Here’s my theory. After it became clear that Mitt Romney was going to be the Republican nominee, persuadable voters — the “swingsters” — who somehow managed to avoid the clown-slash-horror show that was the GOP primary decided to give Romney a test drive. In other words, after tuning out the primaries, swing voters tuned in to check out Romney for themselves.
If so, it is likely that they found that Democrats were right about Romney. He is a practiced liar who tells lies all day long, day after day after day.
They probably also found that he is cold, wooden and out of touch. If so, that would explain why polling consistently shows that Romney’s favorable-unfavorable rating hovers around the mid-thirties. It’s impossible to imagine that anyone, especially a non-incumbent, could be elected president with a favorable rating that low.
Can Romney turn this around? Yes, of course. He and his corporate allies will spend whatever it takes to buy the White House this year. But his first and fundamental hurdle is to get his favorable ratings into the upper 40s. It’s hard to see how such an unpleasant person could achieve that feat in just four months.
