Keller @ Large: What Romney Won't Do To Become President
BOSTON (CBS) - What do we need news media campaign coverage for?
Listen to Jon's commentary:
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While it pains me as a political journalist to admit it, that's a fair question, in a year when once again we've seen too much overheated horse race coverage, too much attention paid to fringe groups and not enough to historical context, way too much "gotcha" coverage of off-hand comments taken out of context and blown into controversies that blow away with the next news cycle.
But take away the press corps poking and prodding and forcing the candidates to engage at least once in awhile in unscripted dialogue, and you'd lose something valuable, trust me.
For example, just the other day, for the first time in weeks, Mitt Romney actually took questions from reporters, and in the process came out with a rare moment of actual candor.
Asked why he's having such trouble catching on with conservatives who don't seem to like him even though they tell pollsters they believe he's going to be the nominee and want nothing more than a new president in office, Romney said: "It's very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments… I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am what I am."
That is a very interesting statement, on several levels.
First, it is quite true that political zealots these days are easy to whip up with red-meat rhetoric.
This is just as true on the left, where Romney is unfairly stereotyped as an uncaring robber baron, as it is on the right, where President Obama is falsely characterized as a clueless socialist.
Romney is winning more than 40-percent of the votes cast in the GOP race, far more than any competitor, because those voters want a relatively moderate nominee who can win.
Too bad he painted himself as a flip-flopper by trying to pander years ago to the extremists who still reject him today.
Still, Romney's refusal to start a fire on his head may be the best thing he has going for him.
Calmness and composure are among the attributes that won Mr. Obama the presidency.
They're helping Romney beat back every angry kook that's made a run at him.
And blurting out that refusal to the press the other day may have reminded voters of what they like about Romney in a way that the over-scripted candidate has otherwise failed to do.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
