Having become a highly experienced Mittologist in recent weeks, I do think I’ve got his number now on the guy’s key weakness as a candidate — at a minimum, as a debater. The drubbing Mitt took on Saturday night mainly came down to the man’s deep inner humorlessness.
Yes, you might say this is only another way of describing Mitt’s entirely artificial personality and affect. But bear with me.
When McCain and Huckabee stung him, the jabs were pretty funny as politician humor goes. But to roll with punches like this you have to show some sense that you get the joke, that you have some sense of humor about it, even if you want to kick the joker’s ass or knock his head off. You absorb the blow and swing the humor momentum back at the other guy. But when you see people razzing Mitt he can’t help looking back with this sort of doltish ‘that’s not funny’ look. Or perhaps it’s ‘shut up, dick!’
A lot of successful folks don’t much cotton to humor at their expense. But I think here there’s more to it. And like charisma a sense of humor is really hard to fake in an unscripted situation.
This is the two minute clip reel we put together yesterday of Mitt as punching bag. Give it a look, it’s only 150 seconds long. And tell me whether or not you agree.
