Mitt Romney has been running for president for nigh on six years. He finished third last time but he continued on, hardly missing a beat. The ‘new' 2012 Romney is making an effort to appear more ordinary. He is almost never seen in a suit or tie, instead wearing chinos and Oxford shirts. His famously perfect hair is now slightly messed up.
Gone is the presidential-style entourage of 2008. Now he travels in a single Chevy Suburban. Despite everything, however — his longevity as a candidate, his willingness to do ‘what it takes', as the title of Richard Ben Cramer's classic volume about the 1988 campaign put it, and endure the loneliness and the humiliating scrutiny — some of his supporters now fear it will be for naught.
Having been anointed front-runner for months, the former Massachusetts governor is now under serious threat from Governor Rick Perry of Texas, who opened up a Gallup poll lead of 12 points after just a week in the race. His response so far has been to ignore this new pretender. The permanent campaigner for the Republican presidential nomination clearly hates campaigning.
Standing in school gymnasiums and civic buildings in New Hampshire recently, Romney seemed almost pained by the indignity of having to respond to questions. Sometimes he answered patiently, as if addressing a dilatory schoolchild. On other occasions he was brusque, almost sarcastic.
In Lebanon, New Hampshire, he virtually shouted down a woman asking about social security reform. "You had your turn madam, let me have mine!" he said fiercely. "Listen I'm sorry, it's my turn!" This exchange was viewed by most as an error, an example of a candidate lowering himself by losing his cool. It was similar to the occasion at the Iowa State Fair when he retorted to a heckler that "corporations are people too", a statement greeted with glee by Democrats, who said it showed the multi-millionaire former venture capitalist was out of touch.
In fact, this newly engaged and animated Romney is an improvement. He is showing that he can be hard-edged and combative at a time when most Americans are demanding action rather than emollient words. Both in Lebanon and at the Iowa fair, the people he took on were Democrats seeking not answers but to score points.
Private sector experience
Since Perry's surge, the press and many Republicans have demanded that Romney take on his new rival, who has pushed Michele Bachmann, the winner of the Iowa Straw Poll and, like Perry, a strong social conservative with Tea Party support, into a distant third place. Romney must be sorely tempted. His advisers plan to contrast Romney's private sector experience of creating jobs with that of Perry, who has been an elected politician continuously since 1984 and therefore, as one put it, "has never really had a job except being a government employee".
They argue that Perry only decided to run for president because he was sought out by consultants who had resigned from Newt Gingrich's staff, and who were looking for more work. Perry is too extreme, too Southern, too Texan, they insist, to be electable in a contest with US President Barack Obama, whose ebbing fortunes are sure to rise next year. And at a "time of our choosing", a Romney aide adds, the campaign will be ready to take Perry down. "This isn't the Little Sisters of the Poor running this campaign. There's not going to be a Gandhi thing going on here. Everything you like about Rick Perry, you already know. People are going to know a lot more about Rick Perry."
Romney is nothing if not steady and his business career made him intensely competitive. He has already shown resilience and determination. Jibes about Romney's wealth and whispers about his Mormon religion can by overplayed. Neither subject was raised by a voter in four lengthy question-and-answer sessions in New Hampshire.
The only person who asked about Romney's decision to rebuild his $12 million (Dh44 million) house in California to make it four times bigger (he says this was to accommodate his 16 grandchildren) was a reporter. Presidential campaigns are often referred to as marathons and Romney has so far paced himself like a long-distance runner.
The 2012 race could also be viewed as being between Romney the tortoise and Perry the hare. But another analogy is the Indy 500 race, a brutal 500-mile contest in which some cars crash into each other allowing others to speed past. Romney will never be the most exciting, inspiring or even likeable of candidates. He's plainly more comfortable running an organisation than running for office. That does not guarantee, however, that he will not ultimately prevail and emerge as the Republican nominee.
