[ari-freedom]

“The usual rap on Mr. Romney is that he’s robotic, but the real reason he can’t gain traction with voters is that they suspect he’s concealing some unnameable private doubt. “

Nope. It’s because he’s another limpwristed RINO. But Stephens can’t admit that because otherwise Mitch Daniels, Christie, etc wouldn’t be on his A team.

[andy58-in-nh]

Mitt may be a RINO (he is), but the reason that people (even other RINO's) can't seem to warm to him is the sense that he is hollow. I think that's exactly right. The man has no center, no core beliefs... other than getting himself elected.

Newt's got his own problems, but a lack of conviction is not one of them. That's the reason for his relative popularity at this moment - the sense that he's real and that he's honestly angry - as compared with Romney, who when he speaks always sounds like he's reading from a memorized script.