Herman Cain to protesters: If you're not rich 'blame yourself'

BY Aliyah Shahid
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, October 5th 2011, 1:49 PM

Unemployed Wall Street protesters only have themselves to blame for lacking a job, so says Herman Cain.

The Republican presidential candidate insisted that the demonstrations were being "orchestrated" to help President Obama.

"I don't have the facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama Administration," Cain told the Wall Street Journal.

The Tea Party favorite then argued that the plight of the unemployed was their own fault.

"Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone's fault if they succeeded, it is someone's fault if they failed," the ex-Godfather's Pizza CEO declared.

The fiery remarks come as protest organizers plan for their biggest demonstrations yet -- at least 2,000 people are expected to gather in lower Manhattan Wednesday.

Last week, 700 protesters who spilled onto the streets near the Brooklyn Bridge were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.

Cain acknowledged that the banking industry played a role in the 2008 economic meltdown, but argued they were no longer responsible.

"They did have something to do with the crisis that we went into in 2008, but we're not in 2008, we're in 2011," Cain said."...These demonstrations, I honestly don't understand what they're looking for. To me, they come across more as anti-capitalism."

Cain's campaign has been picking up steam since he won Florida's straw poll last month.

And in a recent Rasmussen Reports poll, Cain trails Obama by just five points in a head-to-head matchup.

SEE IT, beginning at 9:40: