Man in the bubble: Is it possible to know the real Mitt Romney?

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

(CBS News) Last week, Mitt Romney decided to go to the hardware store.

No big deal, right? Well, maybe for you or me. But when you're a major party's presumptive presidential nominee, the press corps wants as much access to you as it can get.

Which is why when Romney emerged from the store, reporters were there waiting to shout out questions about what he had purchased. Romney's response? "Hardware stuff."

Those two words conveyed a not-so-subtle message: Hey, you can follow me around if you want - but I'm not going to let you get too close.

The exchange came on the first day in which Romney was being followed by the "protective press pool." The protective pool is a small group of reporters assigned to follow the candidate wherever he goes. White House hopefuls grudgingly submit to such coverage under the theory that if you've got a serious chance of being president, the American people have a right to know what you're up to -- even if you're just slipping out for a little hardware stuff.

The primary purpose of a protective pool is to keep tabs on a candidate. Now that he is being followed everywhere he goes, for example, Romney can no longer slip off to a fundraiser without the media knowing about it. But a secondary purpose is to give Americans a sense of who the candidate is as a person - to help us understand the daily life of the person who wants to occupy the Oval Office.

The problem is that when you're under the microscope, your daily life tends to look a lot different than it did before anyone was watching. (Just ask a reality television star.) Activities that would be normal for an average person, like a trip to the grocery store, start to take on an artificial quality.

Few people understand this as well as 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. When he was Massachusetts governor, Dukakis told CBS News in an interview, he refused a security detail and could do things like stop into Filene's Basement to buy himself a suit without much fuss. Once he got the nomination, all that changed: Suddenly the Secret Service was keeping constituents away from him, the press was scrutinizing his every move, and his actual personality was getting more and more obscured.

"It's this really confining and really inhibiting situation you find yourself in," Dukakis said.

One of the best examples of the distorting nature of life in the bubble, he added, was the difference between the public perception of 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and the reality of the man in private.

"Bob Dole is one of the funniest, wittiest guys I've ever met. I say that to people and they don't believe it," he said. "You never got any sense of that. None."

Part of the reason, Dukakis suggested, was that Dole had been told to keep his personality under wraps. When you're a presidential nominee, after all, an offhand joke can quickly turn into a political scandal.

There are still politicians who are willing to take that risk. Both John McCain and Newt Gingrich were known for chatting frankly and cracking jokes with reporters in casual settings on the presidential campaign trail. Romney is very different: His rare informal interactions with the press tend to be perfunctory, with the candidate keeping reporters very much at a distance.

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[Verascity]

IS there a "real" Mitt Romney? If there's something under that plastic coating, the GOP wouldn't want it to get out.
An elder in a church that claims to be Christian even though the core message would be unrecognizable to Christ and the apostles. A guy who'd rather take unlimited amounts of flack sooner than release the same tax info that other presidential candidate have.
The real Mitt. What a concept.

[stupa5]

No!

[marychgo]

Keep trying, Brian, but I don't expect you or any other reporter to be able to penetrate the layers of arrogance and narcissism that cloak the Republicans' Spoiled Fratboy ticket.

I knew a few fratboys (some spoiled, some not so much) back in the day, and most grew up to become fairly decent human beings. They no longer seem to think they're better than us peons. Given that Romney/Ryan are now 65 and 42 and don't seem to have made that transition yet, I'm not holding my breath....

[Levendiman]

Another negative headline for Romney. CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC are all the water carrying PR arm of the Obama campaign. Forward. Hope and Change. The first two years of his presidency he had the white house, congress and senate. He did ABSOLUTELY ZERO to help with jobs. Almost four years later he is full of excuses. With our country in this mess he has played over 100 rounds of golf. The democrat base has no mind of it's own. They cannot see who this guy really is.

[marychgo]

I'm sure you know, Levendiman, that the Democrats had enough votes to break the Republicans' constant filibusters for about four months in 2010 (Al Franken (MN) wasn't sworn in until July; Ted Kennedy died in August; Paul Kirk replaced him from late September of 2010, and was replaced by Scott Brown in early January 2011).

And 100 rounds of golf in 3-1/2 years comes to one round every 13 days: hardly a golf bum's schedule!

[LoadedDice]

How can you know an empty suit?

[Joliefleurs]

Plenty of nerve asking if we can know the real Romney when you Obama lapdogs didn't try and find the real Obama when he was running.


Turns out he really is the Socialist whack job all the right wingers warned us about. He's redistributing wealth, nationalizing corporations and informing private businesses that they didn't build anything.

[retmw1]

Seems ryan had no problem accepting socialist money, oh I forgot when it's a republican doing it it's not socialism.

[DustNDesert]

ACLU Sues AZ Gov. Brewer. I have no comment. States' Rights takes anther hit.

Arizona writer, media and ACLU can't wait. Libs love it!

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/169487

[Jaylah54200]

by erasmus111 August 16, 2012 7:23 PM EDT
"The fact that right wingers keep saying it as if he really had a different name only illustrates their dishonesty."


I think they all take "stupid" pills every morning when they wake up. I think some take two.

_____________________

They're definitely suffering from some mind-altering effect that leaves them incapable of rational thought.

[Jaylah54200]

Heck, even Mitt Romney doesn't know the real Mitt Romney.

[DOGGYPANTS]

I think that Romney comes across as an affable person who is concerned about emplyment of the average American. His family created many, many jobs. Romney is our bread & butter. Unions should be thanking his family for all the good jobs the Romneys created.

[skeezix06]

Odd. Romney reminds me of the company that came to town and bought the prosperous company my family worked at, laid off a lot of the employees, broke the company into parcels, sold the parcels and most of the assets, finally sold the tattered remains of the company to someone local and went off to victimize another company.

I wouldn't vote for him to be a dogcatcher, let alone president.

[retmw1]

Why would unions want to thank romney, it was his father that created those good jobs, mitt just offshores jobs. He is nothing like his father who provided 10 years of tax returns and didn't offshore jobs.