The Washington Post launched a series of Republican presidential candidate profiles on Sunday (12/11/11). First up was Mitt Romney, and right away you sense there’s something a little off here.
Here’s the headline and subhead:
The Problem Solver
Mitt Romney doesn’t want to talk about feeling voters’ pain. He just wants to get to work relieving it.
Reporter Ann Gerhart’s piece begins:
The mind of Mitt Romney is a supremely rational place.
The article is full of quotes from Romney supporters, alongside nods of approval from the reporter:
He is a man with a prodigious intellect who has been married to his high school sweetheart for 42 years, donates 10percent of his money to his church (a considerable sum, as his self-made fortune is upward of $250million) and, those close to him to say, acts generously, earns the loyalty of his staff and drives himself relentlessly to get the job done, whatever it is.
For good measure, readers learn that “Romney is Dudley Do-Right in a Kim Kardashian world.” Yes, that’s a real quote.
It’s not all puffery, mind you; at one point Romney faces comes in for some harsh criticism:
He seems too perfect and tidy, his trim hair and waistline in keeping with his disciplined mien and his formidable multi-state operation. His fastidiousness can border on the fussy.
And Romney’s stint in the private sector apparently went like this:
With his characteristic work ethic, after investing in a company as head of Bain Capital, Romney would roll up his sleeves, learn the business like an insider and re-envision it–with the imperative of increasing profitability as the guiding principle.
The piece closes with Romney’s brother explaining that he has an “overriding philosophy about caring for people,” which Gerhart used to sum up:
And in service of these goals, Romney’s flip-floppery could be interpreted as a flexibility of thinking that might help him bust through warring ideologies in Washington–an asset, not a deficit–and fix his biggest set of problems yet.
Will every candidate get this kind of treatment? It’s too early to tell. But today (12/12/11) the Post profiles Rick Perry, and his piece opens with this:
He has always had it, an ease and a charm that only the naturals possess, a confidence that bears the stamp of a man aware of his gifts.
The next part– “Few can match Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s allure….”– isn’t much better, but the piece overall takes a much more critical tone, perhaps due to the state of Perry’s presidential campaign.
Thank you for this….would that it were part of an MSM front page….i really cannot understand how people like romney, perry, bachmann and brute gingrich (who invented him?) get taken seriously, let alone given air time …i mean how does the public accept so much noise from and about such clowns?!
These jokers are going to put satirists out of business.
It’s pretty damn hard to invent something more pathetic than this, isn’t it?
Ah, after reading Ms Gerhart’s prose I’m positively IN LOVE with Mitt! Don’t spoil the mood of this meta-sexual bromance – – – it’s all too heady… I’m 17 again with a teenage crush! (And they said that the soap operas were a dying genre…)
I just threw up in my mouth after reading this.
Sure Romney’s flexible! Flexible enough to pander to the radical right and turn on gay men and lesbians and just about everyone else he once supported in exchange for their support. He’s worse than a flip-flopper, he’s a back-stabber.
My message to the “journalist” on the Post’s site:
“Jesus, Gerhart, will you get up off your knees already and start practicing journalism instead of propaganda?!?”
Can anything other than this be expected from the corporation run media? We are not much different than societies we have pointed fingers at for decades.
When Obama ran I was so sick of the sanitization of his life,it made me want to gag.Sad to see there are still outlets carrying water for this or that candidate.I will say upfront that on a scale of 1 to 10 with Obama being a 10, Mitt is far lower on the scale of negatives.That said -he has a bunch in his corner.We should of learned with Obama that by not vetting a man properly we could get another…….Obama.Lets all dig a bit deeper.
Dear reporter Gerhart:
Hmm…. interesting juxtapositioing of words..”He is a man with a prodigious intellect” ( and then immediately following with your words)” who has been married to his high school sweetheart for 42 years.” Hmmm, so length of time in a marriage connotes a “prodigious intellect?” WELL I guess that leaves Newt out.
Somehow, I was expecting a bit more in terms of describing that prodigious intellect…what makes an intellect prodigious? It can’t be the next line of giving 10% to his church, because plenty of people of NONprodigious intellect do that.
“The self made fortune?” No… Al Capone did that. I am still rather curious as to what that prodigious intellect means. Perhaps a follow -up article, as “inquiring minds NEED to know!
So “flip-floppery” is now okay because it just demonstrates flexibility?? Someone needs to go back in time to 2004 and tell the voters so they elect Kerry. Imagine what a different world this would be.
Link to Romney article is busted.
Jesus Christ! It sounds like something that North Korean TV might say about Dear Leader. We’re doomed. Perhaps Ann Gerhart has a serious crush on Romney. Hell, she’s probably banging him right now, and the lying, criminal old bastard is paying her a $1000.00 a go-’round. It’s business, after all.