WASHINGTON – There’s been a lot of writing and questions about why Mitt Romney can’t break out with his Republican base, which has spawned the rise of Newt Gingrich. Quite a few question or call it all being about Romney’s Mormonism. Now, there’s no doubt there are some religious bigots who won’t vote for him because of it. But that’s the minority, in my opinion. The real problem with Mitt is Mitt.
From Parade magazine’s profile of Mitt, the man, an exchange that reveals the problem.
You’ve been attacked by the left and the right. The White House’s David Plouffe said you had no core; George Will called you a “pretzel candidate.” Do these attacks sting?
Well, one, I don’t read them [laughs]. Secondly, I wrote a book, No Apology, in 2010 that laid out my views on the issues. That’s what I believe. I know there will be an effort on the part of some to distract the American public from the significant issues, which are, domestically, the failure of this administration to reboot our economy and, internationally, the growth of entities that wish to reshape the world in their image—namely, the jihadists, an emerging China, a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran unless we take corrective action, and a resurgent Russia. America faces extraordinary challenges, and there are some people who would rather divert attention from those issues to secure their long-term tenure in the White House.
When given an opportunity to open up, instead he offers platitudes.
The comparison to Barack Obama is apt. After three years of his first term, the American people like Mr. Obama and his family, but they haven’t warmed to him and don’t really relate to him either. There’s no empathy, no relationship with us to speak of, which goes double for Mitt Romney with Republicans, especially the right wing base.
But at least Barack Obama is cool. Mitt Romney is just cold.
TIME magazine’s cover “Why don’t they like me?” comes at a moment when Mitt Romney’s campaign is careening.
Skating through the debates, Romney distinguished himself, but he never let voters see the man behind the politician. It’s been the biggest mistake of his campaign until his interview with Bret Baier, which was a disaster for him, confirming how unlikable his political persona is. I write it that way, because of what I read in Mike Allen’s eBook, with Evan Thomas, edited by Jon Meachan, on 2012. (As an aside, eBooks are the hot property today, my own, The Hillary Effect, was just published through an exclusive deal with Barnes & Noble (until December 15th).)
Romney the Politician is a different side from the family man. From Allen’s eBook:
“Everybody knows the book on Romney is that it has to be his way or no way,” said Carney. “he’s very stubborn. He’s very thin-skinned … storms out of meetings when it doesn’t go his way. And people who are involved in debate prep in the last cycle”–here, Carney was apparently alluding to his mole from the 2008 Romney campaign–“basically told us that he would react badly to someone challenging his narrative. He just is incapable of acknowledging that there may be a different interpretation of something.”
Carney warmed to the subject of Romney’s allegedly volatile temper. “Unbelievably temperamental … in that [if] he thinks that it’s three o’clock in the afternoon, it’s three o’clock no matter what time it is… He’s totally easy to get off stride, discombobulated.” At a debate prep in 2008, according to Carney’s source, Romney would turn “beet-red. He’s known to get unbelievably flushed.”
Mitt Romney’s reaction to Bret Baier couldn’t have come at a worse time. At one point Mr. Romney actually squirmed. It was similar to the White House reaction to Ron Suskind’s book Confidence Men, which turned the Administration’s reaction into a free fire barrage. Obviously, Obama’s team thought Suskind was going to play fluffer, ala Richard Wolffe. Likewise, Mitt Romney thought Mr. Baier, coming from Fox News Channel, wasn’t going to ask him obvious questions that any journalist, even on FNC, would have to ask, if only to retain his own credibility. Questions that put Mitt Romney on the spot to explain his political record that has gone from moderate to liberal Rockefeller Republican to staunch conservative.
The highlight of the Baier interview came when Mr. Baier told Bill O’Reilly (video at the link) what happened after the interview, with Romney complaining that it was “overly aggressive,” going to his holding room, then returning again to say the interview tone “was uncalled for,” according to Baier.
Did Romney actually believe his little tantrum wouldn’t make it into the press?
Another issue for Romney is that he doesn’t have any long-term relationships in the Republican Party or among the base and primary voters. That’s one reason why Newt Gingrich has come in and found it so easy to pull the spotlight.
Of all the analysis rendered recently about the possibilities of Newt sticking, besides the holiday calender that will have people tuning out in a few weeks, Mr. Gingrich’s long and enduring relationships with Republicans and conservatives is now paying dividends.
Dave Weigel’s got a smart post this week on Slate talking about evangelical forgiveness and Newt Gingrich. The redemption theme of a man who has bared his soul to them, asked forgiveness, and is ready to lead after becoming a better man. It’s a human story of a man who led the Republicans to take back the House after a 40-year drought, who then fell from that mountaintop in disgrace, only to repent his sins and rise again, asking for another chance to lead.
There’s nothing about Mitt Romney that we’ve seen so far that would allow him such vulnerability and humanness. That wouldn’t be necessary if Mr. Romney decided to fight for the nomination and engage, taking on questions and doing what I suggested yesterday. Say that he started as a more moderate Republican, which made him governor of Massachusetts, with a hard core Democratic legislature, but over the years he’s had a slow and steady conversion to conservatism. That would require an openness and comfortableness in sharing himself emotionally with voters that we haven’t come close to witnessing yet.
Who knows if he can do it? However, if Mitt Romney doesn’t start fighting hard for the Republican nomination and show he wants it, and why his flip flops are actually Reaganesque, an upset could occur that would put Republicans on a glide path to lose before they even get started.
Obama’s approval rating among independents is a catastrophically low 30 percent. This is a constituency disappointed in Obama but also deeply offended by the corrupt culture of the Washington insider — a distaste in no way attenuated by fond memories of the 1994 Contract with America. – Charles Krauthammer
Taylor Marsh is the author of the new e-book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, the view from a recovering partisan, chosen by Barnes and Noble as one of 4 books in the launch of “NOOK First” Featured Authors Selection. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.