"A churlish prick"

That's singer-songwriter Stephen Stills' designation for Mitt Romney in a Rolling Stone piece that so coherently captures Romney's essence of prickdom it leaves you wondering why even our magnificently inept punditocracy can't figure it out.

Another Stills quote:

I never in my lifetime thought I would see a creepier politician than Richard Nixon, but ...

If Hell itself were to unleash its satanic fury and somehow elect Mitt Romney? We'd see entire armies of Nixons, demagoguing and confidently Big Lying their way to higher office, just like their mentors, Tricky Dick and Moderate Mitt ... and Joseph Goebbels.

Comments

[Turgidson]

Tricky Dick was before my time, and it definitely seems true that the modern GOP took its cues from Nixon on two major fronts: Southern Strategy, and lies as campaign tool. We've paid an astronomical price for the course he set the party on, and we continue to pay.

However, as far as domestic policy goes, Nixon was utterly mainstream. EPA, offering to work on universal health care, "I am a Keynesian"...heck, I'm not sure any of the Democratic presidents who have come since are as liberal as Nixon (largely because times changed and the Democratic party changed with them, but still).

...and maybe I'm wrong, but I sense there was something deeply human about Nixon's many, many character flaws and grating persona. In a way that endeared him to a swath of voters, much to the confusion of the rest. Mittens does not have that going for him - he's a detached, robotic empty vessel and he relates to no one other than other rich fucks like him. Although, being the alternative to the colored in the White House might be enough.

[AnneJ]

Mitt Romney doesn't have nearly the charm of Tricky Dick. At least with Nixon there was some "there" there. There was substance, true it was bad substance, but he knew how to lie just right, a quality Willard not only seems to lack but doesn't feel he needs to have due to his sense of entitlement to take up residence in the white house. Nixon suffered tragedy and hardship in his life. He worked hard to get where he got he had to actually prove himself and earn his way to the top of the political food chain something Romney has never had to do, and again never feels he will ever have to do. He's had everything handed to him his whole life and he expects the presidency to be no different.