"Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?"
David Brooks
au·then·tic adjective ə-ˈthen-tik, ȯ-\
Definition of AUTHENTIC
1 obsolete : authoritative
2a : worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact b : conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features c : made or done the same way as an original
3: not false or imitation : real, actual
Mr. Brooks - don't bet the rent money on any time soon.
Thirty years or so ago there was a cartoon by Rodriguez published in the National Lampoon. Panel one showed an obviously deranged individual on the street. He is surrounded by an entourage of polishers and advisors and image consultants. There is a flurry of activity and the decrepit and bizarre individual is coiffed, dressed in a three piece suit, and thrust quickly onto a stage at a political press conference.
The last panel shows a post-mortem where two of the spin doctors/handlers are discussing the performance. The punchline: "Do you think anyone noticed the rat he was gnawing on?"
Romney is hardly a deranged rat eating geek, (at least not yet) but neither is he what he seems to try to be at any given moment. He is, rather, a tabula rasa (etch-a-sketch?).
He has a history of contradictory statements and positions going back at least 30 years if not more. He is very accomplished at being an empty suit that can be filled to order. But no matter how much he seeks to pander to the base that he must gratify, he remains forever other. There is one thing he lacks that even the rat-eating demented wretch of the cartoon had:
Authenticity.
The weakest aspect of his whole fundraising fiasco performance was that it was so transparently a performance. This is just one more mask that Mitt put on to appear appealing to his audience of the moment.
I don't for a moment believe that he actually holds that 47% of the population are moochers. This is because I don't think he has given it more than a passing thought to come to any conclusion at all, or feel too strongly one way or another. He was faced with a room full of smug entitlement and reflected that back as needed. He used the talking points he was given, and when the questions were asked he shoveled according to his understanding of what would please. He posed as a raw meat thrower. He is not that. He is, at heart, much wose.
A vacancy.
That is worse.
The right wing model of reality does not function in the real world. It is contra-factual, inconsistent where it functions at all, and provides no real answers to ongoing problems. This is plain to see and Romney, or someone around him, quite realizes that in foreign policy, domestic budgeting, social issues, "trickle down" economics etc. the Repub prescriptions will not hunt. Hence the dearth of details provided.
The Repub platform is unreal, and they have selected as a candidate (Romney) a salesman who only poses at selling the package. He has no connection to anything other than his own wealth and avarice and ambition.
Someone once said that the first greatest penalty to habitual lying was that liars start believing in, and living, their own lies.
The great right wing spin machine, complete with Fox News, the lobbying/think tank monstrosities and the PAC and astro-turf industry, are now stuck with someone who mouths their lies, while lying about it, really.
Bet they would feel better if Romney just went out and gnawed on rats, eh?