Romney: Perfect at feeding ad lines to the opposition

posted at 11:05 am on February 1, 2012 by Howard Portnoy

It’s an odd criticism, coming from one-time conservative commentator Kathleen Parker, who writes in Wednesday’s Washington Post that Mitt Romney’s main problem is that he’s “too perfect” for “ordinary Americans” to identify with. I thought it was Barack Obama who was too perfect.

Anyway, Parker wishes. The traits that she summons up—that Romney is handsome, rich, successful, happily married, etc.—are all superficial. Deep down, where it counts, Romney isn’t especially good, let alone perfect. And where it counts is his viability as would-be (and as of last night presumptive) GOP nominee for president.

His perfectly tonsured hair, which Parker praises, became slightly tousled in a one-on-one with FOX News Channel’s Bret Baier last November. Baier challenged Romney on some of his past positions, which had been highlighted in Democratic ads. A testy Romney chastened Baier:

There’s no question but that people are going to take snippets and take things out of context and try and show there are differences where in some cases there are not.

But one of things Romney excels at is feeding lines to the opposition that they can take not only out of context but to the bank. Consider this gem, fresh out of the candidate’s mouth: “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”

Romney made this statement this morning on CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien (h/t Mediaite). It sounds fairly brutal and uncaring, but maybe a little context would help remove some of its rough edges: “I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there.”

Hmm, still fairly damning. And broadening the context, quite frankly, only seems to make matters worse. You can judge for yourself by watching the entire interview, or at least Romney’s entire comment, which begins at around 3:05.

Ultimately, voters want a candidate’s reassurance that he cares about them and their plight, regardless of whether they are very poor or very rich. By telling voters that he’s concerned about “the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling,” Romney is sending a toxic message to the remain 5 to 10 percent. He is also sounding a lot like the other “perfect candidate” in the race.

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