Mitt Romney faces a perfect mess


Mitt Romney campaigns at Allstar Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Fla., on Jan. 22. |AP Photo

Mitt Romney has struggled to connect with the national mood. | AP Photo
By JONATHAN MARTIN and JOHN F. HARRIS | 1/23/12 5:36 AM EST

Perfect résumé, perfect looks, perfect family, and a perfect roster of skilled campaign operatives and blue-chip endorsements: Mitt Romney has them all.

Yet he comes out of his drubbing in South Carolina with a perfect problem.

Rarely has there been a figure in American politics whose personality and achievements— taken as individual parts — so powerfully conveyed both uncommon success and a kind of reassuring conventionality.

But these same traits — taken as a whole — have produced someone struggling mightily to connect with the national mood and moment, much less reassure voters that his experiences and values align with their own.

The widening gap between Romney in theory, a man who oozes plausibility as a potential president, and Romney in practice, a candidate who just might be missing some kind of intangible something, is now a dominant storyline in the GOP presidential race.

There may be many reasons Romney had troubles in South Carolina — more than 70 percent of primary voters on Saturday wanted someone else — but the fact that he lost so resoundingly to a man with a political and personal journey as turbulent as Newt Gingrich’s suggests a possibility more far-reaching than last weekend’s surprise.

Americans may prefer politicians with visible flaws — outsized appetites and messy scandals, like Gingrich and Bill Clinton — or at least with twisting and improbable personal journeys. Of the past two presidents, George W. Bush had two decades of drift and excess before finding direction, and Barack Obama described his own history of alienation and painful searching that preceded his political success.

By these lights, human frailties are the new political norm, and the every-hair-in-place smoothness of Romney’s political persona, combined with his wealth, comes off as insular and even odd.

“Redemption is far better box office than perfection,” said New Hampshire GOP strategist Patrick Griffin. “We can all relate to redemption. Very few people can look at the perfectly coiffed Romneys, all good posters for oral hygiene, and say, ‘That’s me!’”

The drama over Romney’s stiff and remote persona — as compelling in its own way as the drama over Gingrich’s volatile persona — will play out prominently this week. On Monday, Romney supporters will be looking for a performance at a nationally televised debate in Florida vastly improved over his painful recent outings. And on Tuesday Romney has promised to release his income taxes — providing new details into the vast wealth that Romney once hoped would be an asset and that now looks to be one more factor distancing him from the concerns of many voters.

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