Those In-the-Know Agree: Romney Sucks as a Candidate

Even his close allies say he'd be a good president, but doesn't know how to run for office

It isn't the chair or the ho-hum convention. Or the leaked video. Or Stuart Stevens. Or the improving economy. Or media bias. Or distorted polls. Or the message. Or Mormonism.

It's Mitt.

With Republicans everywhere wondering what has happened to the Mitt Romney campaign, people who know the candidate personally and professionally offer a simple explanation: It's the candidate himself.

Slowly and reluctantly, Republicans who love and work for Romney are concluding that for all his gifts as a leader, businessman and role model, he's just not a good political candidate in this era.

Comments

[Calvin Coolidge]

God, it is depressing how often the GOP campaign turns into a death march. Bob Dole. John McCain. And now Mitt. Take the loser from the previous nomination cycle as Next Man Up, and try to build enthusiasm for lukewarm leftovers. Know, going in to the convention, that you have a stiff with no chance in November.

On the bright side, you have done the seemingly impossible - made G.W. Bush look like a breath of fresh air in contrast to the other barely ambulatory corpses the party has put on the ballot.

[Lisa]

The only reason he's the frontrunner is because of his squeaky clean background. Obama's usual campaign strategy of making allegations using his opponents private records hasn't worked so well on Mitt.

[Calvin Coolidge]

At some point in the information age, being in politics for your entire life while simultaneously managing to never have taken a controversial stance on any issue whatsoever, or never having said anything that might offend anyone, anywhere, will cease to be a prerequisite for being considered a viable candidate, and might even be correctly recognized as the sign of an empty suit with no business in elected office.