welcome back. g.o.p. presidential candidate herman cain has had kind of a tough week. his recent comments on abortion have taken center stage and many have been asking where he stands. take a listen. it s not the government s role or anybody else s role to make that decision. it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. not me as president. not some politician. not a bureaucrat. i will not sign any legislation that in any way allowed the government to be involved in it. i would strengthen all of our current laws that prevent abortion. i believe that abortion should be clearly stated and illegal across this country. and we re joined now by former ceo of godfather s pizza, 2012 presidential candidate as well and author of this is herman cain herman cain, good
how s that for political correctness? reporter: but the payments have fueled criticism even among republicans that he s used the campaign race to promote himself as a cam tan leader and speaker that could take off much the way sarah palin s did. on its website, the new voice sells books, pamphlets, and dvds, that chart cain s career as ceo of god fooer s pizza and motivational speaker. i had achieved what i had hoped for all my life. reporter: business week reports he has earned $250,000 this year continuing give motivational speeches. and just two weeks ago instead of campaigning, he was on a book door for his new book, this is herman cain published by simon & schuster. i can promote a book and campaign at the same time.
romney and rick perry that we ve never seen before. we had the moment where he approached her and, you know, the body language is pretty telling. especially when we look. i thaw t i thought it was good for perry. it with as shot framing the two of them as essentially equals, right? they were going at each other and i think after some thought about it while he s flagging the polls and cain is rising it refocussed the media narrative that the two front-runners are romney and perry. i think it was good for perry. i also thing it looked bad for romney to put his shoulder on the guy and i thought he lost his cool. i think generally as a rule in politics, there s a tremendous degree of discipline to sustain the 20-hour a day sket for seven
candidates will pile on herman cain. in questions about whether he is really taking this campaign seriously. he took issue with this. one myth is that i am not in this race to win it. that i am just trying to get my profile up so i can get a tv show or a radio show. if you know herman cain, you know that nothing is further from the truth. if you don t believe me, i invite you to get a copy of my new book this is herman cain. they are going to be selling like hotcakes. michelle bernard, is this something to be joking about? we do have a report that he is spending quite a bit of money to buying his book. this is standard for campaigns to do to use at fund-raisers. what does he have to do to make sure he stops getting those
invite you to get a copy of my new book this is herman cain if you can find one because they re selling like hotcakes. and if you know me, you will know i m not in this for show. oh, my gosh. does he know? maybe that was humor again. he was just kidding. there is no way he right? it s not possible, is it? not a good sense of timing in show business. was that an unself-aware moment or another attempt at humor? he is all over it. welcome back to morning joe. msnbc analyst and visiting professor at nyu, former democratic congressman harold ford jr., good to have you back. good morning. glad to be back. what do you think, mika? well, i think i want to move on from herman cain because i think we re taking all of this just a little too seriously. he is in first place. he wants to sell his book. he doesn t want a reality show