COMMENTARY | In 2008 Mike Huckabee, according to reddit.com, hit Mitt Romney with a doozy of a zinger: Romney looks like the guy who laid you off.
The 2008 GOP primary ended with Romney losing the party nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who himself lost to Barack Obama in the general election. Now, four years later, Romney is back to snatch the GOP nomination. He appears to be the consummate politician, keeping a well-oiled machine from '08 in working order to springboard his 2012 campaign. His advantages include his name recognition, his presidential appearance, and his steadiness in debates.
He's the guy nobody really likes. He is often referred to as everyone's second choice. Everyone wants someone else who's not in the race, but Romney is a decent stand-in. He has been aptly described as someone who looks like a TV actor who regularly plays presidential roles - a professional stand-in.
Joe Klein at Time.com discusses why nobody likes Mitt. While the article is good, it seems to ignore the ghosts from '08 that plague the former Massachusetts governor: Not once does it mention that Romney still looks like the guy who laid you off.
Romney's corporate business chops and Massachusetts pedigree, combined with his TV-actor looks, make him look like the CEO who gave you, or someone you know, the proverbial axe.
Klein discusses, instead, Romney's background of alleged flip-flopping:
"But the biggest problem he has is his persistent flip-floppery. This has been a problem, I believe, since the very beginning of his career. He has never really run as who he actually, well, probably is. He was probably far more conservative on social issues like abortion and gay marriage that he professed to be when he ran for U.S. Senator and then Governor in Massachusetts."
Looking too much like a natural politician, or a TV actor who plays a politician, may factor into this image of "flip-floppery." Someone who looks too good and too poised may also look too untrustworthy - a well-oiled politician who will say what he thinks will get him elected.
Mitt's tanned, quaffed features may harm him by making him look less earnest, and less hardscrabble motivated, than his less-handsome GOP competitors. Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry look more like the common worker who got laid off than the guy who did the firing.
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