Romney’s a strange cake. He has racked up impressive accomplishments in both the private and the public sectors, including his Massachusetts health care reforms. He’s a man of serious abilities. But he seems unable to accept that a presidential campaign demands more than a résumé. It demands an audible heartbeat, a palpable soul.
His are kept firmly under wraps. In the prelude to the convention, talented journalist after talented journalist set off in search of them, looking for the eureka anecdote, the tear-streaked epiphany. It was a quest as pointless and poignant as any I can recall. You can’t add a John Williams score to a corporate balance sheet. You can’t turn venture capital into “Terms of Endearment.”…
In a confessional era, Romney is stilted. At a time of increased worry about the distribution of wealth, gobs of it have been distributed his way. He’s a font of precisely the sorts of gaffes that a 140-character news universe spotlights. His timing, all in all, could be better.
And his latest reaction is to suggest, as he did in the Politico interview, that the whole likability thing is overrated. So what if he’s not so huggable or compelling? Doesn’t mean he’s not competent. Doesn’t mean he won’t be effective.
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