"Celebrity Rehab.\" Among the Barbies and grey follicles stands Herman Cain, the controversial African-American pizza mogul who refers to himself as \"the Black Horse.\" With no political experience and a long history of verbal gaffes, one would assume he didn't stand a chance. Wrong again, America. In fact, Cain has momentum. There was a consensus among pundits that Cain won the first GOP debate in South Carolina. And in the early stages of campaigning, money is everything\u2014he has a lot of it. But does Cain really stand a chance of sustaining that momentum?\n\n GQ: We have to ask: You made a gospel album?\n\n Herman Cain: I have been a gospel singer all my life. When I moved to Omaha, Nebraska there was an organization called the Edmonson Youth Outreach Organization that asked me to become a member of their board and help them raise money. I wasn't that active as a board member, but I was willing to help them raise money. So I got this wild idea\u2014you know, I'm the CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Most CEOs would throw a fundraiser, or give a dinner and invite people to raise money for the organization. I wanted to do something different, so I decided, \"Man, how about I use my singing talents?\" and we put together a concert and charged other businesspeople and other CEOs to come hear me sing. I remember one of my CEO friends saying \"You can actually sing? Well enough to do a concert?\" I said, \"Yeah,\" and he said, \"Really?\" and I said, \"Yup, but it's going to cost you $500 a head to find out.\" Shortly after doing those concerts for four years, that helped me to kind of stay in shape vocally. Of course I was still singing in a choir, and I was the youth choir director. And then a good friend of mine came to me, who was also a musician and a producer, and said, \"Why don't you do a gospel CD?\" and I said, \"Well, that's not a bad idea\u2014I'll give it a shot.\" And so we decided to try to put together some songs, and we did. We put together a repertoire of songs that we were going to do, and that's how this CD came about. I think it came out in 1996, according to what the Internet says. Music had always been a hobby of mine; music was never a career desire of mine. I loved it, but I did not want to go through\u2014the music career is a very hard career to try to make it big.\n\n Herman Cain's 1996 album, Sunday Morning\n\n GQ: Wait, more difficult than becoming President of the United States?\n\n Herman Cain: Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's much harder to succeed as a vocalist, and become one of the big names than it is to get elected president. That's why I ended up running for president! [laughs]\n\n GQ: So you started your political career after a bout with President Clinton. If this never happened, would you have gotten into politics?\n\n Herman Cain: Absolutely. With or without the encounter with Bill Clinton, and here's why: When I had that encounter with Bill Clinton at that town hall meeting over HillaryCare, that was me speaking up as a businessman, trying to basically help protect my business, and help protect other small business from the onslaught of another government bureaucracy, when they wanted to take over health care. It was slightly different in some of the specifics, but the idea was still [that] they wanted the government to take over health care. Two things really were the catalyst for me to even think about running for president. First, the direction that I saw President Obama taking this nation. Secondly, by being on the radio every night, five nights a week, three hours a night, I was more familiar with the issues and the direction than I ever wanted to be. If I had not been on the radio, I would not have paid that much attention\u2014and I believe that's part of the problem with a lot of people today.\n\n GQ: The consensus seemed to be that you won the first GOP debate. How important was that debate?\n\n Herman Cain: Critical. A lot of people who had never heard of Herman Cain started asking the question, \"Who is Herman Cain? Where did he come from?\" There's no question that that was pivotal. Now, oddly enough, when I did the debate I didn't walk out there saying, \"I've got to win this debate. This is a critical debate.\" No. When I got ready to go out to do that debate, I did debate prep on the issues and so forth with my staff, but when I got ready to go out, the last thing my campaign manager said to me before I went out onto the stage was, \"Mr. Cain, Herman doesn't have to be perfect. Herman just has to be Herman.\" And that was very calming.\n\n GQ: Let's talk about race for a second. You and Jon Stewart went back and forth a few weeks ago. Do you really believe he doesn't like you because you're black and conservative?\n\n Herman Cain: I don't think Jon Stewart is a racist. I just think Jon Stewart is just a liberal.\n\n GQ: So why make the statement \"black and conservative?\" Why not \"Jon Stewart dislikes me because I'm conservative?\" \n\n Herman Cain: I didn't say he doesn't like me because I'm black. I said he disagrees with me because I'm conservative. The term \"he doesn't like me\" was probably a poor choice of words. He disagrees with me\u2014I don't know whether he likes me or not\u2014he disagrees with me because of my conservative views\u2014it has nothing to do with my color. Even though he mocked me with his Amos 'n' Andy dialect because he didn't get the joke when I talked about bills being three pages long. For somebody to be a professional comedian, he should have gotten the joke.\n\n GQ: A lot of people criticize Barack Obama for using race to his advantage. When referring to yourself as \"The Black Horse,\" are you using race to your advantage? \n\n Herman Cain: Absolutely not. I do not try to use race to my advantage. I don't even bring it up unless somebody asks me about it, and I have said repeatedly [that] this is not about color. This is about the content of your ideas, and your character. And so when I have been out speaking to Tea Party groups, citizen's groups, speaking at town hall meetings, I will joke about race to make people know I'm not uptight about it, I'm not defensive or overly sensitive about race. That's the only reason I bring up race\u2014not to try to use it to my advantage, but basically to try and break the ice with people who are wondering am I going to be overly sensitive to race. I don't need to play the race card. My message speaks for me.