Not Understanding the Script

[POLITICS] It's sort of fun to watch the kind of mistakes Mitt Romney makes. He makes very few of them; he knows his script really well. It's only when he really has no idea how people will react to what he's that he makes an error. Like the $10,000 bet. Like saying "I like to be able to fire people." And now this: "I started off actually at the entry level, coming out of graduate school in business."

Yes, because, coming out of Harvard Business School, you really have to start at the bottom. I mean, a first year management consultant barely makes, what, six figures?

It's sort of like watching a consummate actor of the old, pre-Method acting days. Laurence Olivier was quite impressive. He had no emotional connection to his material; once he came offstage, announced that he'd cried real tears, apologized, and promised he'd never do it again. An "indicating" actor can turn in quite a good performance; but their performance can also be utterly inconsistent. The "indicating" actor has to use an intellectual analysis of the text to replace the consistency that a strong emotional connection gives.

Romney likewise seems to have no emotional connection. If he can prep enough, it's no problem. But in the cut-and-parry of a debate, he gets a bit lost, and says ridiculous things about how in his first office at Staples, poor thing, his chairs were only Naugahyde (and not, I suppose, artisanal leather).

What's odd to me is how long this all took to come out. The invisible primary has been going on for, what, a year now? Why is it only now, when it's almost too late, that the other Republican candidates are hitting him for his obvious vulnerabilities? Did no one have a David Axelrod or a Karl Rove working for them?