The Mitt Romney era has begun. Again.
If you’ll recall, it didn’t last too long the last time. And my guess is it won’t have much more staying power as Mitt’s Do-Over Part II (In Which the New Mitt Takes off His Tie In Order to Show He’s Nothing Like the Old Mitt).
It’s not that Romney isn’t qualified to be president. It’s that no one I know is even remotely excited by the prospect. If there’s anything about the 2012 Republican presidential race I feel confident about, it’s that the Republican winner will be the one who convinces voters that he/she is the ultimate anti-Obama. Whatever else Romney is — and he seems to change his message with each campaign — he’s not that.
Romney is moderate and unflappable (and not just his hair). He may not be like Obama, but he definitely isn’t unlike Obama. He’s an Ivy Leaguer who is a good-government technocrat. He’s not a guy who is ready to throw down. He’s a guy who’s ready to throw up his latest PowerPoint at your next Rotary luncheon.
That’s who he is. He can open the collar. He can wear the easy- fit Levi’s. He can tell the same tired joke about his wife saying he was never in her wildest dreams. He still has almost no ability to connect with voters or other humans. And, unfortunately for Romney, that’s not the anti-Obama quality you’re most looking for.
If he wants to see connection, all he has to do is look at the Sarah Palin family vacation, in which she’s joined by half the nation’s press corps. It’s the long vacation/even longer tease. And she just happens to be in Bunker Hill when Romney announces and steals the scene by firing shots at Romneycare mandates. She didn’t need an eye test to see the whites of Romney’s wide, wide eyes.
The thing is, nobody loves Romney. Nobody really hates him. The only time anyone gets emotional about Romney is when he tries to explain how it is that he was for his mandates — state mandates are good — before he was against Obama’s mandates, because federal mandates, and only federal mandates, threaten the structure of our nation.
It’s a problem. If you want to see just how much Romneycare resembles Obamacare, check out the fascinating quiz on Politifact, which asks you to identify which clause belongs to which law. Let’s just say the guys who found Osama couldn’t crack this code.
Romney thinks it’s his time because the economy is in trouble and he’s a business guy. I could be wrong, but I think CEOs may be even less popular than politicians.
And if Romney is the front-runner, some Iowans are so unpersuaded they’ve made pilgrimages to New Jersey to beg Chris Christie to fly his helicopter to Des Moines and join the race. And Rick “American Second” Perry, the secessionist governor from Texas, was reportedly reconsidering his availability because, I guess, it’s 150 years after the Civil War began and it’s time.
The problem for Romney is belief. It always has been. I’m not talking about his Mormon faith, which I don’t think is really much of a factor. I’m talking about the same kind of belief House Speaker John Boehner faces as he tries to figure a way for Congress not to default on its debt while keeping the Tea Partyers in his party.
Candidates routinely face flip-flop charges. But I remember writing in 2008 about Romney on the campaign trail: When they say Mitt Romney is too good to be true, they rarely mean it as a compliment. And, in 2012, when they say it, they don’t mean he’s the guy least likely to send anyone a tweet that looks like a bad Hanes commercial.
Even more than belief, Romney has the problem of style. Can he make anyone believe that he shares Tea Party-style frustration? As The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent notes, Romney faces the tough job of “pleasing the Obama-hating base without acting crazy.”
He tried. In his campaign opener, Romney talked about Obama and his “European” tendencies. Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, is talking about Obama’s “anti-colonial” Kenyan tendencies. Which war are we fighting? Isn’t anti-Europeanism so 2008? It’s not the subtle season for Republicans. It’s the bring-your-club season.
Look at the Trump boomlet. For extra credit, you can even see how Herman Cain, the self-described Herminator, is running at double figures in national polls.
And Romney? It’s a new game. But the same old Mitt.
E-mail Mike Littwin at mlittwin@denverpost.com.
