Credible Collars

If wingers' Topsiders weren't so soft, they'd allow clicking the heels three times. It would take that...and much more...to pretend that either Scott Brown or Mitt Romney were plain folk, middle class, like most Americans in any substantial way.

Yet Sen. Brown pulled off the magic in the special election and Romney still can't manage it, even with multiple runs for governor and POTUS. This has much more to do with the simple numbers that the former is just wealthy and the latter more like Scrooge McDuck.

As the latest to observe Romney's problem here, today's Boston Herald details just some of his incompetence in trying to seem like you and I. After listing rich-guy-fails moments, the writers' kindest comment is, "Romney’s quirky moments highlight the trouble that rich, well-heeled politicians sometimes have connecting with regular voters."

Yet, Brown made a campaign and won the election on untenable and incredible theater. Think specifically of his famous pickup truck and barn coat. He used these props to do more than bypass cities, going straight to rural without stopping in his tony suburbs.

Panicked Dems pointed out that the shiny, never-off-road pickup was a rich dad's toy to haul hay and tack for his privileged daughter's horse riding. Likewise, the clean and very expensive coat spoke more to his gentleman-farmer reality than any blue-collar or agricultural needs.

Again though, voters wanted to believe and did.

On a very different plane is Romney. He simply is too tone deaf to fake it. He does not live a plebeian's life, has no intention of doing so, and may even be incapable of it. That became far too obvious six years ago when he did not know what the subway cost in Boston, where he worked (he guessed it was still $1 when it was $1.25 by then and showed he was above commoners' transit).

Brown at least gets the lingo of plain people close enough. He doesn't make ignorant analogies or fail at his class-identity jokes because he doesn't know how things work.

Romney seems to have many handlers around him. You'd suppose they'd rehearse his pseudo-spontaneous quips and comments. Here's betting the problem is that he's too arrogant and self-confidence to ask for help he so clearly needs.