Thursday, September 27, 2012


Seriously, I've seen people held for ransom by guerrilla armies who read scripts more convincingly than Romney reads this -- which will apparently be the only ad he'll have on TV in the coming days (apart from some Spanish-language ads). A few phrases come off as sincere -- those are the ones that denounce Obama, which tap into his deep reservoir of free-floating resentment. But when he says it's regrettable that people are in straitened economic circumstances, and he tries to arrange his face to suggest he feels your pain, it looks as if his entire being is recoiling at the effort to connect with the unwashed masses.

If it's a hostage video, who's holding the gun to his head? Obviously he's hostage to the circumstances of the race; he's forced to do this video because the notorious "47%" tape leaked -- and since he's a guy who was always the alpha male in his own life, from prep school to Bain to the Massachusetts state house, he's really not comfortable doing anything he doesn't want to do.

But I feel as if he's the person holding the gun to his own head. He's set himself on this six-year quest for the presidency, and the process is making him miserable -- he's constantly being forced to say things he doesn't want to say, do things he doesn't want to do, display feelings he doesn't really feel! It's awful! Why is he making himself do this?

If I were Maureen Dowd, I'd point out here that he's following in the footsteps of Al Gore and George W. Bush: he's a scion with daddy issues who feels he's supposed to run for president, as a way of both loving and competing with his father. Well, maybe -- but Gore and Bush never seemed miserable while running for president. Neither of them ever seemed to be conveying the message Romney so often seems to convey: I have a compulsion to become president, and I have no control over my desire for this goal -- and you're compounding my misery, you bastard, by making it difficult for me to succeed. That's what he so often seems to be saying -- to opponents, to the press, to the public.

And to himself.


Victor said...

I was both an actor, and an acting teacher.

If they had asked, my advice to his staff would have been, "Don't let him look into the camera for longer than few seconds. Any longer than that, and he looks either smarmy or disingenous, not empathetic."

Mitt never wanted to be elected.

He wanted to be annointed.

How dare we peons keep the crown out of his grasping reach?

Palli said...

How much richer has Romney become during his last years of unemployment? That's what I want to know!

Nitpicker said...

Is it just me or does the composition seem like they intended some sort of over-the-shoulder effect for the first 50 minutes with a pan to center at the end, but just never got around to putting it in? I'd think it was just an aesthetic choice if they didn't center him up at the end.

Danp said...

I'd like to see someone ask Romney why he thinks the 12 million jobs that are predicted regardless of this election, would be higher paying jobs. After all, his whole platform is geared toward turning the US into a third world nation.

Anonymous said...

Garance Frank-Ruta at Atlantic made a brilliant point that Romney talks to us as "them." It pretty much crystallizes what Romney is all about. He can't connect because he can't relate - we are all abstract to him.

The other thing worth noting is stylistic. Look at how they're now messing up his hair slightly. His shirt looks hand-ironed, his collar slightly askew. It's as if they're trying to take his perfect-paint image and "distress" him.

Never Ben Better said...

Heh. The Dems have leaped upon that Romney ad and, shall we say, interpolated some other material from the Mittster:

Philo Vaihinger said...

Sorry, OT, but not by much.

NRO right now has an on line poll asking their readers whether they believe the media polls.

92% answered NO.


Greg said...

I'm enjoying the Romney meltdown while I can, because it may yet not mean much when the D vs. R. personalities line up against each other in '16, but damn if this isn't the worst presidential campaign and campaigner I've seen in my lifetime. I think part of it is growing fatigue, part of it (of course) is epic hubris, and a good part of it is the president being, so far, quite unflappable as a candidate. Again. We are lucky to have him, in that regard.

Philboid Studge said...

but Gore and Bush never seemed miserable while running for president

Gore kinda did. He also seemed relieved when he "lost" the 2000 election.

SpaceSquid said...

You'd think someone who spent so much time insisting quotes can be fairly used out of any context would think twice before releasing an ad video entitled "Too many Americans".

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who sees a constant, tiny little smile? A SMIRK, if you will?

I think he's been trained to ALWAYS SMILE*, and he can't quite suppress that instinct, even when he's talking about a grim or serious subject.

That's why he kept "smirking" during the Benghazi press conference, too, I bet.


* Every Mormon I know personally (not Harry Reid or Jon Huntsman, obviously) is preternaturally cheerful...

Leoncefalo said...

After all the similarities to other races are exhausted, this one comes down to class warfare - we know which ones are representing which classes - Romney is a rich man, totally isolated from everyone else, and pissed off because he has to display empathy-it is blatantly obvious - and since this election will be about who will serve the middle class, its outcome is a foregone conclusion. . .President Romney????. . .not even in your wildest dreams!!!!