Election 2012

Mitt Romney is Painful to Watch

Last night was the first time in a while I've watched a Romney speech from beginning to end.

He's terrible. Especially off-prompter.

At the last minute, his advisers yanked the prompters because Santorum didn't use prompters. Again, the stupid anti-Obama prompter meme coming back to haunt the Republicans.

Consequently, all of Romney's awkward herky-jerky animatronic characteristics were on full display. His speech patterns were rushed, nervous and spastic, he could barely hold the audience or stir reactions from them, and he generally seemed uncomfortable addressing a large crowd.

Of course, this is window dressing, but it's also a window into Romney's superficial candidacy. His positions are phony-baloney -- indicative of what he thinks the far-right wants to hear. And he's not entirely comfortable pandering to that tea party wing. So he looks it.

And the tea party people know he's bullshitting them.