I found the phrase, “views and non-views” in the following sentence of the New Yorker article (October 15) titled “Are Debates Good for Republican,” which was written by its senior editor, Amy Davidson on recent Republican candidate debates live telecasted from Las Vegas:
The wheel (of Republican candidates debates) always seems to have stopped and settled on Mitt Romney; and then it is spinning again, along with our heads, and we are watching videos of Herman Cain in a white robe singing a song about pizza that seems taken from the last episode of “Lost.” The song has the virtue of being less discordant than Cain’s foreign-policy views, or non-views, but only barely.
I think "non-view" is used as an antithesis to “view,” and I guess it means absence of a solid view. However, when I tried to get clearer idea of “non-view” from dictionaries, no dictionary including Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and other online dictionaries carries the word, “non-view(s)".
Are “non-view(s)" and “views and non-views” well-received English word and phrase? Does "non-views" stand alone without "views"?
I know “non” as a prefex to be used as in nonbank, non-stop, non-politic, but feel somewhat odd when it comes out as “non-views” just like "non-comment" and "non-answer" as against "no comments" and "no answer." Why the writer doesn’t plainly say “Cain’s foreign-policy views or lack (or absence) of views”?