Stephen Fry's Thoughts On Mitt Romney

In 2007, British polymath Stephen Fry took a trip through America, driving through all 50 states, sampling the local color for a BBC series and an accompanying book. One of the first state he visited was New Hampshire, where he experienced American presidential politics at its most grassroots. In the run-up to the 2008 New Hampshire Republican primary, he followed Mitt Romney around for the day. Here's what he experienced as Romney visited a supporter's house:

With a great flurry of handshakes and smiles Mitt is suddenly in the house, marching straight to the space in front of the fireplace where a mike on a stand awaits him, as if for a stand-up comedian. He is wearing a smart suit, the purpose of which, it seems, is to allow him to whip of the jacket in a moment of wild unscripted anarchy, so as to demonstrate his informality and desire to get right down to business and to hell with the outrage and horror this will cause his minders. British MPs and candidates of all stripes now do the same thing. The world over, male politicians have trousers that wear out three times more quickly than their coats. And who would vote for a man who kept his jacket on? Why, it is tantamout to broadcasting your contempt for the masses. Politicians who wear their jackets might as well eat the common people's children and have done with it. 

Romney is impressive in a rather gastly kind of way, which is not really his fault. He has already gone over so many of his arguments and rehearsed so many of his cunnenly wrought lines that, try as he might, the techniques he employs to inject a little life and freshness into them are identical to those used by game show hosts, the class of person Governor Romney most resembles: lots of little chucked-in phrases, like 'am I right?' and 'gosh, I don't know but it seems to me that,' 'heck, maybe it's time' and so on.

This assessment is from 2007, but is as true as ever. Romney seems to suffer from Al Gore syndrome. They're probably ok in one-on-one, but put them in front of an audience and they go stiff as a board. It's kind of hard to watch. Putting him next to Perry on the debate stage just makes it that much more painful for the rest of us to watch.

(Copyright and all genius reserved by Stephen Fry)