Romney needs no bump in Carroll County

     Pundits say Mitt Romney gained only a little ground in popularity as a result of the GOP convention last week, and now he and President Obama are tied in national polls. They call it a bump.
     The same pundits are saying that Obama will likely enjoy a bump after the Democrats' convention, and should pull ahead again, but it will be a close race down to the wire.
     But that's nationally, not in Carroll County. Carroll County will be tight with Mitt and you'll be seeing Mitt bumper stickers on pickup trucks for another five years, no matter who wins this November.
     What will be interesting to see, should Romney win the election, is whether he learns to relax in his skin as a politician.
     He looks uncomfortable, and I have a theory: I think he knows that political campaigns are populated by advisers who keep telling you how to act, who to be, what to say and -- more important -- what not to say, and how to clean up the mess after you've said the wrong thing.
     He's just not a natural at this image thing. Charisma is like hair; you either have it or you don't, and worrying about it just makes it harder to deal with realities.
     Romney has the hair, and the teeth, and lean fit tallness that makes muster with those who value popularity first by appearances and other superficialities. But he has to say things that don't mesh with things he has done in the past and, indeed, most likely still believes today. He has to tell the hard-core conservatives what they want to hear, and Romney chokes on the words.
     Ryan has shown that he has what it takes to campaign. He can say two things at virtually the same time and make it look like you must have missed something. He's obviously comfortable with expedient and glib rhetoric, and keeps winning a seat in Congress from a district that is considerably less conservative than the positions he pushes when he gets to Washington.
     His skills will be tested now that he is in the national spotlight, and his words and actions back home are going to be contrasted with the obstructionist, uncompromising positions that he has used in concert with other absolutists in what has been shown to be the most ineffectual congress in modern history.
     Like his colleague and another "Young Gun," Virgina Republican Eric Cantor, Ryan has great ability to revise the facts. Cantor smiled brightly and with a straight face told a public television reporter that it was Obama who refused to adopt the recommendation of the Simpson-Bowles Super committee on how to get the budget back on track. "He patted them on the head and sent them home," is the Ryan/Cantor talking point, when the fact is, it was they who voted it down in Congress. Had they been willing to build, rather than destroy, the plan would now be in effect, the so-called doomsday budget crisis would be over, and Wall Street and world markets would relax and be able to go back to working on a viable economy.
     They sank the ship, then blamed the President and democrats. It is a lie, but it's their lie and they are going to keep telling it.
    Same with the disinformation Romney's campaign people put out on the effects of the Obama plan for Medicare.The GOP claim has been branded "pants on fire, liar, liar" rhetoric by every non-partisan fact-checker covering politics, but as the Romney campaign chairman said, they're not going to let the facts get in the way of something that seems to be working for them.
     It's working for the zealots on the Right, but what about the rest of us?
     And is it giving Romney a bad taste in his mouth? I hope so.
     Ryan still has his supporters, but after his convention speech, a number of observers expressed the same thoughts expressed by syndicated columnist Mark Shields, who said Ryan has enjoyed respect until now for his reputation as a truth-teller, but his loose interpretation of truth in his convention comments have undermined that.
     Ryan was chosen because the extreme Right loves him. His ability to turn half truths and incomplete anecdotes into political fodder shows him to be capable of creating chaos if not a solution to complex issues. That's what the hard core wants.
     Romney wants desperately, I believe, to be President to all the people, and it grates on him to play the games that this new breed of obstructionist Republicans demand of him.
    I have to wonder if he'd get another bounce if he told us all what he really thinks and believes, and lets the chips fall where they may.
    It won't make a difference in Carroll County, because there are enough Republicans here who don't want to be confused with the facts. Ryan's their boy, along with Cantor and the rest of the worst congress ever.