Sunday, September 2, 2012

Mitt Romney As a Summer Stock Harold Hill

I can't listen to Mitt Romney's stump speeches without remembering that he said the opposite of what he says even during the nomination process.  And he said other things when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts and when he ran for the Senate.   Mitt morphs faster and more often than a music video figure in the period after that technology was made cheap and EZ.  The man oozes sincerity like a desiccated prune oozes chocolate milk.

Most of all, though, Mitt Romney reminds me of a summer stock version of Harold Hill in The Music Man, rousing the rubes as he is setting them up for a fleecing.   Oh, there's lots of energy as he anticipates a far bigger pay-day than the instrument and uniform peddling Professor anticipated.  There's a work veneer of sincerity that no one really believes.  The entire production works against that.   And he's a bit old for the role, not able to do the dance numbers.   You get the feeling that his makeup artist retouches the grey at his temples every performance.

I can imagine Mitt telling someone that he'll go "Wherever the people are as green as the money... friend." But maybe only in one of those fundraisers that are closed to the press and public.   Or maybe that's what he hired, his dresser,  Eric Fehrnstrom to say.

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