I love it when candidates claim they have an answer to something but refuse to explain it. Herman Cain is the latest to do this to counter the attacks he is getting for his 9-9-9 plan hurting the poor.

Speaking at the Western Republican Leadership Conference, Cain said they had come up with a fix that will make 9-9-9 more equitable, but he is keeping it a secret. Here’s the transcript from Think Progress (emphasis theirs):

CAIN: The other thing that they try to say – “well it’s going to be regressive on the poor.” No it’s not. We anticipated that attack, but I didn’t tell them how I was going to fix it yet. I wanted to wait until I get attacked on that for a while. We already have a plan for that. But I wanted to see if they would come at that. They thought it was going to be dead in the water. We are a compassionate nation. We do want to help those that are doing all they can to help themselves, but they might need a little bit of help. So we’re not going to throw the people at the poverty level under the bus. No, we’re not going to do that. But we’ve already made provisions for that, but I just haven’t told the public and my opponents about it yet.

We are 2-3 months away from the first votes being cast in a primary and Cain is wanting to keep secrets on the biggest part of his campaign that is under the most scrutiny, even from Republicans? I’m sorry, but that translates into “we have nothing and hopefully you will forget about it and move along”.

Of course secrecy with the Cain campaign is something we should be used to by now. Every time Cain releases a plan we are told it’s written by “experts”, but he never once says who the experts are. If such secrecy is the common place for Cain, then his Presidency will become a transparency nightmare. The right already attacks President Obama for not being open enough; will they attack Herman Cain for the same? I doubt it.