One of them needs to dress in a cowboy hat and boots. Maybe Republicans could then end their indecisiveness about the party’s presidential nominee.
More than any other character, Americans love a cowboy.They prefer somebody a little wild, like Ronald Reagan. He had swagger. He often rode his horse in California during escapes from the White House, and the Soviet Union worried he was really a gunslinger with nuclear warheads.
George W. Bush wore cowboy clothes at his ranch in Texas but never looked comfortable under the hat. He was a little wild though.
The leading candidate this year, Mitt Romney, is dully tame. Asked to give a one-word description of himself during a debate in Arizona last week, he said, “Resolute.”
Boring. That’s why Republicans have flirted with every other suitor who has come along, hoping for someone with pizzazz. Romney is the All American boy in a button-down collar and polished shoes. Voters for a while preferred bad boy Newt Gingrich despite his string of extra-marital dalliances. He can speak eloquently on any subject, always throwing in historical references and talks tough on President Obama, who is as much a city slicker as we’ve ever had as President.
Romney has impeccable credentials. He’s a political blue blood — son of a governor of Michigan and was elected governor of Massachusetts. He rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from financial ruin. His business acumen is undisputed. He is a family man. Not a hint of scandal has ever touched him.
Yet he wears pressed jeans. “Mom jeans,” some have called them. Bought at Gap. He should at least wear Levis. Or Carhartts if he’s going to a fancy place.
Opponent Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania is even less of a cowboy. He wears sweater vests and talks about birth control, a topic that misses the issue most voters care about — the economy. He’s running for acolyte-in-chief. We’ve never elected a President with a halo.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, known for skewering pompous politicians, panned Santorum on Sunday. She quoted a GOP strategist: “Republicans being against sex is not good. Sex is popular.”
Only four Republicans are still standing in the grueling nominating process that has included 20 debates …