Herman Cain @ Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event

Former Godfather Pizza president and CEO Herman Cain is the first of the five potential presidential candidates who got to speak to the crowd gathered at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event this evening at a church in Waukee, Iowa. (Listen to his speech.)

Cain began by saying the “citizen’s movement” of the 2010 election will be “bigger and more impactful in November of 2012.”

Cain, a radio talk show host, continued: “The American dream is under attack.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is we are fighting back.  We are fighting back with our faith and we are fighting back with our freedom to fight back in the greatest country in the world when we don’t like something going on in Washington, D.C.”  The crowd applauded.

The crowd applauded each of these Herman Cain declaration: “It was not right to sue the state of Arizona when they were simply trying to protect themselves…It was not right…for the president of the United States to order the Justice Department to not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act.”

(He is a Bob Dole-esque speaker.  He spoke of what “Herman Cain” would do, rather than what “I” would do. )

“We’ve got to move from an entitlement society…Those programs have to be restructured & the states given more responsibility and authority” over those programs.

Cain told the crowd the “crazy idea of running for president” was planted in January of 1999 when his first grandchild was born.  “I took this little, 15-minute-old baby in my arms, looked into that little face, and the first thought that went through my mind…was: What do I do to help make this a better nation and a better world?  That’s where my journey started.”

He quickly closed with a “breaking news announcement for President Obama…the United States of America is not going to become the United States of Europe, not on our watch.  Thank you.”