Monday, October 31, 2011 - 2:48 PM

GOP frontrunner Herman Cain has made a number of comments about specific foreign policy issues, but he hasn't yet spelled out his doctrine for restoring U.S. leadership abroad ... until now.
In order to fix what he referred to as America's "foreign foggy policy," Cain told a packed house at the National Press Club today that he would apply the lessons he learned as CEO reviving Godfather's Pizza to U.S. national security issues. Cain noted that Godfather's was about to go bankrupt in 1996 when he joined the organization.
"I had never made a pizza, but I learned. And the way we renewed Godfather's Pizza as a company is the same approach I would use to renew America. And that is: If you want to solve a problem, go to the source closest to the problem and ask the right questions," he said, while the audience dined on cupcakes decorated with pictures of pizzas and the numbers 9-9-9 -- a reference to his much-celebrated plan for tax reform.
Cain went into more detail, explaining that he talked with customers, young workers in the restaurants, managers, assistant managers, the office staff, franchisees, and suppliers. He asked them all why they thought Godfather's Pizza was failing as a business. He then concluded that Godfather's had lost its status as an industry leader because it had tried to do "too much with too little, too fast" -- it lost its focus.
"That's what I believe is America's problem, we have lost our focus. In order to renew that focus, we must address its most pressing problems boldly."
Cain then said his second guiding principle would be to use "foreign policy common sense," which for Cain would mean not announcing the troop withdrawals from Iraq or Afghanistan, and not "send[ing] an e-mail to the enemy about what you are going to do."
He also said he would "listen to the commanders on the ground because they are the closest to the problem." One assumes that this would be the pizza makers?
Cain preempted accusations that he lacked an understanding of U.S. foreign policy. "I don't believe you need to have extensive foreign policy experience if you know how to make sure you're working on the right problems, establishing the right priorities, surround yourself with the right people, which would allow you to put together the plans necessary to solve the problem," he said.
"We have an economic crisis, a national security crisis. We've got an energy crisis, a spending crisis, a foreign foggy policy crisis, a moral crisis, and the biggest crisis we have is a severe deficiency of leadership, in my opinion, in the White House," the GOP presidential hopeful noted. "This is why I believe we need to renew America by fixing the stuff that is broken."
Cain also said that if elected president, he would change the way America doles out foreign aid.
"We need to clarify who our friends are, clarify who our enemies are; and I happen to believe we must stop giving money to our enemies," said Cain.
The only country he identified as a "friend" was Israel. He didn't name any "enemies."
I think now is an appropriate time to step back and ask ourselves, "how did it all come to this?"
We've always done stuff like this
This is just political theater. Read this...
http://bfanwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/political-theater.html
And if you have more time, read this...
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6BI_OoKPhKjYjBhNjRjYmEtZTUzNC00MWMzLTg1OWEtOTMwMjkxYWUyZWJi
I went your link, its the stupidest conspiracy theory ive ever heard and has no basis in fact. If this was a joke (and i hope it is) it was not very good for the record and is just spam
I understand Cain's strategy of separating himself from Washington, and labeling himself as a businessman and not a politician, but it seems like if he keeps relating all of his plans and doctrines to pizza he'll turn his campaign into a joke and voters will view it as a publicity stunt.
God help us if this isn't a publicity stunt
This is unbelievable... It would seem that Mike Judge was far too conservative in his Idiocracy forecasting.
It seems people believe choosing the best man for the job of being president means having an understanding of all issues. President George HW Bush had more foreign policy experience then President William J Clinton. We all know that President Barack Obama lacked any foreign policy experience yet he has turn out to be very successful in his foreign policy. So why are we so critical of Herman Cain?
Maybe we should focus on the United States for the next 10 years forget Iraq and Afghanistan and focus on our own problems. I am always told clean your own house before you worry about other people’s house. I like the article and comments.
"So why are we so critical of Herman Cain?"
Because the guy is a buffoon whose main campaign point is a plan to raise the taxes of 85% of Americans to benefit the super wealthy.
If you look collectively at all the statements he's made so far, he has already said all of this. If you'd been following each candidates statements on foreign policy you could have more or less written this exact same article last week, minus the cute discussion on the cupcakes of course.
Well, well...Cain's little trip into international politics certainly did bring out the bunglers, charlatans and general circus strutters of the Bureaucratic Master Race, did it not? They do seem to have all the answers, do they not? Oops, gee, there was Bill Clinton coming to the international politics of the Presidency with Gennifer Flowers hanging off his zipper. That was certainly foreshadowing, was it not? And our present savant in the White House...community organizing in an orderly fashion in the projects, which never seem to get better and he left with gang wars hanging off his backpack to enter the International field. Aha, another fictional success story in the White House! Against this background we have someone who is open, honest enough to not wiggle through things, and making known his ideas. And why should he not have these ideas? He makes reference to what he knows. And it is basic. The convolutions the snobs go thought as they hike their skirts in fear of this Afro-monstermouse is both ludicrous and ideologically erroneous. Ah, but there is that Will to Protect the Bureaucratic master Race...the Right Way of All Things to be Done.
Cain is a clown, the only reason he gets the media attention that he does is because we are so eager to watch him go down in flames. Like not being able to avert your eyes from a trainwreck. Please ...
...next
Hey, this is working for Romney
By keeping relatively quiet, the sideshows that were Bachmann, Perry, and (soon) Cain, it seems that it really is best to keep quiet and be thought a fool, rather than speak and remove all doubt - as Romney has smartly adopted as a strategy (or whatever you want to call it)
(12)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE