Cain Introduces 9- 0-9 Plan; Can Herman Cain Win the Nomination?
BLITZER: The Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is changing his 9-9-9 plan a bit with a backdrop of economically depressed Detroit. Cain said those who fall at or below the poverty level would have a 9-0-9 plan. The 9-9-9 proposal you may recall replaces the current tax code with a 9 percent corporate tax, a 9 percent income tax, and a new 9 percent national sales tax. Opponents have argued that the middle part of the plan would increase taxes on the poor who currently pay little or no federal income tax. Cain says the new 9-0-9 plan would protect those individuals. I had a chance to interview Herman Cain in Las Vegas this week and I asked him what he thought about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, freeing a thousand Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of one Israeli soldier. Then I asked Herman Cain this.</s>BLITZER: Can you imagine if you were president, we're almost out of time. And there were one American soldier who had been held for years and the demand was al Qaeda or some other terrorist group. You've got to free everyone at Guantanamo Bay, several hundred prisoners at Guantanamo. Could you see himself as president authorizing that kind of transfer?</s>HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I could see myself authorizing that kind of transfer. But what I would do is I would make sure that I got all of the information. I got all of the input, considered all of the options and then the president has to be the president and make a judgment call. I can make that call if I had to.</s>BLITZER: Five hours later at the CNN debate, he had a different answer.</s>CAIN: Let me say this first. I would have a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. We have to lay that principle down first. Now, being you have to look at each individual situation and consider all the facts.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: But you're saying, in your words, you said I could see myself authorizing that kind of a transfer. Isn't that negotiating with in this case, al Qaeda?</s>CAIN: I don't recall him saying that it was al Qaeda-related.</s>COOPER: Yes, he did.</s>CAIN: Well, my policy would be we cannot negotiate with terrorists.</s>BLITZER: Later, he told Anderson Cooper that he had misspoke during his interview with me earlier in the day. Let's discuss what's going on with our senior political analysts, Ron Brownstein. And I guess, the fundamental question, Ron, a lot of folks are asking, he's doing remarkably well not only in the national polls but you look at the poll in Iowa and South Carolina. He looks like he is atop those polls. Can he actually win the Republican presidential nomination?</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Probably not in the end. You know, the paradox of outsider candidates, is what makes they will so attractive on first blush is usually what makes people hesitant over the longer term. Herman Cain is someone who is charismatic and dynamic. But as his answers to your questions and many others that he's faced in the last few weeks suggest, has not really spent a lot of time thinking about running for president or all of the issues that he would face as president. And usually through sustained exposure, that comes out on the outsider candidates who diminish their appeal. Really, he is really part of a larger phenomenon, Wolf, which was the inability of the conservative Tea Party Evangelical half of the Republican Party to find one candidate they can settle on as their alternative to Mitt Romney. We're really seeing them stifling through Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and now Herman Cain. It may roll back to Perry before it is over.</s>BLITZER: Well, let's talk about Mitt Romney and Rick Perry right now at our CNN debate in Las Vegas. It got pretty exciting. They got very personal. Let me play you a little clip.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm speaking -- I'm speaking, I'm speaking, I'm speaking. You get 30 seconds. This is the way the rules work here is that I get 60 second -</s>RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, but the merit --</s>ROMNEY: And then you get 30 seconds to respond, right?</s>PERRY: And they want to hear you say you --</s>ROMNEY: Would you please a wait? Are you going to keep talking? Are you going to let me finish? Look --</s>BLITZER: No matter how many times I see that exchange. I don't remember a debate getting as intense. Do you remember a debate --</s>BROWNSTEIN: -- Brown and Bill Clinton in 1992 in Illinois. When Brown raced the law firm --</s>BLITZER: Were you surprised?</s>BROWNSTEIN: I was.</s>BLITZER: That Rick Perry came out swinging?</s>BROWSTEIN: Rick Perry needed this debate I think in retrospect. If he does recover and become a factor in the race again after really skidding, this will be seen as the debate where that marked the kind of turning of the tide for him back in to becoming a serious candidate. I mean, part of the, he's really faced two problems. Perry emerged and quickly consolidated a lot of the right and then as quickly lost it mostly for two reasons. One was this criticism on his policy toward instate tuition for illegals, which opened up a vulnerability among conservatives. Made them wonder if he was truly as much one of them as they believe, which by the way is the problem Cain may face on some issues. But the other question was the doubt that he had what it takes to really contest the general election against President Obama because of the weakness of his performance in those early debates. So clearly going into this debate, they were hoping to address both of those issues. You will see them continue to try to reassure conservatives with the flat tax proposal coming out next week bringing back an issue from the 1990s.</s>BLITZER: Going with Steve Forbes on that issue is now apparently an adviser to Rick Perry on that. Let's talk about President Obama for a second. He's got a string of national security victories lately going back to May with the killing of Bin Laden, Anwar Al-Awlaki. This week Gadhafi dies in Libya. We don't exactly know which circumstances. He announces Friday that all U.S. troops are out of Iraq by the end of this year basically declaring victory. The U.S. mission in Iraq is over. Politically speaking, any of this really going to resonate in the general election next year?</s>BROWSTEIN: Well, this definitely qualifies, I think you would agree, in the who would have thunk it category. A president only a few years out of the Illinois state Senate running for re-election, and all likelihood foreign policy will be an asset for him in this race. I think most Americans will see most of this record as being strong. The problem is, as you suggest, that the economy is likely to completely overshadow all other issues. So at the margin, yes, this will help him. It will be a calling card. It will be a way for him to seem presidential next to the Republican nominees. But I think his fate will turn on whether voters believe he has a plan to lead us toward better times economically.</s>BLITZER: You have a great article in the new "National Journal," rocky territory about Colorado, right?</s>BROWNSTEIN: The entire mountain west, which has become, as you saw in this debate, increasingly contested terrain for both parties. You know, it used to be reliably Republican, but Obama in 2008, when Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. And because of his difficulty with older white voters who are concentrated in the Midwest. Those states are probably even more important for him in 2012 than 2008. The problem is that while they're a demographic trend that bends tornado the Democrats in all of those places. When Democrats be in office, whether it's Bill Clinton in '94 or Barack Obama in 2010, they've had trouble holding support from voters in this region who tend to be suspicious of Washington. So Obama has more need for these states. It used to be a luxury for Democrats. Now it's becoming a necessity, but a little more of an uphill climb on that stony terrain.</s>BLITZER: Ron Brownstein, thanks very much.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Dozens of wild animal shot dead after escaping an exotic preserve. Did the authorities do the right thing? We'll take to you a preserve right here in the Washington, D.C. area and try to get some answers.