THE STUMP NOVEMBER 30, 2011
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When my new cover story went up online Monday, I was gratified by the range of responses, and slightly amused by those that questioned the article's premise, that Mitt Romney has himself a bit of a temper. Come on, some readers said, everyone gets hot once in a while; for Romney to have had a handful of temperamental episodes, is that really any different than anyone else? Well, sure, but...do most people's moments of temper lead to 1) a disorderly conduct arrest 2) a curse-filled exchange with a cop and security contract employee that leads to a police report and police captain's demand for apology and 3) a physical altercation that leads to a hip-hop star being ejected from an airplane? Do most people's outbursts become such a recurring phenomenon that their own sons invent a name for them? The article was not suggesting that Romney has a true anger management problem or a volcanic temper on the scale of, say, John McCain; in fact, it made clear that he rarely erupted when dealing with people he perceived as his equals. No, the piece only suggested that Romney's personality was more complicated than the caricature of him as a fully-programmed robot made him out to be -- whether or not these episodes make him more or less personally appealing is in the eye of the beholder. It was almost as if some readers worried that the description of these episodes would humanize Romney in a way that could benefit him; Kevin Drum went so far as to suggest that he simply did not want to have to give up the frame we'd all put Romney in -- the flip-flopping phony -- for another. The general reaction was a classic demonstration of the stubborn strength of the boxes that the media creates for political figures -- if Al Gore was a self-aggrandizer, then the media would inflate things like his Love Canal or Internet claims; if Romney's a flip-flopper, the media will seize on his shifts, while downplaying aspects of his personality that don't fit that box.
I figured I would just wait until the next moment when Romney got hot under the collar to make my case. Well, it didn't take long. In his newly released interview with Fox News, Romney gets decidedly testy in a way that suggests, again, that it's quite easy to provoke this particular robot. And some sharp-eyed commentators are taking note. From today's First Read: "...His discipline is what has separated him from Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry. But is there a point when a candidate becomes over-disciplined? Indeed, nearly every time Romney has been challenged on a topic other than the economy and President Obama (like his own record or debate protocol), it appears to get under his skin."
A couple final thoughts on this. First, it was amusing that the same morning my piece went up, Time's Jay Newton-Small had a new piece up noting that neither Romney nor Obama are well situated to capitalize on the electorate's ire right now because both lack an "anger gene." I actually agree with this and don't think it contradicts my piece. What I'm describing is Romney's very personal sensitivity in certain moments that leads to what his sons call his "Mitt-frontations" and what an opposing campaign official calls his "Mitt-fits." This sort of anger or pique does not extend to the more oratorical, theatrical outrage that someone like Chris Christie is so good at conjuring up for crowds. There's nothing populist about Romney's temper; far from it, as it is often directed at the people he deems beneath him who have dared to challenge him.
Secondly, I'll include here a couple other examples of Romney's temper that I was made aware of after my piece appeared. First is this clip from 2007, when Romney gets hot (justifiably so, some might say) with a conservative Iowa talk-show host questioning his pro-life bona fides. Then there's this long-ago clip of Romney flaring up in a 1994 debate with Teddy Kennedy -- the way his voice rises rapidly to a full shout, of the sort one almost never sees in debates, reminded me instantly of Romney's full-throated hollers at Rick Perry during the Las Vegas debate last month.
13 comments
I'm a member of the group who was not convinced of Romney's temper, although I want you to keep trying. That talkshow host clip is a rare view of Romney being sincere. I almost didn't recognize him.
- Nusholtz
November 30, 2011 at 11:51am
"There's nothing populist about Romney's temper; far from it, as it is often directed at the people he deems beneath him who have dared to challenge him." I'm not so sure. Was Romney angry that there were so many uninsured in Massachusetts? And did he channel that anger into passing health care reform in Massachusetts? Just to make my point, I have the impression that Cohn is the reticent type, but was genuinely angry that there are so many uninsured Americans, and that he channeled that anger into helping pass health care reform. Sure, one might make the distinction between feeling anger and feeling passionate about something, but the emotions are essentially the same, it's how those emotions are channeled that we distinguish anger (negative) and passion (positive). I suspect Romney's emotions about such things are more like Greenspan's emotions about the failure of the markets to avert the financial collapse; Greenspan wasn't so much angry as surprised, surprised that his view of markets turned out to be flawed. Is Romney angry that millions are unemployed? I'd say the answer is no, no because he continues to believe in markets as the most efficient corrective, or no because he, like Greenspan, isn't so much angry as surprised, surprised that his view of markets is flawed. On the other hand, the cynic might ask how Romney could be angry about unemployment, since he has profited so handsomely from cutting jobs in the companies he acquired. So the question that we should ask is whether Romney's occasional display of emotion is anger, or is it passion. I agree with MacGillis.
