He doesn't jazz me.
Doesn't wow me.
Doesn't excite me.
If I had a dime for every time I heard that description of Mitt Romney...well, I'd have a lot of dimes...not serious Mitt Romney dimes...but you get the picture...for many, the straight arrow Mormon former Massachusetts governor doesn't fit the "charisma" picture.
He admits as much himself...
Recently embracing, in an interview with me, his inner nerd. A business wonk with a knack for data...not a knack for drama.
The question is, should he become the Republican nominee, how Mitt Romney stacks up against a guy whose mastery of math might be in question...but his magic with words is not.
Because say what you will of Barack Obama...he's got charisma.
And say kindly what you will of Mitt Romney...he does not.
...which might be ok...
Because after the rock star, Americans might be more in the mood for rock solid.
Again, I’m not saying the president "isn't" solid. I am saying the president "is" a star.
Thing is, stars fade. And this year, maybe a non-star could shine.
It's all about timing.
Just ask Jimmy Carter. Would this obscure former Georgia governor have ever made it, if Watergate-weary voters simply hadn't had it?
Did it help a young John Kennedy running for president that he stood in stark contrast to the much, much older guy who for eight years had been president?
Would Americans have put their hunch on an actor named Reagan, if they hadn't tired of the disaster that proved President Carter?
Sometimes, the moment makes the man.
Or is it, the man makes the moment?
Again, hard to say. This much is not.
Those who make it to our highest office don't always get their on their own pizzazz.
Sometimes, all it takes is running against a guy...who voters seem to think...has lost his pizzazz.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox