[shrinkermd]

Part of the problem the pundits have is confusing "authenticity" with personal contact.

One of the hardest things to do is to make contact via TV or radio. It is the first, and often the only thing, people judge you on.

When you speak to another your gaze, persona and effort is first focused on making contact and determining whether that person is listening and responding to you with all their senses.

When it comes to TV the person wanting to make contact must look at the audience, focus on a particular (imagined) person and speak slowly and distinctly but with some passion or feeling in the voice and manner.

This is different than giving a stump speech, although I note the real masters of stump speeches use about the same technique.

Like it or not Bill Clinton makes contact with the audiences and Mitt Romney does not. If I were a Mitt helper I would insist he focus on a particular person, and especially slow down his speech, let it inflect and have him respond naturally in his ordinary manner.

Part of life is learning you cannot script or control some things. All you can do is throw the ball to them. Once they see the ball they will make the correct move to catch it. Similarly, if you can get Mitt to slow down, make contact and directly relate to the audience the issue of "authenticity" will fade into background from its present foreground.

[elizabetty]

These idiots think AUTHENTICITY means FLAWS

Mitt Romney is authentic to everybody who spends time with him.

The media's problems is that he is Authentically WHOLESOME.

[sageb1]

“The press’s tuning forks revered the senator’s maverick authenticity until he got too close to George Bush’s unpopular war. That put his campaign into a tailspin last year.”

So Henninger admits that the left-leaning press is responsible for how well a candidate does? I’ll give him a clue, however. It wasn’t McCain’s closeness to “President Bush’s war” that derailed his campaign last year.

Authenticity is not a trait defined simply by whether or not you act or look like you care. It is also based on past deeds.

However, I will agree with you that Romney does need to slow his speech down. He sounds like he has memorized everything and that gives us a sense of a lack of true conviction.

[ClearCase_guy]

So, the advice is that Mitt might come across as more authentic if he were to change his style and manner of speaking and craft himself into the sort of guy that the experts think would go over well?

Well, I guess that's one way to pull off that whole "authentic" thing.

[coloradan]

If you can fake authenticity, you’ve got it made.

[Beagle8U]

For a Politician to be authentic they have to have conviction on the issues that they profess with a record that shows they held that conviction for quite some time.

Romney will never pass that test any more than Rooty will.