It is my impression that Mitt Romney doesn’t do a whole lot of interviews. I don’t keep track, but I think I see Santorum and Gingrich talking to reporters a lot more than I see Romney talking to them. Maybe that’s because Romney doesn’t like giving interviews, or maybe it’s just because he’s not very good at it. It should be relatively easy to do an interview on Fox News, especially with softball artists like Megyn Kelly. Yet, it seems like every time he appears on Fox News, he creates news by being visibly uncomfortable.
When Mitt Romney sits down with a Fox News anchor, things can get hairy. That fact was on full display Wednesday when the candidate went on Megyn Kelly’s show for what ended up being several uncomfortable minutes of testy, sputtering responses to unusually combative questions. The worst moment for Romney came at the end, as he struggled to complete a stammering indictment of Obamacare before being cut off for a commercial break.
I think the most important component here is that Fox News is trying to help Romney reassure their viewers that he’ll be a reliably conservative president. So, they ask fairly direct questions aimed at Romney’s obvious weak points. In this case, he was tripped up by questions about his prior support for health care mandates and his lack of cultural affinity for the South. These aren’t easy questions to answer but they’re obvious questions that Romney should be able to anticipate. That he remains incapable of answering them and continues to act surprised and irritated to be confronted with them is really quite astonishing.
On the one hand, it really speaks to his lack of political skill. Is it lack of preparation? Is it bad advice? Does he refuse to listen to his handlers?
On the other hand, maybe there just aren’t any good ways to offer a completely contrived version of yourself to the public.
Either way, someone in Mitt Romney’s position really cannot afford to have a thin skin. The model for beating an incumbent president is to be sunny and optimistic and not to sweat the small stuff. Reagan and Clinton are the last two people to successfully unseat an incumbent president. They were not thin-skinned. And when someone went after their greatest weaknesses, they had a quick rejoinder ready. Remember when Reagan said this about Mondale during their second debate?
“I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” he said. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
Romney doesn’t seem to have that in him. It comes out “cheesy grits.”
