To wit: show the American people that Mitt Romney’s just… a human being, like everybody else. Not that Romney should pretend to anything that he’s not. As Mickey put it:

Note that this does not require that Romney show he’s a man of the people, down with NASCAR etc. No pork rinds are required. In fact, trying desperately to appear non-upperclass is likely to reinforce Romney’s more fundamental problem. A simulacrum can eat pork rinds, if you program it properly.

In other words: just don’t do it the way that John Kerry tried to. Romney’s rich. That’s actually fine. He was a successful businessman. That’s fine, too. What won’t be fine is if Romney appears to be visibly forcing himself to act like he was never neither; that sort of thing grates. I suggest that the man take some pointers from George W Bush, who was always able to come across as sincere*, despite the fact that he was (at least) third generation richer-than-blazes.

Mind you, watching Barack Obama trying to pierce the bubble this season ought to be funny. The President’s used to campaigning as a god, or at least a Greek Hero. Watching him trying to campaign as a mere mortal – “OH, NO: HE’S RIGHT THERE IN THE ROOM WITH LATINO LEGISLATORS! GET THE FORKS! GET THE FORKS!**” – should give the rest of us plenty of material to work with.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*I certainly hope that the choice of that word grates on people who will never, ever stop fighting the 2004 election. Although they’re all really fighting the 2000 one. Which Gore lost. Oops! That’s me, grating on those people again. I really am an awful person, sometimes.

**This is precisely the sort of inclusiveness and consideration for the dignity of others that we’ve come to expect from the man who brought us “I won.”