Before heading downtown to tell FoxNews that Columbia loves Hannity, Herman Cain spoke in Low last night at the invitation of the College Republicans. He gave what seemed to be his standard hour-long speech outlining what he perceives to be a time of crises in America, including an “economic crisis,” an “illegal immigration crisis,” a “moral crisis” and another kind or two. After sketching out an America in which small businesses are smothered by a really long tax code, Cain posited that the economic crisis, at least, could be solved with his 9-9-9 tax plan.

The audience was definitely less friendly than the one his “Solutions Revolution” tour generally encounters; several times, Cain faltered after having expected applause at a certain line and meeting a dead room. For pretty much the entire speech, the CU Dems were talking loudly, laughing, and fake-coughing. Several of his canned lines which probably meet with approval elsewhere in the country (e.g. on taxes, “If ten percent is good enough for God, nine is good enough for the government!) fell flat on their face in Low. Nevertheless, he kept his cool, and maintained a powerful delivery. For a politician whose candidacy was pretty much a joke, he was very charismatic and likeable as a speaker. Maybe that’s just what politicians do.

The structure of his speech was simple: we have problems, they are caused by high taxes, we should have lower taxes, now I’ll take questions. Since he was late, the promised #CainAtColumbia Twitter questions were largely ignored, and all but one came from a CUCR board member. Only, “What is your favorite pizza topping?” made it through, to which Cain boisterously returned, “Favorite pizza topping..sss? Sss? The all-meat combo! No anchovies! Pepperoni, bacon, sausage, ham, ‘burger meat!”

Then he recited the lyrics to that song from Pokemon: The Movie 2000, which is a thing he does.