Mitt Romney for president

[mplo]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I agree with your description of Romney except for the bolded. I actually think he's very intelligent (on the other hand, Lil' Bush did not come across as intelligent). Romney comes across to me as a drone. He also seems incredibly out of touch which I think will hurt him. Watching his campaigning all over the country was cringe worthy. Not so much because of the politics, but because he just seems to have an incredible difficulty relating to people. Watching him talk about what local cuisine he ate or asking the lead singer of Alabama to sing Sweet Home Alabama is just painfully awkward.

I think he appears very insincere to many of us here in MA because the guy running for president is different from the guy who was governor of MA. It's impossible not to feel he's insincere because his views have apparently changed and he's really trying to separate himself from his days in MA to win conservative support and it's pretty difficult not to think he's a fake just telling people what they want to hear.

Your last paragraph is especially true, Irfox. Mitt Romney was a disaster as governor of the Bay State and he wouldn't be any better as a president, either. Both he and Obama are disaster areas, imho.

[Jmchiba]

At this point I believe Romney is the lesser of two evils. I will be definatly looking at whatever third party candidate is around.

[ogre]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I agree with your description of Romney except for the bolded. I actually think he's very intelligent (on the other hand, Lil' Bush did not come across as intelligent). Romney comes across to me as a drone. He also seems incredibly out of touch which I think will hurt him. Watching his campaigning all over the country was cringe worthy. Not so much because of the politics, but because he just seems to have an incredible difficulty relating to people. Watching him talk about what local cuisine he ate or asking the lead singer of Alabama to sing Sweet Home Alabama is just painfully awkward.

I think he appears very insincere to many of us here in MA because the guy running for president is different from the guy who was governor of MA. It's impossible not to feel he's insincere because his views have apparently changed and he's really trying to separate himself from his days in MA to win conservative support and it's pretty difficult not to think he's a fake just telling people what they want to hear.

LOL about Sweet Home Alabama. Hadn't heard about that one. Maybe if I ever meet Lynyrd Skynyrd I can ask them to perform Bad, Bad Leonard Brown.

The most awkward of Mitt's attempts to seem "regular" that I have seen have been the interview inside a warehouse a few months ago (that just looked weird) and his casual talk in front of a small town hall group a couple of months back where he was wearing jeans and a dress shirt. The latter reminds me of an old photo of Richard Nixon walking on the beach, looking casual as he romped along right next to the water in a windbreaker, only not so casual at all because he was also wearing slacks, a dress shirt, and oxford dress shoes:

http://revision99.com/hostedimages/Nixon-Beach.jpg.

Nixon's detractors made this out to be a posed photo, a very nerdy guy's completely lame attempt to look casual. I have no idea whether that was really the case, but the shot does look awkward, as he's dressed all wrong for this relaxed setting. If this was a posed scene that fell flat, Romney's jeans moment is in the same vein. They're different men, and Romney, while reserved and certainly not a regular Joe, does not have Nixon's anti-social tendencies, but Mitt could take a lesson from Nixon's gaffe (if the Nixon shot was indeed staged) by not trying to look like something he is not. It might benefit Romney's campaign if he could project a touch of everyman, but that's not Mitt, and he'd look worse if he too obviously tried to fake it than he would by just being himself.

I think there's a larger issue here, which is that image seems to have become very important (I'd say overly important) for political candidates, especially those running for president. One has to wonder whether some great presidents of the past, such as five-foot-six-inch James Madison or squeaky-voiced (so I've read) Thomas Jefferson, would have the slightest chance of even making the cut in the early primaries in today's televised age.

Since I can't know what's in someone's head, I don't know what it is about Romney that leads Konfetka to feel that he seems not especially intelligent, but I might speculate that some people may have a similar impression because of Romney's hesitant manner of speaking. I agree with LRFox that there should be no doubt that Mitt's a smart guy. His success in business, his governorship of a state, and the stewardship that turned around the Olympics are ample evidence of high intelligence. Most of us have probably known a few shy, awkward types who proved to be quite intelligent once we got to know them and had the chance to really hear their thoughts. Unfortunately in this time where a slick image seems to be a prerequisite for getting elected, a little halt here and there in a candidate's speaking does put him at risk of getting the "unintelligent" tag.

It's more of the same emphasis on image when the public wants a candidate to seem "regular," like a guy you'd enjoy having join you for a beer. This creates a potential dilemma for any candidate, not just one, like Romney, who is quite obviously not a casual regular Joe. Greatness, really almost by definition, involves being different from most of us. It really puts a candidate in a difficult spot when the public demands that he show the qualities of leadership that could make him a good or great president while at the same time expecting him to seem just like them.

I happen to think that we've had a problem with a general decline in the quality of presidential candidates in the past several elections. Perhaps one reason for this is that many who would be well qualified for the job if the public would focus only on their ability don't even bother to run because it's too much of a pressure cooker to be pulled between competing interest groups to seem as if the candidate can empathize with the needs and aspirations of them all, and then on top of that to have added to this impossible task the need to seem all at once to be great leaders, yet also a lot like Hal Jones next door. As long as the candidate does not display an obviously cold-hearted, ruthless utter dearth of compassion, I'd much prefer someone who can do the job to someone who fits some superficial image that appeals to the general public.

We've got a serious problem in this country if we have sunk to the point where we elect presidents of the United States based on the criteria that middle school kids consider when they vote in the election for Student Body President.