Reporter Dana Milbank spent the other day following Mitt Romney around and reported on his strained attempts to connect with the little people.
Mitt Romney, the leading contender to become President Obama’s Republican opponent next year, had just finished working the room at Blake’s Creamery here when he paused for a photo with the restaurant’s owner, Ann Mirageas, and decided to tell her a joke.
“I saw the young man over there with eggs Benedict, with hollandaise sauce,” he said. “And I was going to suggest to you that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise.”
The proprietor laughed weakly. “Good luck to you,” Mirageas said.
WTF? Is this guy running for President, or is he a contestant on "The Gong Show."
And it did not get much better for Romney after that.
He talks about the weak economy with the proprietors of a feed shop, then abruptly pivots: “Okay, so what do you do about mosquito control? . . . This has been a mosquito-infested year with all the moisture. They flew away with my dog.”
At Mary Ann’s, a retro diner in Derry, N.H., the slogan on the owner’s shirt is “A blast from the past” — and the description suits Romney, too. He admires the Texaco “Fire Chief” gas pump and a jukebox (“You guys hear this music? ‘I want a caveman, I want a caveman.’ ”). Posing for a photo with his arms around the waitresses, he suddenly jumps forward, pretending somebody pinched his bottom. “Oh my goodness gracious!” he exclaims, then, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.” He later says the gag is “kind of fun to do.”
This last exchange, unfortunately for Romney, was caught on camera and broadcast on Hardball yesterday.
Perhaps this kind of thing plays well with the GOP base, who must still set bags of dog poop on fire on their neighbors doorstep before ringing the doorbell and running away, but this guy is looking to land a job representing ALL Americans. And some of us are not uptight humorless mannequins.
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