\n\n GQ: Your comments about not feeling comfortable about appointing a Muslim to your cabinet\u2014\n\n Herman Cain: Glad you got it right!\n\n GQ: Do you feel that is justified discrimination?\n\n Herman Cain: No. I wouldn't call it that. I'd call it \"justified caution.\" Most of the people who've been trying to kill us are Muslim terrorists. Not all Muslims are terrorists\u2014I'm not saying that.\n\n GQ: In all fairness you could argue that there have been groups of African-Americans, for example the Black Panthers, that were very militant and very violent. It'd be appalling to the world if a politician claimed they didn't feel comfortable appointing a black person.\n\n Herman Cain: But the Panthers didn't bring down towers. They didn't steal airplanes and load it up with fuel and fly into buildings with the intention of killing people and bringing down a symbol of American capitalism. Yes, they may have been angry with America\u2014I understand that, you know, the Black Panther movement\u2014but they didn't intentionally try to deliberately, in an organized, ongoing fashion try to destroy America. They wanted to change America, and they used intimidation to try to do it, more so than violence, to try to do it.\n\n GQ: So if the panthers were successful, would it be justified to be cautious toward all African-Americans?\n\n Herman Cain: If I knew they were a Black Panther, yes. But I wouldn't hold that against all blacks, just like I'm not holding it against all Muslims.\n\n GQ: But your statement wasn't about this specific sect of Muslims.\n\n Herman Cain: No it wasn't\u2014\n\n GQ: Your statement was against Muslims.\n\n Herman Cain: It was against Muslims. See, here's what quite frankly you and all of the other reporters try to do. The fact that I use the word Muslim\u2014I'm thinking about the terrorist, that's what I was thinking of. I'm not thinking about the peaceful ones. You want to know why? Because the peaceful ones have been too quiet. And I'm not thinking about the peaceful ones sitting in the corner while these nut jobs out here are trying to kill us. That was my first reaction; that was my perspective. Now, when you talk about black people, I'm not thinking about the blacks that have gone to prison, because I know the majority of black people aren't in prison, the majority of black people aren't trying to kill us. But there's a large percentage of Muslims that are trying to kill us in this country or other parts of the world. If I had to say it all over again, I'd say it again. I'm just Herman being Herman! I know a Muslim that I would put in my cabinet, OK? I'm not going to tell you his name. I know a guy that I would put in my cabinet because he does not believe in the terrorist aspect of the Muslim religion. But I didn't want to give the impression that, \"Oh yeah, Muslims are OK,\" because that wasn't my frame of mind.\n\n GQ: So why not just specify which Muslim group you were referring to?\n\n Herman Cain: Ok, you're right. I didn't say, \"not Muslims that don't pose a threat.\" That would have been the perfectly politically correct way to answer it. I don't always give the perfectly politically correct way to answer stuff. I answered emotionally, that's what I did. I've tried to explain it, but people don't want to hear the explanation\u2014they keep trying to nail me on \"Well, you've got a problem with Muslims.\"\n\n GQ: In recent polls Michele Bachmann seems to be faring well. She just recently signed the Marriage Vow pledge. Do you plan on signing it?\n\n Herman Cain: I am familiar with it. I have not signed it, because I have not read it. I don't sign stuff until I have read it. I have been quite busy the last few days, so I have not made signing that pledge, or even reading it a high priority. I understand that there are some aspects of the original pledge that, probably, I won't like. Haven't read them yet. They have revised the pledge. That gives me great cause for concern. I haven't studied it yet, and so that's why I haven't signed it.\n\n GQ: Let's say that you don't receive the presidential nomination. Would you be interested in being Vice President? \n\n Herman Cain: Only if it's someone who gets the nomination that I respect and that wants me to be a vice presidential nominee to bring value to the campaign.\n\n GQ: You've said that you and Sarah Palin agree on many issues. Is Sarah Palin in that category of candidates that you would run with?\n\n Herman Cain: I can't say at this point, because this is way, way too far out. Things I've learned about her and any of the other candidates may or may not cause me to feel comfortable being their running mate. That's because I'm a problem-solver, not a politician. A politician would say, \"Of course I'll take the VP slot!\" But I'm more principle-driven than I am opportunistic when it comes to holding political office.\n\n GQ: Let's say you do get the nomination.\n\n Herman Cain: Now that's a good assumption [laughs].\n\n GQ: You've beaten cancer\u2014can you beat Barack Obama?\n\n Herman Cain: I can beat Barack Obama. It's going to be harder for me to get the nomination than it will be for me to beat Barack Obama, and here's why: He has no record to run on. The other people I'm running against for the nomination, they do, and most of them have held political office and they like to point to their accomplishments when they've been in office, or things that they have sponsored\u2014may not have passed it, but they sponsored it\u2014they like to talk about what they've sponsored, they like to talk about what they've supported. And there's nothing against that. And then in some instances they have a record. Mitt Romney is probably the most vulnerable in terms of people pointing to his record because of ObamaCare. But, the reason that I believe that I'll be able to beat Barack Obama is simply because of his record. A lack of positive results.\n\n GQ: As a Black American, when Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States of America, were you inspired?\n\n Herman Cain: I was proud that he got elected. I prayed that he would be a success. I'm still proud that the country elected him, but I'm disappointed with his performance as president.\n\n GQ: I have read criticisms that say you're crazy. I have read compliments that say you're crazy. No one has ever simply asked you. Herman Cain, are you crazy?\n\n Herman Cain: I'm not crazy, but I'm confident."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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