Regards, Ivan
I hope we do better, Ivan. I really do. The nature of the political situation we have here in the states, is that we are on the verge of going hell bent for places I hoped the US would never go. I'll spare you my laundry list of issues and complaints. Regards, RKV
I have to wonder how many candidates this year have it. Or how many Presidents have had it. Not many -- or any -- I'd wager.
But yes, there is a little something that's lacking in Romney.
What's missing in Romney may be that he comes across too much as a manager or administrator, a bottom line kind of guy. That's better than being purely an ideologue, but there's a human dimension that people want to see and may not find in him.
Most of the times his name has come up lately have focused on how much money he's collected and which endorsements he's gotten. That's natural, but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
There's often one candidate who gets early money and big endorsements, who doesn't go the distance. That's because someone else who doesn't have those advantages is talking about issues and connecting with the voters. So it's almost a disadvantage for a candidate to get too much too soon.
Is Romney a "real Republican"? What people are probably asking is, "is he a real conservative"? In some ways Romney more conservative than his father was, but the party's changed so much that yesterday's "real Republicans" apparently no longer qualify.
A lot of what people object to in Romney is precisely the confusion and contradictions that other Republicans (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Rockefeller, Bush Sr.) went through in the 1970s and 1980s when the party's base started to change.