As is often the case, the parts cut out of the story are more important than the parts left in.
Confirming what the Gallup polls have found, Cain was seen as the most likable of all the candidates in the race, a people person, a hard-working businessman, a potential problem solver and, tellingly, someone who many said would be a good neighbor. “He’s Main Street,” said Becky Leighty, a Republican. “He’s not Wall Street, and he’s not a politician.”
At one point, Hart asked the participants to think back to fifth grade and the types of students they had encountered. From a list that included descriptions such as “teacher’s pet,” “loner,” “hard worker,” “nerd” and “know it all,” Hart asked them to write down which most applied to Cain, to Romney, to Perry and to Obama.
The majority described Cain as the classmate who was the “hard worker,” with the others saying he was the “all-American kid” or “the kid everyone respects.”
In contrast, Perry left this group cold. If Perry is the person many GOP strategists believed was destined to challenge Romney for the nomination, no one had given that memo to these Ohioans.
On the fifth-grade exercise, one described Perry as the “star athlete,” but eight of the 12 wrote down “bully” as the kind of kid he reminded them of. When the discussion turned to other attributes, he was described as the kind of neighbor others would not want to mess with, or someone who would build a fence around his own property, or someone who would be in everybody else’s business.
“He wouldn’t be on the casserole committee,” said Sydney Mathis, a Democrat.
“Annoying,” said Lisa Cedrone, an independent voter who supported Obama in 2008 and is undecided today.
Voters like Herman Cain as a person.
“problem solver”, “good neighbor”, “hard worker”, “all american kid”, “kid everyone respects”—all things you would say about someone you like and respect.
Voters do not like Rick Perry as a person.
Go back and look at those descriptions of Rick Perry again: bully, busybody, someone you wouldn’t want to mess with, guy who would build a fence around his property, annoying—all polite ways to say MAJOR A**HOLE.
Nobody can get elected if that’s what voters think of him—nobody.
Not a hand went up. Two people said they would want to know who Cain’s vice presidential running mate would be. Four said they would feel as comfortable with Cain as with Obama, but they were all Republicans eager to see an end to the Obama presidency."