Is Romney too much like Al Gore?

Jacob Weisberg makes the connection, and is forced to surmise that Romney may be too rich, too pompous, and...wait for it...too handsome in order to win over ordinary Americans. Indeed, it can seem at times that Romney's so-called supporters, lacking in any apparent enthusiasm for their favoured candidate, simply wish to see the end of a presidency that they would discard at any cost — even if the replacement is a candidate who, truth be told, they don't actually like that much.

Weisberg writes, and I would agree that:

The public usually picks up on this authenticity gap—the space between who the candidate really is and how he wants to be seen. In each case, the problem manifests itself in a slight different way. A technocrat by nature, Gore disliked the performative side of politics. He wildly overcompensated for this by angrily shouting his speeches at rallies and demonstrating ardor for his now ex-wife with a soul kiss at the Democratic convention. His hyperbolic passion on the campaign trail made it a simple matter for Republicans to brand Gore as a compulsive exaggerator who claimed to have invented the Internet. Kerry’s problem was that he was pompous, too senatorial, and loved of the sound of his own voice. This allowed the Bush re-election campaign in 2004 to paint him Kerry as “French”: an effete snob and an unprincipled flip-flopper.

He goes on, unfortunately, to describe the way in which Romney must grapple with "the affliction of excessive handsomeness." Okay, let's not take this too far. My earlier point remains sound: he's the candidate for people who hate Obama (and can't quite mentally confront the thought of President Gingrich). Fair?

(Image via Reno Gazette-Journal)