Soon to be Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has raised concerns among top GOPers that he won’t try to change his image with voters and on several occasions now has said: “I am who I am.” As various pundits have noted, he seems to be channeling Popeye the Sailor, the popular newspaper and movie cartoon character of the mid 20th century who has largely vanished from the airwaves. Still other pundits see Romney’s declaration as a sign that the well-telegraphed news stories are correct: the Romney campaign plans to go acutely negative, using codes words to try and increase the number of white votes for Romney not by making Romney more likable but Obama seem as more of a threat to their way of life. Some think this strategy is risky.
And, yes, “I yam what I yam” was a highly popular Popeye catchphrase used by the cartoon character throughout his long career. Here’s an early cartoon that even has the title:
Question: if Romney meets Howard Dean will he say, “Ehhhh, what’s up, Doc?”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.