Is Romney 'too perfect' to be president?

On paper and on television, Mitt Romney looks like archetypal presidential material. Maybe that's why so many people don't like him

Mitt Romney's business success, beautiful wife, and "relentlessly handsome face" may make it hard for many struggling Americans to relate to the GOP presidential frontrunner, pundits say.
(Image credit: Brooks Kraft/Corbis)

Super-wealthy GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is often portrayed as someone who struggles to connect with regular voters. But in fact, he has the opposite problem, says Kathleen Parker at The Washington Post. "People can't connect with him." Americans like slightly flawed politicians — think Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton — who have fallen just like the rest of us. What's flawed about Romney? "Nada." He has a "picture-perfect résumé of skills and accomplishments," a bulging bank account, a "relentlessly handsome face," a beautiful wife he's happily married to, and "he goes to bed the same way he woke up — sober, uncaffeinated, seamless, and smiling." Is Romney, in effect, "too perfect" to win the presidency?

Yes. Mitt's aesthetic perfection works against him: Romney has a robot problem, says Brian Fung at The Atlantic. When people encounter robots that are too human-like, they're unsettled and repulsed by the imperfections. And Romney "looks just enough like the perfect picture of an American president to make us uncomfortable." On TV, Romney "radiates presidential qualities from every patrician pore," so it's jarring when he has awkward moments that a flawless TV president wouldn't. He's "the politician from central casting who is stumbling through an audition for a role of regular human."

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