COMMENTARY | According to CNN , Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made the woeful error of uttering "I like to fire people" when describing how consumers should be able to "fire" insurance providers that have fallen out of their favor. The worst part? It comes right before the New Hampshire GOP primary, which occurs today. And Romney's Republican competitors have not given him a free pass on the gaffe: As the front-runner after winning the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, the former governor of Massachusetts is being slammed by rhetorical blows from his five remaining challengers.
It's always bad to make a clumsy and callous-sounding comment when the race is yours to lose, but Romney's unique circumstances make the line particularly damaging. As a handsome, wealthy, Northeastern business mogul who has a family fortune and a father who ran for president, Romney was aptly painted by GOP rival Mike Huckabee in 2008 as appearing to voters like "the boss who laid them off," reports the New York Times.
Romney lost the 2008 Republican nomination to John McCain, who was significantly less handsome and well-coiffed. Perhaps Huckabee's assertion that voters preferred to vote for someone who reminded them of a co-worker instead of a boss was right? Now, if Romney's opponents are lucky, Huckabee's quote from yesteryear will go viral once again.
The errant comment comes at a moment when former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who lost Iowa by only eight votes, according to ABC News, stands poised to create trouble in New Hampshire and South Carolina for the entrenched front-runner. Romney's margin of victory in the Hawkeye State was far too narrow for comfort and Santorum (and everyone else, for that matter) undeniably looks much more co-worker than boss, something that might be noticed by rankled New Hampshire and South Carolina voters before heading to cast their ballots.
Aside from the fact all of his rivals look more "co-worker" than he does, Romney faces additional pain caused by his verbal gaffe erasing some of the direct work he has been doing for months: Trying to appear nonelitist. The New York Times says the usually formal and cautious candidate has been making great effort to appear more casual and in-touch with typical voters, which was a decided weakness during his unsuccessful '08 bid for the GOP nomination.
Will voters still go for a boss in co-worker's clothing, or have his supervisory teeth scared them away?
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