Mitt the Romney

Or what Mitt considers $374,000
in annual income from speaking fees

Well, if the pollsters and pundits are right, Mitt Romney is the next Republican candidate for president.

He's got the hair, the physique, the "right" color of skin and he's filthy rich. He's right out of central casting from GOP headquarters.

But, one thing Mitt doesn't have is charisma. He lacks sincerity. He seems phony. Maybe he is.

He flip-flops so much he must need a chiropractor every day to keep his back in alignment.

As Stephen Colbert said recently, "The only difference between Mitt Romney and a statue of Mitt Romney is that the statue never changes its position."

For a man as public as Romney, we don't know much about him.

Sure, he oversaw the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002. He was governor of liberal Massachusetts from 2003-2007. He made his fortune at Bain Capital that, among things, helped ship American jobs overseas.

But, he seems unknowable.

First off, what's with his name? I thought Mitt was short for Mitthew. Or that he played catcher in baseball and had a big mitt.

Actually, his name is Willard Mitt (shorthand for Milton) Romney. 

Yes, he is a serious about his Mormon faith. His family's Mormon roots go back to the Christian sect's first decade when polygamy was an established practice among Mormons. His dad, George, was born in Mexico.

His undergraduate degree is from BYU and his post-graduate degrees are from Harvard. He took his Mormon mission in France and, yes, he can speak French.

Of course, like many men of his day, Mitt had a number of educational and religious deferments to keep him out of the military and away from Vietnam. (It's interesting to note that serving in Vietnam does not help a candidate -- see John McCain and John Kerry. But, evading service in Vietnam didn't prevent Bill Clinton or Bush II from becoming president.)

Romney was a registered Independent until his failed bid to defeat Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1994, when he became a Republican in Name Only or RINO.

He seems likable and he does have impeccable "family values."

Still, when asked during his failed 2008 campaign about why not one of his five sons didn't serve in the military during a time of two wars, he said they were "serving our country" by working on his presidential campaign.

He's been understandably leery of discussing his wealth, estimated at more than $200 million, during this presidential run. 

When asked about his income, he said almost all of it was derived from investments and that he made some money from speaking fees, "but not very much." (See the damning video here.)

That "not very much" was actually about $374,000 in 2010. 

It's the sort of thing many Americans distrust about Romney. He has little understanding of what $374,000 means to the average American.

His comment that he likes "to fire people," which was taken out of context which is SOP in all politics, the statement rang true. He's representative of the kind of man who has no qualms about sending American jobs to Communist China.

Plus, he'll have to answer why he is against "Obamacare" when his "Romneycare" was the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act.

Or, why he was against abortion, then for abortion and then against abortion in the last 20 years. Political expediency, perhaps?

His Mormon faith will likely suppress the evangelical vote, since many of those voters consider Mormonism a cult or insufficiently Christian.

But it should galvanize the female vote because the modern woman who does not appreciate any religion, especially Mormonism, that relegates women to second-class status.

Anyway, Mitt's the man, at least for Republicans.