Hey pundits, here's why Romney can't 'define himself'

[ProSense]

Hey pundits, here's why Romney can't 'define himself'

by brooklynbadboy

Charlie Cook weighs in with a bit of Washington wisdom that Romney hasn't "defined himself" by presenting a positive biographical propaganda campaign:

In my judgment, Romney’s poor numbers go back to his campaign’s obsession with talking only about the economy and not attempting to define who Romney is as a person, as a way to build trust and strong positive personal feelings toward their candidate. The Romney camp has yet to run what I would call a personal-positive ad, a biographical or values-based commercial portraying him as the kind of person whom people might want to vote for, someone with values that they would want to see in the Oval Office.

What Cook fails to see here is that Romney has rolled himself out as much as can be allowed. He really has.

Let me explain. Years ago when Mitt Romney was relaxing in his house of the right height in New Hampshire, he and his advisers decided that his 2008 run was a mistake. Running as an ideological conservative evangelical firebrand culture warrior just didn't sell. He spent $30 million of his own money in Iowa and lost to Huckabee. He followed that up with a defeat in his own backyard at the hands a McCain campaign that was dead broke.

They decided that what Romney needed to be was be himself. So what we've been seeing during this cycle is the real Romney. He's a privileged, elitist, awkward, weird, insensitive, jerk financier asshole. People don't need to see a political ad from Obama to get that. His political speeches raise suspicions of it rather than removing doubts. His personality around lessor humans gives those suspicions weight and meter. He's proves them true every time he opens his mouth without script. He can't fake it despite being an astonishingly practiced liar.

The Romney campaign can't turn Romney loose on the general public to go around barking the "Who let the dogs out" song. Some of his biggest supporters will tell you he's not the kind of guy anyone is going to like. That isn't because he's hiding himself from the public. If he exposed himself fully to the public he'd be even less likable than he is now. It is the Romney we see via the moments when he is rolling himself out that tell the public what they need to know about him. A case in point: his tax returns. Romney's shifty explanations and lack of honesty is on full display every time he explains whey he wont release them. The public can see that he's not just hiding something ... he actually believes what he's hiding is politically bad, but perfectly good. For people like him. Who deserve it. That's what comes across when people see Mitt Romney. That is as good as its going to get.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/27/1114317/-Hey-pundits-here-s-why-Romney-can-t-define-himself

Eleven Dimension Chess: The President Got Mitt to Declare Himself Radioactive
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1002954503

[riverbendviewgal]

1. Maybe he has Aspergers

you think?

[SDjack]

3. Since he is rich, he probably has Aspergers Syndrome. However,

I think he is just a common sociopath.

[janlyn]

5. Insult

That is an insult to me,and every other person with aspergers...


Aspergers can cause people to be socially awkward...not asshole's

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. Isn't it possible for a person to have Aspergers AND, in addition to that, be an asshole?

[janlyn]

8. yes

LOL,yes it is possible to have aspbergers AND be an asshole...

What I objected to was someone asking if that was the reason for romney being an asshole...

[Coexist]

2. and in a stroke of brilliance

the Obama Campaign has crippled him -by defining him PRE-Convention - they way they want the American public to see him. That is devastating, politically. That cannot be undone.

The cold cruel irony is they used Karl Rove's strength-into-his-greatest weakness on Roves's own boy.

[hifiguy]

4. Two points:

The reason Rmoney can't define himself is that, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there's no there there. He's the ultimate empty suit. He has taken so many directly contradictory positions to so many people for so many years he probably can't even remember when or if he is actually lying. Which pretty much means he's lying every time he opens his mouth.

Secondly, I am Dx'd Asperger's but I am nowhere as strange as Weird Willard. I would be able to conjure up something like "It's wonderful to look out and see the Olympic facilities from Number 10 (Downing Street)" rather than saying I "looked out the backside." His malpropisms clang on every level. Bush just sounded stupid; hardly surprising, because Chimpy is stupid. Romney always misses the rhetorical mark not out of stupidity, but out of something I can only call alienness.

I dunno whether it's Asperger's or HFA (high functioning autism) but there is something about that man that simply ain't right, and at a molecular level. He is one of the oddest people I have ever seen in public life. Combine that with his wealth, arrogance and the bubble in which he lives and it all adds up to someone who should never be within 100 miles of the Presidency.

[ProSense]

7. Mitt is

"He is one of the oddest people I have ever seen in public life."

...weird.