In a
roundabout way, Swift was the precursor to Martha Coakley. The only difference is that Coakley, this
state's current Attorney General who lost to Brown in the 2010 special election for Kennedy's senate seat, is a fully capable administrator/manager, but a
dreadful campaigner. Coakley's apparent
lack of interest in shaking hands and kissing babies is seen here as the
primary reason that Scott prevailed over her in the race for Kennedy's seat.
As
for Swift, the general consensus was that the interim Governor was completely
in over her head. Indeed at one point as she contemplated
running for a full term, early polls showed Swift trailing Romney by 60 points in the race among Republicans
for the gubernatorial nomination. Perhaps
in light of those, in addition to her poor performance as interim Governor and,
more crucially, well aware that the state
GOP establishment was overwhelmingly in support a Romney candidacy, Swift
eventually chose not to run .
Subsequently,
after running unopposed in the Republican primary, Romney stepped into a general
election field of contenders consisting of Democratic Massachusetts State
Treasurer Shannon Brown; Green Party candidate Jill Stein; Barbara C. Johnson,
an Independent; and Libertarian Party nominee Carla Howell.
Despite
claiming that he was a "moderate" rather than " partisan
Republican " and that he held "progressive" views, and, even after signaling
his support of pro-choice by publically declining the endorsement of the anti-abortion
Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Romney trailed Brown in most polls for a good
portion of the campaign. But, in what
now can be considered a precursor to his current campaign modus operandi,
Romney unleashed as torrent of negative ads enabling him to eventually overtake
Brown in the race for governor.
Artless Deception
That
victory may have served to create an inaccurate image of Romney's campaign
prowess. But what clearly stood out as quite accurate about Romney then, as now, was
the depth of his apparent insecurities. From stump
speeches in near
empty football stadiums to routine glad-handing at local Knights of Columbus Halls, now, as was the case then,
his general awkwardness and obvious lack of poise is a palpably distracting, if
not defining characteristic of a typical encounter with Mitt Romney.
That's
because, like an out-of-work magician, Romney fails miserably at the art of
deception. Something perhaps best illustrated by his endless stream of Freudian
gaffes , some of which, including --"I'm not that concerned about the poor" --
are likely to become legendary. Indeed
there's a lot about Mitt Romney that reeks furtive starting perhaps with the eyes. From here, they often seem to projects more
of a "hand in the cookie jar" than "deer-in-the-headlights" look if you
catch the drift.
But it's
not just the eyes; there's also his incessant, nervy chuckling, constant
fidgeting and the fact that at all times seems ready to break out into a fit of
Porky Pig-like stuttering. Perhaps worse
-- particularly for a Republican in this political environment -- is the aura of
wimpy machismo imbued with a falseness that overrides and wreaks havoc on most
attempts by Romney to rhetorically connect with the raw anger and naked hatred
of President Obama among many GOP conservatives.
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