Romney: I Don't Care About Obama's "Flowery Rhetoric," His Record Is Awful, And He's Always Looking For Scapegoats

Maybe I'm just drinking the Kool-Aid, but I think Romney is becoming a good candidate. Here, his responses are relentlessly disciplined -- this is the exact narrative he's crafted and practiced -- but he does not seem robotic in repeating it. He seems more or less natural.

And as far as natural -- look, he's engaging in a very atypical and unnatural thing. He's on TV all the time, running for President. So he's not going to come off as natural as I do when I scratch my butt and then pick my nose and then wince in disgust at my own sloven stupidity and cry out "Dear Lord, why have you made me thus?!?!"

That's natural. It's also not going to win over married women aged 30-45.

Although some of what I'm talking about, as far as his growing comfort as a candidate, is visible there, I thought he really seemed to turn a corner in his Diane hic Shhawyer interview.

Of course part of this is just a simple fact: People look relatively good when they're winning (or at least not losing). They're comfortable, confident, positive.

Witness Barack Obama, who looked and sounded okay (if you ignore the actual politics) because he was winning, and was treated as a New Messiah by the press corps.

Romney just came off a win -- a tough, grueling win, but a win nevertheless -- so he'd better seem like a Happy Warrior at this point.

We know Romney can look quite bad if you get under his skin, as Perry did, and as Bret Baier did in that interview that made DrewM. decide he just could not palate Romney. (And Romney did come across quite badly there.)

Still, it's good to note that Romney can look good, as long as the wind is at his back. Not much, but that is still something.

One thing I've suggested keeping an eye on -- can Obama actually perform under pressure? How will he hold it together if he's losing?

He doesn't seem like the kind of man with a lot of grit and self-discipline. He doesn't seem like a man who's been tested, and has learned from his testing.

From all we know he seems petulant and entitled and brittle as glass.

So if, a month from now, he's consistently behind by 6 points in media polls (meaning: More like 9 or 10), how is he going to look?

By the way -- Gallup polling doesn't suggest that that's an unreasonable hypothetical. (See top right -- Romney 48, Obama 43.)

We could see a vicious cycle for him -- the more he falls behind, the worse he performs, which causes him to fall behind still more.

Here's hoping, anyway.

Meanwhile, at a photo op for a NASCAR winner, Obama wants you to know that some on his staff are "big racing fans."

posted by Ace at 01:32 PM

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