South Carolina Debate: Herman Cain Makes A Great First Impression

South Carolina Debate: Herman Cain Makes A Great First Impression
by Tony Lee
05/06/2011

When former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain was in the midst of an answer to question during the first Republican primary debate (sponsored by Fox News and the South Carolina GOP) of the 2012 cycle in Greenville, South Carolina, the buzzer rang, indicating that Cain had reached his alloted 30 seconds.

Traditional politicians usually ignore the buzzer and finish their talking points or answers. Cain, though, simply stopped his answer, unlike what a traditional politician would do in that situation.

Later in the debate, when pressed by Chris Wallace, who was one of the moderators, about his lack of political experience, Cain simply responded, in what is becoming a patented line of his, that politicians have done more harm than good in Washington and asked the audience, "how's that working out for you?"

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and former New Mexico Gary Johnson joined Cain on stage in what many political observers called a junior varsity debate. Potential heavyweights such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Jon Huntsman, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, and Newt Gingrich were all absent.

Cain's outsider status, his clarity in his responses, and his successful past as a businessman who turned around companies that were failing, resonated with an audience that previously did not know much about him.

In fact, in a focus group by Frank Luntz right after the debate, voters who did not know who Cain was nearly unanimously declared him the winner.

Likewise, that same focus group seemed angry that other potential top-tier candidates ignored South Carolina, a state that has been essential to winning the GOP nomination since 1980. In fact, no GOP candidate has won the nomination without winning South Carolina since 1980.

So by showing up, Pawlenty was the other winner by default. Pawlenty had measured answers on a range of issues, smartly brought up an issue that is currently dear to many in South Carolina--Boeing--especially to Gov. Nikki Haley, and criticized Obama on healthcare while also admitting his past mistakes on climate change and cap and trade.

Gary Johnson floundered and was awkward at best and Ron Paul seemed to be finding his footing. Paul seems like an aging wrestler in his last hurrah, and it is to be determined whether he is hanging around well past his shelf-life or if he can be triumphant. Paul still has a fervent group of supporters who raised nearly a million dollars yesterday during an online "money bomb."

Santorum urged debate watchers to pick a candidate who has lived and fought for social values instead of merely "checking off the boxes." He said that if Republicans give up on social issues, it would be giving up on America, and he strongly supported the importance of learning English to succeed in this country.

But Pawlenty and Cain rightfully grabbed the night's headlines.

While Pawlenty seemed to say all the right things, the support for Cain represents both a general dissatisfaction among the GOP primary electorate with the current crop of mainstream candidates and an affirmation of his straight talking, outsider status, something that this cycle's primary voters will value, as evidenced by the high poll numbers of Donald Trump in recent weeks.

The debate seemed to be a preseason matchup weeks or months before the real campaign season kicks off, but Cain's showing showed that this cycle is going to be an anti-establishment cycle where clarity and fierceness may be valued above a candidate who merely does his or her best to check off all the requisite boxes.

Candidates who were not at the debate should take note.
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Impressions From the South Carolina Debate
In search of passion, reason, and inspiration.
by John Hayward
05/05/2011

The first debate between Republican presidential contenders was held in South Carolina Thursday night. Not all of them were in attendance. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee were among the declared or likely contestants who didn’t attend. The attendees were asked for their thoughts on the missing candidates, so we learned that Tim Pawlenty is very fond of Mike Huckabee, while Gary Johnson thinks Sarah Palin spends her time in Alaska crawling around ice floes on her hands and knees.

Donald Trump wasn’t there either, although I was hoping he would make a surprise appearance. I envisioned a burst of flash powder and a column of gold smoke mixed with glitter, followed by a loud thump and some muffled cursing. Trump would then stroll onto the stage, adjusting his tie and complaining that nobody had talked about screwing the Chinese yet. Alas, it didn’t happen.

I doubt any of the candidates would have expected, two weeks ago, that so much of this debate would focus on foreign policy. The shift in the national discussion after the death of bin Laden probably threw them all off their games - except for Ron Paul, who has been playing the exact same game for a long time, and wants the world to go away as much today as he did last year. It’s good that all of the contenders found themselves on uncertain ground tonight. We need to see what they do when the earth moves beneath them.

