Insincerity

Mitt Romney re-invents himself every week.  Last week he was the rich guy in loafers, wearing no socks, commiserating with fellow Boca Ratoners about the 47% of us who mooch off the government.  This week he's in working-class Ohio feeling the pain of the same 47%: "My heart aches for the people I've seen," he said.

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, would have no trouble understanding Mitt's latest caricature.  Caulfield tells his readers, "I am always saying 'Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I met.  If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though."

It's pretty easy to spot someone who's doing everything he can, however contradictory, to stay alive.  Perhaps this is why Mitt Romney is plummeting in the polls.