MR comes across as extremely intelligent and in command of his thoughts and beliefs. He surely must be the most intelligent of the candidates. Note, that he does not hem and haw, say "eh" or have any other verbalisms designed to give him time to think. He is a very fast thinker.
That said, MR has a problem in that his staccato like speech more than covers the ground but in a rapid fire, machine gun like approach.
Admittedly, he was pressed for time so this might be part of the problem but I have seen this before. Someone has to grab him by the scruff of his neck and tell him that the average listener needs more time between words and above all he doesn't want to be labeled as a "fast talker" aka a person seen by the ordinary as a characteristic of psychopathy.
FWIW if I were MR Romney's handler I would suggest he master the first word he ever learned--CAT. An acronym for contact, awareness and finally therapeutic or political strategy.
He needs to focus on making contact his first priority. Then he can bring whatever he chooses from background to foreground. This is usually all that is required for success--including in political discourse. The idea is communicate your message after making genuine contact with the audience. Finally, what ever therapeutic strategy he works on it must be brief and effective.
One strategy he has not discovered is how to make criticism take a U turn. The trick is to say, "I am sorry you are critical about me and _____________." Then he could launch into an alternative view without being defensive. The idea is to make the questioner or critic own or accept his own criticism. This may not be easy, especially when dealing with journalists who like to cloak their questions by allegeing they belong to someone else.
In any case handling blunt assertions of a critical nature is something he has to master in the political arena. Other answers are sometime, "Oh, really" (as if this is so implausible it does not merit discussion) or "I hear your criticism but...."
Great points! I hope the Romney camp has someone reading these for serious evaluation and not knee jerk responses.
Those are excellent points, I hope his campaign considers them.
That being said, imho, Romney hasn’t spent his life as a bs artist career politician. Romney has spent the majority of his time solving problems, and growing businesses. I also think he doesn’t have to say “ah, and um” so much because he’s clear in his thoughts and doesn’t need the time to make up nonsense that he thinks his listener wants to hear.
Problem Romney will have is that no matter what he says staccato or not it will be distorted by the DBM sooner or later.
That is me to a T, md.... lol. I have to concentrate so hard when he is speaking in order to follow his thoughts. I can't think as fast as he talks!!