Mitt Robby the Robot

Courtesy of Veracifier, TPM has a handy highlight reel of last week's Fox-sponsored Republican primary in New Hampshire.

Included are the greatest hits of the night: opening jokes about a certain Gucci-shod no-show; McCain vs. Romney on Iraq; Giuliani yammering on about New York City; Paul vs. Huckabee on Iraq.

In particular, I would like to draw your attention to a live question filmed off-site and beamed into the debate. Here a man asks Romney a question about Iraq, but then offers a comment to Romney. His question begins at the 8:02 minute marker on the video. Romney's answer begins at about 8:45.



My interest is in the second part of the voter's question: his comment. Note first the context: this man whose son is currently fighting in Iraq wants Romney to know that his words upset him, his wife, and lots of other people. This question would be tricky enough coming from anyone - Romney's comment was, after all, insupportable. But it's even trickier coming from a father whose son risks life and limb every day, while Romney's sons risk only the health effects of eating too many Cool Ranch Doritos.

This particular type of exchange is probably the most important type of question a candidate has to manage.

When someone asks about policy, the question can be roughly stated as: Why should I support you?

But when a voter comments about a candidate's statement that caused him to take umbrage, the question is, Why shouldn't I think you're an asshole?

You can either try to reach someone where he lives to try to talk him out of leaving a bad impression (requiring, at minimum, acknowledging that you understand how this person feels). Or, you can just compound the voter's perception that you're a jerk.

Look carefully at Romney's reaction, helpfully shown here in split-screen alongside the questioner. During the man's policy question, Romney's expression barely changes. Fine; no problems here. Then, as the man heads into his gently emphatic, impassioned comment - accompanied by a rising crescendo of cheers in the audience - Romney begins to smile. One side of his mouth tugs upward, giving him an expression of sardonic forbearance. It is a smirk.

The cheers grow louder and Romney shifts his stance and his mouth twitches as he rearranges his smile. This smile grows through the man's comment and cheers from the audience. Now the space is clear for Romney's response to the questioner. His face executes a series of tiny movements - head nodding in a quick dip and up again; mouth forming words to speak and then re-forming - that telegraph sarcasm. It's as though Romney is winking to the audience while going through the motions of giving his answer.

And Romney's actual answer? He begins with, "Well, there is no comparison," followed by some boiler-plate about our brave young and men in the military. (We know there's no comparison. Romney is the one in need of this lesson - since he's the one who said it in the first place.)

In one exchange, Romney displays all the qualities that make him such a bad candidate:

1) arrogance - he can't even bother to hide his smirk even when his face is in the shot the entire duration of the question;
2) tone-deafness - in missing how egregiously bad his first comment was, then compounding it in his opportunity to fix this error;
3) illogic - in missing the entire point of the question;
4) narcissism: Romney reacts to the cheers of the audience as if he thinks the crowd is on his side rather than that of the off-site voter;
5) lack of empathy: Romney doesn't listen carefully enough to absorb the details (the man and his wife being upset; his son fighting in Iraq; his friends and neighbors, for whom he speaks). Such represent a golden opportunity to incorporate details into his answer in order to demonstrate that he sees this questioner as a man, a neighbor, a fellow American who is a person of significance in his own life and to those who love him.

Romney demonstrates none of the minimum requirements for earning the support and trust of his audience. Indeed, in this one exchange, we see a man consumed by his own arrogance and unable to see the little people whose votes he waits impatiently to buy.