“To straighten our country out, the person who does it, if it ever happens, will be somebody who will step in and do the job in four years, and everybody will hate his or her ass, and then 30 years later they’ll say ‘pretty smart,'” tire mogul and former 1996 Republican presidential contender Morry Taylor told The Daily Caller.
Taylor, the CEO of Titan International, would have been barely a footnote in presidential electoral history if it were not for author and journalist Michael Lewis, who in chronicling the 1996 presidential campaign for The New Republic decided to focus the man nicknamed “The Grizz.”
To some, this was an unorthodox editorial decision, given that Taylor won in the neighborhood of one percent of the vote in the primaries he participated in — while spending in excesses of $6 million of his personal fortune. But as Lewis discovered, he was far and away the most interesting character in the race.
Which is why TheDC reached out to the no-nonsense, swear-like-a-sailor businessman to get his perspective on the current Republican presidential contest and the state of the country. Taylor isn’t the most traditionally eloquent rhetorician, but one quickly learns he likes to speak.
In fact, when TheDC contacted Titan to arrange an interview with Taylor, a woman in the company’s communications department chuckled at the question, as if to suggest there is never a time Taylor doesn’t like to talk.
“They’ve had a few debates. What the hell are they all beating up on each other for?” Taylor asked about the candidates running for the Republican nomination.
Taylor thinks the GOP contenders all have good traits, but adds that none of them is perfect.
“Intellectually, the smartest guy there is probably Mitt,” he said. “But Mitt — he’s not going to do anything! He’s going to study things.”
Of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Taylor said he has one of “the greatest minds of ideas.”
“But when is the American public going to realize you don’t want to look at a nice guy, you want a tough — a little bit like old Perry,” he added, referring to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
“Perry’s not doing good in the deal, but Perry’s at least tough. He’s not going to win it I don’t think.”
As for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Taylor likes him and some of his ideas, such as auditing the Fed, but doesn’t think he has the executive experience needed to run the government.
“I like Ron Paul. I like what he’s got to say. I mean, he’s right on a lot of things,” he said. “I don’t think Ron Paul really understands what you have to do in the management of a business and government is a business.”
In January, Slate’s Dave Weigel likened former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain to Taylor, given their parallel backgrounds as businessmen who entered the race for the White House without any political experience.
Taylor said he really liked Cain, who dropped out of the presidential race earlier this month amid allegations — which he strenuously denied — that he sexually harassed several women and carried on a long-term affair with another.
“I liked old Herman Cain, but, you know, they beat old Herman up,” Taylor said.
Like “old Herman,” Taylor has his own catchy tax reform plan. Cain’s was 9-9-9, Taylor’s is “2-10-20.”
“Write this down,” Taylor demanded, saying he was about to reveal “how you get this economy going.”
“Everybody has to pay,” he said.
“So you pay 2 percent up to 35 grand. That’s $700. Then from 35,000 up to 100,000, you pay an incremental difference of 10 percent … Then anything over 100 you pay 20 percent. That’s the income tax. You still keep your Social Security tax, only I would keep the feds — you make it off the books. You put in a real trust fund. You don’t let the politicians touch it.”
Taylor, a Florida resident, says he doesn’t know who he will vote for in the Sunshine State’s primary at the end of January. He hinted, though, that he likes Perry the best but believes he no longer has a real shot of winning the nomination.
“I was a Rick Perry guy,” he said. “He did a good job in Texas, but for whatever reason his handlers … didn’t let him be himself and they screwed him up.”
Though he is unsure of who is going to win Iowa, Taylor believes the real surprise will come in New Hampshire.
“I think Newt is going to do a hell of a lot better up there than people think,” he said.
Taylor says he is optimistic about America in the long run and believes our problems will ultimately get “straightened out,” but he says President Obama “doesn’t have one freaking clue what to do to create jobs.”
“Obama and his wacko friends, they are just running down a path they don’t even understand,” he went on, “and it is going to cost what I call ‘the people who just want to work and do their living,’ he’s screwing them up.”
The Grizz also graciously offered financial advice to Daily Caller readers, free of charge.
“I’ll make a prediction for you: If next October it looks like Obama’s going to win, you’re going to see the stock market crash like you’ve never seen,” he said. “So make sure you’re into cash only.”
Toward the end of the interview, it felt appropriate to ask Taylor about what he thought of another extraordinarily wealthy businessman perpetually hinting he might enter the presidential fray: Donald Trump.
“The Donald — do you know how many people have gone and lost so much money with The Donald?” he asked. “If you guys can’t figure it out, The Donald is a promoter. The Donald promotes himself and I give him all the credit.”
“I believe a lot of the things he is saying is true in reference to China, in reference to everybody else,” Taylor exclaimed, before adding, “it’s like Barnum & Bailey — that’s what he does.”
Taylor said that, like Trump, he would be willing to moderate a Republican primary debate if someone asked him to.
Though 67, Taylor says he feels like he’s in his forties. So would he consider taking another shot at electoral politics?
“The problem is,” he explained, “I swear too much.”