An absolute scream of a debate preview

National Review has an insider's preview of Mitt Romney's debate performance tonight. The preview's upshot--this is my take, obviously, and not NR's--is that Romney is being so overloaded by advisers and consultants with so many distinct incompatibilities and indeed human impossibilities, he'll be lucky if he remembers his name.

For instance, there's this. "Romney’s advisers have a simple strategy: They want their candidate to balance his finely tuned arguments with personal warmth."

Beyond question, the strategy is exceedingly simple. Its execution by an unremittingly awkward politician of no discernible human attributes, however, may prove problematic. 

There's also the swagger of self-delusion among the candidate's advisers and supportive media which appears to be every bit as clinically severe as Romney's. What is it he'll balance his "personal warmth" with? "His finely tuned arguments."

Come, come, no tittering. NR is quite serious:

The Romney-Ryan campaign has been getting wonky this month, with Paul Ryan holding town-hall meetings and clicking through PowerPoint slides in swing states. Romney, a self-professed policy guy, also enjoys getting into the weeds on health care and economics.

NR remains embedded in the WonkMyth. To a certain extent this failing is forgivable, in that having helped invent the myth, NR now finds its imprisoning preposterousness to be inescapable. But, guys, the mere act of "clicking through PowerPoint slides" makes an ideological flimflammer a wonk not, and Romney's understandably feeble stumblings at proving $2 trillion is actually $5 trillion if, like a resurrected nation of Reagan-like Tinkerbells, we simply hope and trust and believe hard enough, well ...

It's this concluding passage, though, that leaps at you like a pitiably self-deceived Nureyev:

Romney’s campaign sees the first debate as more than a contest to win on points. They want to introduce Romney to the country.

OK, there's only a month to go and Romney is trailing something like 91 points in critical "battleground" states like Ohio and the campaign is just now getting around "to introduc[ing] Romney to the country." Oh my.

Comments

[Peter G]

They want their candidate to balance his finely tuned arguments with personal warmth? A man who could not conceivably pass a Turing test?

[janicket]

The breath-taking brilliance of the R/R campaign's debate strategy is matched only by the breadth and depth of their national ground game, and will prove equally effective.

*skips away, giggling*

[mdblanche]

Romney was introduced to the country when he ran in the primaries 4 years ago. He was reintroduced when he won in the primaries this year. He was re-reintroduced when he won and re-re-reintroduced at the convention. So now he's going to be re-re-re-reintroduced tonight. Will his campaign ever figure out the problem is not that we haven't met Mitt Romney but that we have?

[Robert Lipscomb]

Romney chose the wrong person, wrong for many reasons. What I am about to write sounds hokey, but hokey works.

He should have become the national financial planner, the one who simplifies everything for you and helps you through your anxieties. He asks, maybe tells, you what you want for your future; then helps lay out a path forward that makes sense and gets you where you want to go.

In my business he would become what we call the "trusted advisor". This persona could have been effective even in the primaries. He could have told the Tea Party, "I understand your fears and concerns, and they can be addressed. Here s a sensible, practical plan that you and most Americans can embrace. And it will work."

I think this is who Romney really is. He would not have tried to be a fire-breathing hard-ass or a cuddly teddy bear. he could have called on the Tea Party to help him show the rest of America a better way. he could have told them that no one hears you while you are screaming at them.

That Romney would have scared the hell out of me.

[Jim Milstein]

I'm intrigued by Peter's assertion that Romney could not pass the Turing Test. It depends which Turing Test, I think. If he is trying to convince the judge that he is really a machine trying to pass as a human, he wins every time.

If he is trying to convince the Turing judge that he is really a human and not deceitful software, the outcome is uncertain. Different judges, different verdicts. Some judges are just not very perceptive.

[AnneJ]

How many times has Mitt Romney been introduced to the country? I seem to have lost count. And every time he is reintroduced the less likeable he gets.

[SueMe]

I think that's the problem...we are seeing way too much of Mitt. I get a robo-call from him each day which serves to piss me off to the point I cannot stand to hear his voice. A robo-call from Robo Romney..overkill.