One of the first readers to read Raise the Gipper! all the
way through has come in with a question: did I wish someone other than Romney
was going to be inevitable, because he's such a bland target?
Well, yes and no.
See, Romney to me seems a lot like Hubert Humphrey, Al Gore,
and various other super-sincere careerist figures: there's not even a void
inside the suit. The role has
eaten the person completely. (Part
of why I like the metaphor of an empty brainpan full of bugs in other parts of
the book). And in a real sense I think the 'pubs couldn't
have nominated anyone who would make the book more possible. The base is deeply turned off by
someone whose appeal boils down to "Dull-minded people who are not paying
attention will find him acceptable."
It's like Top 40 pop or network TV were at one time; it's about not
losing an audience, not about exciting one. So he's the guy who makes the whole thing plausible, the
Charlie Brown/Rodney Dangerfield Omega Candidate.
There'd have been more to shoot at with a nutcase Alpha like
Santorum or Bachmann or Perry. And
desperately loserish crazies like Gingrich and Paul are so perfectly Betas – the
natural butt of jokes – that I had to eliminate Gingrich after one long scene
lest he take over the book. So,
Romney's not the target he could have been – but he's a pretty peg to hang the
comedy on. Kind of like the way
Charles Schultz put Charlie Brown through the wringer of being
"wishy-washy" and having a "failure face" and all that, but
ultimately Snoopy, Lucy, and Linus carried the act.
