Posted on 01/24/2014 7:12:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Editor's note: This review is cross-posted at JohnHanlonReviews.com
“I can’t fake it,” then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney said as the political advisers and family members nearby deflated. They knew what that meant.
The scene, which occurred during the heated 2008 GOP primary battle between Romney and his rising political adversary, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), occurs early on in the new Netflix documentary, Mitt. The film premieres on Netflix at 11 AM today and offers a rarely-seen look at the former Governor and his family as they trudge through two seemingly-endless presidential campaigns.
Director Greg Whiteley was given great access to Romney during those campaigns, and he uses it to craft a delicate but commanding voyage into what it means to be a presidential candidate today. The feature begins and ends with the results of the 2012 election. We all know how the election ended but few of us know what it’s like working day-to-day on a presidential campaign and seeing the disparity between a candidate’s real personality and the caricature of him that’s presented to the public (“the flipping Mormon,” as Romney says).
Leaving superficiality aside, Mitt offers up an intimate look at this skilled politician, and a man who— if things had been different— could’ve been president of the United States.
When he notes he can’t “fake it,” he’s talking about the long odds against him in the 2008 primary. After losing Florida (thanks in part to Governor Charlie Crist’s endorsement of McCain), Romney knows that his opponent is unbeatable. The former Governor could, as some presidential aspirants would, continue to give the same stump speeches, the same talking points and the same fundraising calls he’s done a million times before. But he refuses. He can’t fake something he doesn’t believe in anymore.
And one of the most compelling aspects of Whiteley’s well-organized feature is how open the candidate is to the camera, even during moments of great sadness and heartbreak. While some of the candidate’s best-known attributes are on display (his business acumen, for one), the documentary also presents a more fully-rounded portrait of Romney and his family. The camera shows the family’s real frustration when Crist goes back on his word (he said he wouldn’t endorse a candidate primary) and Romney’s hesitance about the number of primary debates he has to endure (“how many more debates do I have to go to?” he asks). It’s here we see the man under the spotlight, adjusting to a non-stop campaign calendar that gives him little time to think.
Clocking in at a brisk 94 minutes, the film focuses its first third on the primary race in 2008, and its latter two sections on the 2012 general election—after Romney has decimated the relatively-weak primary field. In the presidential campaign, the documentary shows the Governor at his humblest. He speaks out about the good fortune that he was born into and his incredible pride for his father. After noting that his Dad—Michigan Governor George Romney— began life with nothing and ended up a successful businessman and politician, Mitt concedes “I started where he [George] ended up.”
For fans and critics alike, it’s hard not to admire and like the man himself (who, in one scene, even irons his own suit jacket while wearing it) after seeing this feature. It’s also hard not to look differently at presidential candidates, who know from history alone, how much of a sacrifice running for president is.
“My time on the stage is over, guys,” Romney says at the end, and it’s true. It’s just tough to think that while he was on the stage, we didn’t get to see him as he really was.
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More pimping for Willard ???
Yes, we did not get to see the real Mitt. Mitt could have wiped the floor with Obama in every debate. Obama was not smart enough to win one of them.
NEVER!
Mitt did wipe the floor with Obama in the second debate and should have continued to stick it to him in the last debate and the rest of the campaign, but his milquetoast advisers were afraid of alienating the fictional “moderate” voters and had him tone it down.
Mitt reveals his true purpose in the 2012 election. Do everything possible, including fraud and theft, to keep anyone that is a threat to the Establishment from winning the primary. Once that was accomplished he took a dive in the general.
Never give all the blame the people behind the curtain when the man himself stands there also.
Mitt is far to the Left of any “Moderate voters” and always has been.
We saw the real Romney during the campaign.
Why now?
He is just another also-ran-also-lost.
He said himself right after the election that he really didn’t want to be president, he didn’t really want to run.
It does seem that when Crowley took him to task and Obama yelled out ‘get the transcript, Candy,’ Romney became deflated and never recovered. He was perceived as attacking a sitting president, a black sitting president, and he, like Hillary and McCain four years earlier, cowered.
I liked the part where the Romney family sat together on election night 2012 watching results on TV confident of victory, and as time went on as relativity slowly set in.
Maybe they won’t believe Rush and Karl Rove’s election predictions so easily next time, suckers.
Your campaign was weak Mitt and Paul Ryan’s performance was pathetic.
It was painful for me to watch it at the time, in fact I had to change the channel many times, knowing Obama would beat you.
Mitt reveals his true purpose in the 2012 election. Do everything possible, including fraud and theft, to keep anyone that is a threat to the Establishment from winning the primary. Once that was accomplished he took a dive in the general.
Both sides knew this.
The RNC elite needed to lose this election, because they make more money as the untested underdog.
Why now?
_______________________________
2016 is just 2 years away..
Willard will start killing off Conservatives at the GOP debates at the end of next year...2015..
Willard, Jeb, Chris...
The GOP doesn’t care who they run just as long as they don’t run a Conservative..
and after all po lil victim Willard was robbed !!!
An Obama-fawning media, “47%” comment (yes, it hurt him), Sandy and Christie, lackluster running mate — all recipes for failure of a campaign that by historic measures should have won.
Anyone have an idea as to who it is that keeps showing McCain the "Queen of Hearts"?
“...like you’ve never seen him”
I don’t want to see him AT ALL. When is he going to take his magic underwear and go home for good?
On this, I'm in agreement with Mitt. It might have given us a chance in 2012 - Obama was beatable by someone who would draw distinctions, not by a "me, too, just not as much" candidate.
He sure could have and I wished he had
Why should I care?
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