The Romneys ~ The Barbie And Ken Of Politics

I think back to the campaign and how perfectly pressed Mitt was be it the creases in his jeans or his white tie and tails.  Ann, too, always perfectly wardrobed right down to her equestrian garb.  Barbi and Ken.  The great hope of the Republican party.

Where have they been?  I am aware of a couple of perfunctory interviews after the loss, but since then not so much.  Until yesterday.  I saw an add for Ann's new cook book.  Cook book. How absolutely Americana.  How Barbie and Ken.

Then this morning I saw the first comments I've seen in ages from Mitt. In his usually nuanced manner he declared the Republican strategy for eliminating Obamacare would not be effective.  No argument there but where were the suggestions from the former candidate that might suggest we were wrong in not electing him?

He credited Joe Manchin's idea of delaying the implementation for a year. It has some merit but Obama has already nixed the very thought of it.  Or, Mitt went on, work hard to get Republicans elected to the House and Senate so they could do it in the traditional way.

He has been missing in action.  There is nothing traditional in the way the government is doing business, if they even are, these days.  Nor do I expect to see it return to traditional practices any time soon.  It's rough and tumble and the most clever win.  It has become a reality show airing in real time showing how our elected officials work and play. I'd rather it be a non-reality show but it's not.  I'd rather the squeaky wheels that gain the most attention were getting it for substance rather than drama but what we see is the new reality.  Watch it and weep.

Voters didn't think Mitt related to the world they live in during the campaign. I'm not sure that's true but visuals being everything these days, he was far too comfortable in that white tie and tails. Too Ken.

Ann too was too Barbie.  All those wonderful outfits, homes, cars and locations all paid for by dreamers.  In Barbies world it was parents making their little girls happy.  In our world it was a reflection of a world most will never know. A world they both understood and one most of us don't. Knowing that aspiring to it was unlikely to become reality we denigrated it and turned to one who drops his "g's" thereby relating to us.  Comfort zone.  Vote for him.

I don't know what Ken did for a living in the world of toy perfection.  I do know what Mitt did and I know that in his own plastic way he'd have been better than the illusion of leadership we have today.