The Groveler by Eve Fairbanks
Mitt Romney's shameless quest for V.P.
Post Date Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Has ever a politician gone so cheerfully into defeat as Mitt Romney? Remember Romney around the time of the Michigan and Florida GOP primaries: As he derided John McCain's economic policies as defeatist and lashed out at the senator for dishonestly distorting his rhetoric on Iraq, Romney appeared to be a man barely in control of an immense, quivering, anti-McCain outrage. (McCain repaid him by comparing him to a pig.)
But it took only a week after admitting defeat at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early February for Romney to declare that, "in the thick of the fight, it's easy to lose sight of your opponent's finer qualities. But the truth of the matter is that, in the case of Senator McCain, I could never quite do that."
And he didn't stop at a mere endorsement. He hit the road with McCain in Utah and Colorado, posed guffawing with him while snacking on turkey sandwiches in the back of McCain's plane, pledged to raise him $15 million (more than McCain currently has in the bank), and gushed, and gushed, and gushed. In the course of telling Sean Hannity last month that he would be "honored" to be McCain's vice president, Romney opined that, "when it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and each of them
are the Chihuahua."
Like China's Last Emperor happily agreeing to reign over a puppet state in Manchuria after the Japanese invaded, Romney is presiding over various local--and less desirable--Republican events on McCain's behalf: a county Republican dinner in Amish country, Pennsylvania; the Nevada GOP convention (which was hijacked by Ron Paul supporters); and, last weekend, the Maine GOP convention at the vaguely decrepit Civic Center in Augusta. There, a press avail in a remote upstairs corner of the convention hall yields the last, shrunken fruits of the Romney campaign's publicity harvest: among them one TV camera; a bored-to-the-point-of-angry-looking Associated Press drudge wearing a dirty t-shirt and four days' stubble; and a freelance film critic in owlish glasses who declares that his "passion is for the cinema." "Governor," the film critic asks, "is there a favorite political movie of yours that you think gets at the intersection of things political and things artistic?"
Romney stalls, beaming a smile out from under a fresh coffee-brown tan. "Certain movies have had an influence. ... The Manchurian Candidate ..." Finally, the gears deliver up the only thing on the mental production line these days: a way to praise John McCain. "That movie with Robert Redford, The Candidate," Romney finishes. "Where he is over-promoted and over-packaged, and that's quite frightening. That's what we won't get with John McCain. Nobody has a question whether John McCain is the real deal."
There is a damp, awkward pause. It's as though Romney has acknowledged his own deepest failing: He was overpromoted and over-packaged and, frankly, it sometimes was quite frightening. It could be a sad moment, except that Romney grins sunnily and swivels to bat the next question. Anything, nowadays, to help the big dog.
more...
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a1a0ff43-8ed4-4849-8602-0aaacda8e524
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