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 others saying he was the “all-American kid” or “the kid everyone respects.”
In contrast, Perry left this group cold. If he is the person many GOP strategists believed was destined to challenge Romney for the nomination, no one had given that memo to these Ohioans.
In the fifth-grade exercise, 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 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.
The negative descriptions of Perry underscored the depth of the problems the Texan has created for himself after 10 weeks as a candidate. His decline has created the vacuum that Cain is filling. That may be one reason that Perry’s opening ad in Iowa, released Wednesday, is wholly positive and almost vanilla in character. More than any other candidate, he needs a new introduction to Republican voters.
Romney fared somewhat better than Perry. He was seen by a few as the GOP candidate best prepared to be president. Some described him as the toughest, based in part on his toe-to-toe exchange with Perry at the Las Vegas debate.
But Romney also was described in terms that set him apart from ordinary people. In fifth grade, he would have been the “rich and privileged kid,” five in the group said. He was described as someone from Park Avenue or Wall Street. Others saw him as overly political (“chameleon” and “pompous” were two other words used).
The group’s comments were a reminder of just how many Republicans have resisted embracing Romney’s candidacy, and why they are not ready to support him. That has kept the GOP race fluid all year and continues to do so.
Cain is riding a wave of good feeling, in part because of who he is and how he presents himself, and in part because of the other candidates’ perceived weaknesses. Right now, some of the Ohioans in the focus group were willing to cut him some slack on the questions being raised about his “9-9-9” tax plan, although they acknowledged that they didn’t know enough about it to pass judgment.
“I’m not sure it’s realistic or something that could be implemented easily,” said Jennifer Sharm, an independent who leans toward the GOP. “But I think it’s novel. . . . The system is broken, and we need a major fix.”
Toward the end of the evening, Hart sat down at the table and braced the group with perhaps the most telling question of the night for Cain’s candidacy. “Here’s what I don’t get,” he began. He noted that Cain had been described as down to Earth and a good neighbor, but he also recalled how the group had described the country as being in terrible shape and noted that Cain is running a campaign with little staff or infrastructure.
“Do you think this person could be president of the United States?” he asked. “Is anybody willing to raise your hand and say, ‘I would be comfortable if he became the next president of the United States?’ ”
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.
For all the good impressions Cain has made, he still must cross a threshold in the minds of rank-and-file Republicans — and, if he were to become the nominee, in the minds of the many undecided independents.
If voters can begin to see him in the Oval Office, his candidacy will have taken a dramatic turn. That is what the next few months will answer. What this sample of Ohioans was saying Monday night was that he remains several steps short of that goal.
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