If we go back a couple of months on this forum, there was wild enthusiasm for Michelle Bachman. Then came Rick Perry. All along was the thought that Sarah Palin would throw her hat in the ring. Now the "flavor of the month" is Herman Cain.

Cain's a nice enough fellow, probably smart enough to do the job. But he's spent the last week or so flogging his 9-9-9 program for balancing the budget and beginning to reduce the national debt. What is it all about? Why are conservatives so wildly enthusiastic about the man and his proposed fiscal policy? What is 9-9-9? What do we know about it?

• Not a whole lot has been written down about the plan by Mr. Cain. The entire plan is described in 32 bullet points on his website, leaving an awful lot of detail to be filled in or explained by someone.
  
• Cain explains that several noted economists helped him design the plan, except he refuses to say who they are.
  
• The plan is heavily based on the enactment of a 9% European-style VAT tax. Conservatives have been steadfastly against VAT taxes because of the proven pattern that the tax rate escalates upwards consistently.
  
• Cain says that the plan is not regressive. The only problem is that everyone who has attempted to analyze his plan (except Cain) has concluded that taxes on corporations and the wealthy will be reduced with the increased tax burden to be picked up by the lower income classes--a textbook definition of a "regressive tax".
  
• Those that have attempted to "do the arithmetic" with Cain's plan have concluded that if enacted it would actually increase the annual deficits and national debt.
  
• Other than the bullet points on his website, Cain has not proposed to fill in the balnks in his plan. Nor has he agreed to permit any of the unnamed financial advisors who he says assisted him in designing the plan to explain its details.
  
• One of the bullet points on Cain's website explaining the 9-9-9 plan says, "Amidst a backdrop of the economic boom created by the Phase 1 Enhanced Plan (presumably after he is elected POTUS), I will begin the process of educating the American people on the benefits of continuing the next step...."

Where is the conservative outrage in response to this plan from this candidate? There are enough non-conservative...liberal actually...elements in this plan that if it were proposed by a Democratic candidate, the conservative right would respond with indignation and outrage.

But that's not happening with Herman Cain. In fact, he seems to be gaining in popularity. I'm baffled at the absence of conservative outrage over the economic plan proposed by this candidate. Why? Is anyone paying attention to what is being said, to what he's proposing? Unbelievable!