The Herman Cain appeal: ‘Simplicity is genius’

Now leading the Republican presidential contenders in at least one national poll, Herman Cain said his strategy in the coming weeks is to raise his name identification and position himself as an alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

In a speech to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, part of a daylong trip to the state, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza urged lawmakers who were not supporting Romney to choose him (and asked those who were supporting Romney “to reconsider”).

“My name ID isn’t what Mitt Romney’s is,” Cain said when asked about Romney’s huge lead in New Hampshire polls Wednesday. “I happen to believe we are going to close that gap.”

Ultimately, Cain argued that voters would decide that his economic plan was preferable to Romney’s. During the Dartmouth College debate Tuesday night he had challenged Romney to list the 59 points in his economic plan; on Wednesday, he scoffed at Romney’s answer.

“Romney’s only response had to be — ‘Well not everything can be solved simplistically.’ Yes it can,” Cain told reporters outside the New Hampshire Capitol on Wednesday. “Here’s the other difference that I didn’t get to point out last night: Romney’s so-called economic plan throws a whole lot of stuff in there that he’s trying to address. The biggest thing that he doesn’t do is throw out the current tax code. I throw out the tax code right away.”

Instead of folding other policy elements into his tax proposal, Cain said he planned to present separate, individual plans for economic growth, energy independence, illegal immigration, national defense and foreign policy, “so that people can understand it.”

“You start throwing all this stuff in there,” he said, referring to Romney’s plan, “you are going to end up with another 2,700-page bill.”

The American people, “they’re not going to read it,” he said. “So give them specific, clear solutions for the major issues that we face.”

Cain also disputed Romney’s suggestion during Tuesday night’s debate that Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan — a 9% personal income tax, 9% corporate tax and 9% national sales tax — was too simplistic: “I thought that was a put-down on his part because a plan can be simple without being simple-minded,” Cain said during a visit to the Ninety-Nine Restaurant & Pub on Wednesday afternoon.

“Someone once said simplicity is genius. I believe that’s why I was attacked so much.”

maeve.reston@latimes.com