So Mittens is on his way to Israel — may be there by now, actually — and is looking forward to meeting with his BFF Bibi Netanyahu. It’s an odd one-way friendship, however, as Bibi says he barely knows Mittens. See also Kevin Drum — Bibi might not be inclined to go out of his way to make Mitten’s visit a success.
All sorts of odd little anecdotes about Mittens have been surfacing lately, including the one in which he offered a barista the remainder of his cocoa instead of a tip.
Then there was the time he went to China to look presidential and stumbled over basic geopolitical questions. And finally, the offensive charm offensive in London, in which he insulted the Brits and dissed his wife’s Olympic horse.
And I’m saying this level of cluelessness is not about having an off day. It speaks to basic levels of character and socialization that might have been corrected if caught before Mitt was eight years old or so. But not now.
Really, it clarifies the dog-on-the-roof episode. Mittens appears to be incapable of empathy with other human beings, never mind the poor dog.
Jonathan Chait notes that Mittens seems to be at his worst “when Romney is trying to ingratiate himself with somebody, yet can’t help but point out that their standards of excellence don’t rise to his own. Sucking up to people is just a completely unnatural act for him.”
Fred Kaplan goes further, explaining,
The American capitalists-turned-statesmen of an earlier generation—Douglas Dillon, Averell Harriman, Robert Lovett, John McCloy, Dean Acheson, Paul Nitze—took risks, built institutions, helped rebuild postwar Europe, befriended their foreign counterparts: in short, they cultivated an internationalist sensibility at their core. Whatever you think of their politics or Cold War policies generally (and there is much to criticize), financiers formed an American political elite in that era because finance (through the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, the IMF, and so forth) was so often the vehicle of American expansionism.
By contrast, private-equity firms, such as Bain Capital, where Romney made his fortune, tend to view their client companies as cash cows, susceptible to cookie-cutter formulas from which the firms’ partners reap lavish fees, almost regardless of the outcome. Their ends and means breed an insularity, a sense of entitlement, a disposition to view all the world’s entities through a single prism and to appraise them along a single scale.
I’ve had to deal with big-shot executives who were close to being idiot savants; outside of the narrow world of whatever they did to make money, they actually were rather stupid. But because they were alpha male types and powerful enough to be insulated from being called out for mistakes, they had no inkling of their own limitations. They thought they were brilliant at everything. You could put them in a room with, say, Stephen Hawking, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, and these big-shot executives would dominate the conversation, because (they think) no one else but them actually understands the world. But in truth, they don’t understand much of anything.
The more I see of Romney, the more he seems to be of the same type.
I think by now, everyone can tell that Mitt hates politics.
HATES IT!!!
He hates everything to do with politics – the meet-and greets, the crowds, the intrusive (even when adulatory) MSM, the endless questioning, having to answer, and the having to explain his positions – MITT HATES EVERYTHING ABOUT POLITICS!!!
He doesn’t like people – at least not those who aren’t in his family, or economic bracket.
They scare him. They’re needy – and he knows nothing of “needs.” He only understands ‘wants.’ Because everything, except a few political wins, he ever wanted, he’s gotten.
He hates everything about politicking, except winning – and the power and the glory!
Like W said, for 8 years, he was powerful, and he was famous.
And if there’s a worse reason for electing someone, I don’t think it’s ever been thought of, let alone vocalized or written.
Not only can you sense that Mitt HATES politics, and all that it involves.
You can see it, feel it, and hear it – you can almost smell and taste it.
And he knows he has no real reason to explain his run for the Presidency. No original ideas.
No grand plans.
NOTHING.
Nothing except a re-run of the last 30+ years, and that he wants to succeed where his Daddy failed. And that he’s entitled to be President by virtue of his wealth, and that’s what a patrician should do – is be in the position that gives him, and people like him, the most power.
To do what?
Whatever…
He’s a man who believes in nothing – I don’t think he ever did.
Nothing except his God-given right to be President. It’s his RIGHT – goshdurnit!
And a man who believes in nothing, is capable of doing anything.
And what’s really scary is that this man who believes in nothing except that the Presidency is his God-given right, and has nothing to offer, has as good a chance right now of being the next President as Barack Hussein Obama.
After all – Mitt’s the WHITE candidate.
He’s the richer candidate.
He’s got more powerful and moneyed people behind him.
And isn’t that enough?
Sadly, it may well be.
Make that, TRAGICALLY!
He’s just a couple of dozen electoral votes away from the White House and he’s actually looking as dumb as Perry at this point. I wouldn’t have thought it possible. But, by golly, the Koch’s et al. would put up a made-in-China sock puppet to hang onto their undeserved, ill-gotten moollah.
“Sucking up to people is just a completely unnatural act for him.â€
Because the Little People are supposed to suck up to him, in acknowledgement of his unalloyed awesomeness.
Willard doesn’t want to be President, he longs to be appointed King. Where he can treat us all like the serfs whose lives he tore apart at the companies he dismembered for fast profit.
Mitt doesn’t perform well under pressure: He can’t suck up or down very well.
Perhaps, we should call this “The Magical Mitt-stery Tour”- since neither he, nor his supporters, nor campaign folk, can justify this international trip!
Except to say, ‘LOOK, HE’S Mitt Romney – HE’S the WHITE GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
Those capitalist-statesmen invested in America more because their fates were more entwined with the middle class. With globalization they’ve got plenty of new markets to turn to. Te middle class is now irrelevant.