- rayward
November 30, 2011 at 12:51pm
"do most people's moments of temper lead to 1) a disorderly conduct arrest 2) a curse-filled exchange with a cop and security contract employee that leads to a police report and police captain's demand for apology and 3) a physical altercation that leads to a hip-hop star being ejected from an airplane?" Well, I've had 1 and 2 and have been sorely tempted to have 3, and I'm usually considered a pretty even tempered guy.
- timteeter
November 30, 2011 at 2:56pm
I am tempted to say that Obama, and all the Republican candidates are beta version androids released for public use before they had been fully "de-bugged." However, it is more likely that we are seeing evolution in action. Evolution has been beta testing DNA creatures for millions of years (or is it billions?) and intelligent? hominids for what -- a million or so? Thus, here we are vicious top of the food chain beings with trace elements of of compassion and altruism, who have unleashed artificial intelligence creations (robots, androids, AI programs) that at the least will put most of us out of work within the decade and at most will supplant us entirely by the end of the century. So "The Evolution Babe" (if I can be so anthropomorphic about an impersonal process) is desperately trying to evolve us to be more robotic like than the robots, more android like than the androids, and more intelligent the the AI programs. Obama, Romney, Caine, Palin, Perry, et al are REAL people, but the best that The Evolution Babe can come up with on such short notice. Contest with no price: Come up with the best acronym for a meme for evolution in action. I have no doubt that all the intelligent brain power of TNR can do better than "The Evolution Babe."
- skahn
November 30, 2011 at 11:22pm
Contest with no prize, I meant to say [type]. Unlike everyone else at TNR, I am old, demented, and dyslexic. Do better than me, please.
- skahn
November 30, 2011 at 11:24pm
This afternoon, I saw the segment of this where Romney is asked, for the 800th time, about the Mass. mandate on Fox News (my tertiary default from Bloomberg News), where they were dissecting Romney's defensiveness. The only thing I saw was his body language going "Girlie-Man", when he crossed his legs and clasped his knees. 1:50 in the TPM clip above. The media echo seems to be 'now we know why Romney has been so tv-interview gun-shy'. Yeah, he is a Girlie-Man when challenged... skahn: "The Evolution Babe" makes me think of that mitochondrial DNA find of "Darwin's Eve", which I do not think is catchy enough, nor relevant, for your well-expressed evolutionary theory. I digress. Romney ALWAYS makes me tense, even when he is not. I wish he would understand that he can NOT make people think he should be President just because that is what HE wants. Has he EVER said WHY he wants this job so much that he has spent the past five years doing nothing but campaign? I would have a slightly better opinion of him if he had actually DONE something in the past five years to help fix the economy that he and his private equity job-killing cohort destroyed!
- K2K
December 1, 2011 at 12:16am
"Well, sure, but...do most people's moments of temper lead to 1) a disorderly conduct arrest 2) a curse-filled exchange with a cop and security contract employee that leads to a police report and police captain's demand for apology and 3) a physical altercation that leads to a hip-hop star being ejected from an airplane?" Alec, your own previous post (along with some of the comments on it) explained the contexts for these altercations in ways that made Romney's conduct seem understandable though perhaps not justified. And now you're posting disjointed clips that perhaps take Romney's remarks out of context and at most demonstrate that, NEWS FLASH, the guy occasionally has a flash of temper. There are so many more substantive, justified matters to criticize this guy about. Give the temper meme a rest. All you're demonstrating, unfortunately, is that the progressive media echo chamber is sometimes as unfair and superficial as the right-wing one.
- Thunderroad
December 1, 2011 at 3:52am
Hmm. "Girlie-man" is not how I would have characterized it, but he does come across as anxious and ingratiating. Now, this YouTube clip is just chosen snippets from an interview, so I'd be wary of reading too much into it. It may be that Romney seems more natural when you watch the whole interview at once, just as Rick Perry doesn't seem drunk* when you view the whole speech that produced the "Rick Perry is wasted" clips. And even if he doesn't, it's just one interview. It's certainly a sharp contrast to how Obama usually comes across in interviews--relaxed and confident. *He does seem somewhat unhinged and not very bright, but he always seems like that.
- Dausuul
December 1, 2011 at 8:37am
I don't see the problem here. His anger doesn't conflict with either the First or Second Law.
- miceelf
December 1, 2011 at 11:39am
I think you win Alec, you made your case.
- WandreyCer
December 1, 2011 at 12:20pm
Dausuul: this story has echo, especially on Fox. Romney has avoided tv news interviews all year, like the plague. Whatever you call it, can you imagine Romney in a one-on-one with Putin? Bachmann is tougher than Romney.
- K2K
December 1, 2011 at 12:25pm
Will simply note a point of agreement with K2K. Romney, for any of a whole host of potential reasons, seems like a brittle, brittle man.
- miceelf
December 1, 2011 at 1:37pm
Romney is a bright fellow who believes that the Republican voters he needs in the primary are dumb and tries to act accordingly. If he manages to win the nomination he will then emerge as a pragmatic technocrat and hope everyone forgets the fool he played. We'll see.
- paskunac
December 2, 2011 at 6:47am