Mitt Romney's enthusiasm chasm

By Richard K. Barry

Sen. Marco Rubio endorsed Mitt Romney for president shortly before he strongly implied that he took no joy in the announcement. When you say in essence that you guess you'll endorse Romney, but you wish better candidates had run, that's not really an endorsement.

Here's what Rubio actually said at Townhall.com:

There are a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for president -- but they didn't. I think Mitt Romney would be a fine president, and he'd be way better than the guy who's there right now.

And then, in an interview on Fox News' Hannity show he had this to say:

I am going to endorse Mitt Romney. Not only is he going to be the Republican nominee, but he offers a stark contrast to this president's record.

Here's my translation: "Yep, Romney is going to be the Republican nominee and I'm a Republican so I guess I'll be supporting him."

Just to be serious for a moment, it is possible that the GOP will find a way to be enthusiastic about Romney. I know it's possible that some of the pundits are right when they say that once the thing becomes a one-on-one battle, everything changes. Voters who are moved by conservative political arguments, they say, will get behind Romney and get excited. I'm just not sure I agree.

I'm looking forward to the Republican convention. I think a lot of delegates will find it hard to give a damn about Mitt Romney no matter how much he professes to speak for their political values. Two points that stick out are that a lot of these people just don't believe the man, don't trust him and, even if they trust him, he is such a cold fish that they can't relate to him and don't really like him.

Sure, they'll nominiate him, but it won't be much of a send-off for their guy as he steps into the arena with the incumbent president, one of the more exciting political figures to come on the scene in a long time. 

Maybe, just maybe, Mitt Romney is a hell of a guy in real life, though I doubt it. He certainly doesn't come across that way as an actor on the national stage. And if there is one thing I know about politics, it's that people don't vote for candidates they don't like, at least not in sufficient numbers to elect them. 

Successful campaign slogans are usually in the category of "I like Ike," or "Nixon's the One." They are rarely things like, "I'm voting for Romney, what the hell."

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)