Herman Cain: A Nuts-n-Bolts Type of Guy

After watching the CNN televised GOP presidential primary debate in New Hampshire, I was struck by two things.

First thing, there definitely was one candidate that isn’t a politician and the second things is, there is a nuts-n- bolts candidate in the group.

And while it is evident that Herman Cain is a nuts-n-bolts type of guy, he plays by the rules.

When you are held to 30 second answers, Herman Cain played by the rules while the politicians filibustered the debate with answers that violated the timelines.

The format outlined by CNN and moderated by John King was lousy and when the presidential candidates were introducing themselves in this debate, I got the feeling I was watching the start of the Jeopardy show.

For some reason, I didn’t get the same feeling when watching the first debate on the Fox network moderated by Bret Baier.

And the Fox debate seemed to give all the candidates the opportunity to state their case.

In the CNN debate, there was a moment when Herman Cain displayed his nuts-n-bolts problem solving.

He showed his problem solving skills when he answered how he would fix social security and the camera pan told the tale of a very attentive audience.

There was another question presented to Herman Cain by CNN's John King and it was designed to trip up Cain.

The question on a litmus test for Muslims is becoming an Achilles heel for Cain.

While his concern that there is a slow creep of Sharia law in the U.S. is valid, it is evident he needs to take the view that while there are Muslims who have an agenda here in the U.S., there are people who are disciples of the liberation Christian theology who have a very lenient view on Sharia law.

Interestingly, the so-called front-runner Mitt Romney pooh-poohed the idea that Sharia law is making a slow creep into the U.S.

And a note to Romney: you’re pandering to voters in Dearborn and Sterling Heights Michigan won’t help you in Michigan.

Just Google Sharia law in the United States and you will get the gist.

If there is a commercial waiting to be made to attack Romney in the heartland, his answer on Sharia law shows his naiveté and it would make great material for a commercial.

What made the Sharia law matter worse for Romney was when Newt Gingrich saw an opening and he broke the debate decorum rules and pounced on Romney’s comments while bolstering Herman Cain’s answer.

During this debate, Romney was lucky he wasn’t hit on his support of a government mandated health care system because Herman Cain is the guy that can do a double down on government mandated programs.

Overall Herman Cain didn’t lose anything in this debate and as I tweeted yesterday, I questioned if CNN would stack the deck with a focus group.

While CNN indicated the respondents to the debate were made up of Independents and Republicans, it really turns out the Independents were Democrats.

The data on the polling of respondents watching the debate can be found here.

How did Cain do among the respondents? Flat.

And when you look at the who’s who in the respondents in the poll, you come away with the fact that those who were polled are not your typical voter in Michigan ( Constitutional Law Trumps Sharia Law in Michigan), Iowa or South (South Carolina Mulls Ban on Sharia Law) Carolina.

While watching the debate I found it interesting to see how Herman handled himself and the issue I have with him is he needs to take Romney to task when it comes to his support of a government mandated healthcare program and then show how the government healthcare mandate is the same government mandate found in legislation (Romney didn’t support Project Labor Agreements) that favors labor unions.

It becomes a choice in what type of healthcare you want and a choice on if you want to choose to work for a union.

I say this because the dialed response from the group who watched the debate, they were the most positive when the candidates supported Right-to-work legislation, which is the type of legislation that is opposite to government mandated Project labor Agreements.

From the debate, I didn’t see a clear winner. Instead, I saw a candidate who is not a politician and is a nuts-n-bolts type of guy who is a problem solver.