Sometimes Mitt Romney can seem like Superman versus the rest of the GOP field, more powerful than a locomotive against President Obama, able to leap fundraising targets in a single bound. But like the Man of Steel, he has a glaring weakness that instantly negates his abilities on contact. It’s green, hard to come by, and his opponents are always plotting new schemes to use it against him. No, not Kryptonite — money.
In Thursday’s debate he awkwardly stumbled over questions about his tax returns, at one point drawing boos from the audience for wavering on whether he’d release multiple years.
For those watching Romney on the trail, the awkward response was nothing new. In the span of just a few short weeks, Romney has had a parade of cringe-inducing moments: “pink slips,” “I like being able to fire people,” “quiet rooms,” and claiming his $375k-a-year speaking fees are “not very much” are all moments he’d probably rather forget.
Conservatives are becoming increasingly concerned about the issue as the general election grows closer and as Romney faces a renewed round of pressure to release his tax returns.
“I believe he is way too defensive about his wealth,” Brad Blakeman, a former advisor to President George W. Bush, told TPM. He suggested Romney quickly get the returns out of the way and quit trying to pretend he isn’t rich. His model to emulate? Donald Trump, “minus the arrogance.”
“Trump never goes on defense on his wealth and, if anything, is obnoxiously offensive,” he said. “His popularity comes from the fact that he is successful. Romney needs to be positive about his wealth and how he earned it.”
Chris Christie, one of Romney’s top supporters, also recently suggested Romney was mishandling his tax issue, urging him to make his returns available quickly.
It’s possible Romney’s efforts to play up his regular guy bonafides — riding Southwest, dropping the tie, telling stories about the horrors of joblessness — are doing more to make the candidate tense and uncomfortable than relatable. But at the very least, commentators on the right find it maddening that Romney can’t find a way to watch what he says, especially given how controlled he is in ordinary circumstances.
“I don’t understand how he isn’t more attuned to his own rhetoric when talking about wealth,” Hotair blogger Allahpundit wrote earlier this week. “He knows the left is going to demagogue him for it; in virtually every other aspect of the campaign, he’s exhaustively prepared and disciplined.”
Ace of Spades, a popular blogger on the right endorsing Newt, was also perplexed by the “not very much” episode, noting that “for all his intelligence, he does seem to lack some basic common sense.”
It’s not Romney’s fault that he was born wealthy, of course. But given that the 1% isn’t exactly at its most popular since the 2008 disaster, his lack of success finessing the issue lately is cause for serious concern. It’s too early to make any clear connection, but it’s worth noting that Romney’s overall popularity has plummeted in two polls this week. At the same time, Gingrich is surging in South Carolina with a campaign focused in large part on exploiting Romney’s rich guy vulnerabilities. If Romney can’t put the campaign away on Saturday, expect a lot of the post-mortems to focus on whether his various nemeses have found their silver bullet.
