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Bashir on Romney: The Blunderer in Chief
He came, he saw, he imploded.
But although the Republican Party's presumptive nominee spent just a few short hours in the United Kingdom's capital city, he may well come to rue the day that he decided to accompany his wife Anne, and her horse, on their trip to the Olympics. Because while his campaign in the United States is embellished, defended and refined by the support of right wing media, billionaire backers and relentlessly negative attacks on the President, in London it was just Mitt— pure and simple. And it was calamitous.
-snip-
In trying to understand Mr. Romney's disastrous day in London, it's tempting to believe that this was just the latest example of him pandering to an audience. Having arrived in the UK, he may have calculated that the best way to get along with the Brits was to assume the British affect of pessimism. Just as he couldn't stop talking about "cheesy grits" as he campaigned through Mississippi earlier this year, so he decided to ape the perceived persona of those he was meeting.
But it's actually a much deeper problem than mere pandering. Mr. Romney keeps crashing into the present because he's running away from his past. And he runs at such speed because he regards his personal biography as a towering inferno. A fire that will burn his political ambitions to the ground.
(Snipped: Why he can't talk about being Governor, running the Olympics, Bain, or even pander to the religious right...)
And this is why Mitt Romney has been described by Britain's national press as a blundering fool. This is why he arrived in London and immediately insulted the British Olympic Committee and the British government's handling of the Games. It is because he cannot talk about himself and he lacks the insight required to talk about others. His brief visit became the reverse of Dale Carnegie's most famous work, a revised version by Mr Romney: 'How to Lose Friends and Influence Nobody'.
In many ways, he's reminiscent of the great imposters of history. He has no past that he speaks of—only the ambitions he has for the future. But that's hardly surprising. Because when an individual is at war with his own biography, what is there left for him to discuss?
But although the Republican Party's presumptive nominee spent just a few short hours in the United Kingdom's capital city, he may well come to rue the day that he decided to accompany his wife Anne, and her horse, on their trip to the Olympics. Because while his campaign in the United States is embellished, defended and refined by the support of right wing media, billionaire backers and relentlessly negative attacks on the President, in London it was just Mitt— pure and simple. And it was calamitous.
-snip-
In trying to understand Mr. Romney's disastrous day in London, it's tempting to believe that this was just the latest example of him pandering to an audience. Having arrived in the UK, he may have calculated that the best way to get along with the Brits was to assume the British affect of pessimism. Just as he couldn't stop talking about "cheesy grits" as he campaigned through Mississippi earlier this year, so he decided to ape the perceived persona of those he was meeting.
But it's actually a much deeper problem than mere pandering. Mr. Romney keeps crashing into the present because he's running away from his past. And he runs at such speed because he regards his personal biography as a towering inferno. A fire that will burn his political ambitions to the ground.
(Snipped: Why he can't talk about being Governor, running the Olympics, Bain, or even pander to the religious right...)
And this is why Mitt Romney has been described by Britain's national press as a blundering fool. This is why he arrived in London and immediately insulted the British Olympic Committee and the British government's handling of the Games. It is because he cannot talk about himself and he lacks the insight required to talk about others. His brief visit became the reverse of Dale Carnegie's most famous work, a revised version by Mr Romney: 'How to Lose Friends and Influence Nobody'.
In many ways, he's reminiscent of the great imposters of history. He has no past that he speaks of—only the ambitions he has for the future. But that's hardly surprising. Because when an individual is at war with his own biography, what is there left for him to discuss?
Great read.
http://leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/07/28/13006940-the-blunderer-in-chief