I thought Herman Cain won the evening, an opinion shared by the Fox News focus group convened immediately afterward. He’s the most commanding orator of the group, and the one best able to think on his feet. His weakest answer was the first one, covering foreign policy and the war in Afghanistan. It was clearly not something he really wanted to talk about, and when some of the energy drains from his performance, the effect is dramatic.

During that exchange, Cain said he would trust “the experts” to advise him on a situation like Afghanistan. Of course every President will have advice from experts, but right now the public is thinking that a galaxy of “experts” got us $14 trillion in debt… and that’s usually a feeling Cain is deeply in tune with. In future debates, he should come armed with his own fully-formed opinions on all topics. That’s hard to do. So is running for President.

Cain was the best at planting rhetorical lawn darts in the memory of the audience, as when he said of President Obama’s bounce from the killing of Osama bin Laden: “One right decision doth not a great president make.” When he said the word “outrageous,” I could see it hanging in the air, with hyphens in between the syllables. He seemed far more prepared to defend the dramatic “Fair Tax” reform plan than Tim Pawlenty was to defend his gubernatorial record.

Cain’s stance on energy policy, and the importance of American energy independence, was a textbook example of how powerful a simple common-sense idea can be, when presented with supreme confidence.

Pawlenty came alive a few times during the evening, especially when discussing the National Labor Relations Board’s crusade against Boeing for planning a production line in right-to-work South Carolina. Crank up the voltage on Pawlenty, and you’ve really got something. I could believe that he honestly forgot he was standing in South Carolina when he had all that juice coursing through him, and would have given the same answer if the debate were being held in Washington State.

I also liked Pawlenty’s takedown of ObamaCare best out of all the contenders. It was both thorough and passionate – he knows why Obama’s health care boondoggle is both bad and wrong.

Rick Santorum was also very good on ObamaCare, and was the biggest surprise of the night to me. He can look strong and passionate in his best moments, anxious and twitchy at his worst. He wandered off into some weird territory when asked about controversial statements from his past. I appreciate his desire to be uncompromising, but recognizing that some ideas require extra polish to present to a skeptical public is not the same as compromising deeply held principles. In fact, the ability to educate a nervous public about difficult ideas, with competence and wit, will be a vital skill for the next President.

Santorum needs to learn how to loosen up, and mix a little soothing, confident yin with his fiery, inspirational yang. He also relies a bit too much on body language, as when he amusingly provided a pantomime demonstration of what “bullying” is, or allowed one of his answers to collapse into a mute smile and hoisted thumb. A little of that stuff can keep a visual audience interested, but the early stages of a primary are fought in a media space that is more widely heard and read.

The strangest aspect of the evening was Gary Johnson’s presence. The former governor of New Mexico has a nervous, unsettling style that would be better suited to teaching a scrapbooking class at the local Jo-Anne’s craft store. His fluttering hands made him look like he spent the evening under attack from a pair of “Alien” face-huggers.

Johnson is charming when he’s funny, as when he complained about the lack of questions thrown to him from the panel, but he doesn’t seem like someone who could go toe-to-toe with Barack Obama, or possibly even Tim Pawlenty. This is a season for warrior-poets, not nerds from poli-sci class.

The great truth that every Republican presidential candidate must accept is that tonight – and every night, until November 2012 – they dine in hell. They will do battle with an incumbent who presents his re-election as a moral imperative, supported by a media culture of suicidal liberalism that does not want to be told America can no longer afford its appetites. They must relish uneven playing fields, nervous voters, and the difficult process of fusing emotion and reason into inspiration.

The ideal candidate must understand that America’s greatest days lie ahead of her… on the far side of the most perilous hours she has faced in a century. They are battling for executive power over a system that will fight like mad to defeat them, and die of complications from its victory. They will represent an electorate that is tired of apologizing for capitalism to people who want to kill it.

Herman Cain seemed to fit that description best on Thursday night. He’ll face some different opponents in his next debate. The smart ones will watch the tapes from South Carolina, and be ready for him.
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To read another article about Herman Cain, click here.