The quotes below are taken from an article written by Michael Wolff, author and contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine.
This complete article is well worth the read. It appeared in the August 23, 2012 issue of the magazine and is available at:
http://www.tnr.com/....
I have taken only the portions directly related to Willard. Please note that all bolding is mine.
Murdoch, whose core political values are more visceral than ideological, marveled at the contrast between the stolid father—George Romney, running a come-from-behind automobile company—and what he reckoned to be the hopelessly superficial son in the private-equity business.
Romney, he continues to tell people who find their way into his political conversations (or monologues) this year, can’t be trusted. Romney is “unprincipled”—one of Murdoch’s bad words—by which he usually means too camera-ready, too media-attuned, and too market-focused. And the larger point: He is just plain grumpy about the uninspired Republican nominee, with the implicit threat that, if unappeased, he is capable of throwing a wrench into the works.
In my conversations with Murdoch, he noted again and again what he saw as the incredulous proposition of someone getting elected in Massachusetts and then trying to win the support of the country’s Christian right. “You’d have to turn yourself inside out,” he said. There are, too, his instinctive aversions. “Slick” is another of his very bad words. He dislikes Romney’s smile. He mutters about Romney’s hair.
“the Mormon thing is not just too exotic for him—it doesn’t read,”
Romney the financier doesn’t sit well, either. There are few people Murdoch knows as well as financiers. And while he understands their usefulness, he sees them as mere middlemen. In Murdoch’s view, financiers like Romney don’t build businesses; men like Murdoch build businesses.
Murdoch had the opposite reaction in 2008 when Barack Obama, who was angry at Fox’s coverage of the campaign, declined to reach out to him. The snub made Murdoch desperate. He sensed a major culture change coming from which he might be excluded. Key Murdoch staffers had to pull out all the stops to finally arrange a meeting. This included an urgent exchange between Murdoch’s close aide Gary Ginsberg and Ginsberg’s friend Caroline Kennedy as she sat in a car next to Obama. When the meeting did happen, Murdoch brought Fox chief Roger Ailes along as something of a sacrificial offering, encouraging Obama to give Ailes a personal tongue lashing.
Part of the point of Murdoch’s public criticisms of Romney has been to send a signal that the candidate better focus on his constituency of one. And, indeed, according to a Murdoch intimate, at the end of July, Romney sat down with Murdoch in New York for a private come-to-Jesus chat—with Ryan on the agenda.
Murdoch’s flirtation with Obama in 2008 became a tug of war between Ailes and his children, a struggle that contributed to the New York Post’s early endorsement of John McCain, which Murdoch came to rue. But now Ailes himself is dubious about Romney’s conservative bona fides. Ailes’s disdain is nicely feeding Murdoch’s, which in turn feeds The Wall Street Journal editorial page’s ambivalence, if not dyspepsia, toward the GOP nominee.
Indeed, it is no accident that Murdoch’s outlets have been so fixated on Romney’s vice presidential choice, pushing hard for Romney to select Ryan (an “almost perfect choice,” Murdoch tweeted after the announcement). Ryan ought to be understood not just as the candidate that represents the Murdoch-Ailes–Wall Street Journal economic line, but as their opportunity to highlight Romney’s lack of standing and character. The stark contrast between the up-from-under partisan and the upper-class deal-maker is their point. In a sense, Ryan is their private joke on Romney.
Murdoch is in transit from his hard-core right-wing period. If he is stoutly pro-business (anti-regulation, anti-tax, anti-deficit), he is also pro-immigration, pro-gun control, pro-choice, actively focused on ways to improve the educational system, and tolerant, if not libertarian, on most social issues. In some sense, he is the kind of Republican Mitt Romney would be if Mitt Romney believed he could get elected as the real Mitt Romney—that is, Murdoch would mutter, if there is a real Mitt Romney.
“Romney is not a fighter.” This is not an ideological point. In the Murdoch lexicon, “fighter” means character—and clarity. Murdoch is a tabloid publisher and he likes a bold, in-your-face, disruptive statement—practically the antithesis in tone and style to Romney’s technical, consultant-oriented overtures to the right-wing base. Murdoch’s real political model and political hero is Michael Bloomberg—staunch, independent, I-don’t-give-a-damn. But “fighter” for Murdoch also means winner. In some ways, he cares about this quality more than any single issue. After 60 years of making, breaking, and betting on politicians, he believes above all in his ability to sense victory.
And when it comes to Romney, he does not.