Cain is still working out some details. Asked if his proposed tax deduction for businesses that buy U.S.-made goods would apply to a computer manufactured by an American company and fabricated overseas with Asian-made parts, he responded: "I have no idea, haven't looked at it in that great a detail."
Electric Fence
Cain told a crowd at a Cookesville, Tennessee, Tea Party rally that he would build an electrified, barbed wire-topped border fence to kill would-be illegal immigrants -- a statement he dismissed as a joke yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The remark prompted an angry response from Democratic Representative Charles A. Gonzalez of Texas, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who said in a statement today that, "Whether or not he made his comments in jest, Mr. Cain's words show a lack of understanding of the immigration issues our country is facing and a staggering lack of sensitivity."
Last week, Cain courted late-lunch customers at the Ninety Nine Restaurant in Concord wearing shirt cuffs monogrammed with a "C" and carrying a black Stetson hat.
Debbie Mastromarino, 58, a pharmacy technician from Pittsfield who said she was "not too sure about the 9-9-9" tax plan, wanted to know if Cain was in the race to stay. "You can't fizzle -- because they all fizzle," she warned over a bowl of chili.
Cain had chosen the restaurant for its $9.99 entrée specials, in keeping with his own brand.
If the product lacks some discipline, its producer is a showman. Video of Cain, an accomplished gospel vocalist, singing John Lennon's "Imagine" with pizza-related lyrics circulated on the Internet today. And at one point during his Tennessee bus tour, Cain interrupted a rally to belt out a few bars of "To Dream the Impossible Dream" from the 1965 musical "Man of La Mancha" based on the 17th Century classic, "Don Quixote."
"This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless," Cain sang, adding: "I just thought I'd do that."