Romney’s problem is more acute. Romney has an authentic inauthenticity problem. There are some animals that just seem fake when you see them in real life for the first time; sharks and alligators come to mind. Last year, I took my daughter swimming with a dolphin. Not only did the creature look like it was made of plastic, it actually felt like it was made of rubber.
I have shaken Romney’s hand a few times, and I can say he feels surprisingly lifelike. But politically he just seems fake, even though what you see is what he really is. Romney is a much better candidate than he was in 2008, but there’s still something about the guy that makes people say, “There’s just something about that guy.” And given Romney’s rich history of flip-flops, he just seems untrustworthy to the tea-fueled base of the GOP…
Perry, the Texas governor, has a very different challenge. He doesn’t have to worry about seeming lifelike enough. He needs to figure out just how much larger than life he can appear without becoming a caricature.
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