The Anachronistic Candidate

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Mitt Romney, throwback.

Sep 10, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 48 • By PHILIP TERZIAN

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Under Obama, in particular, this has all been stood on its head. The White House is now a routine port of call for visiting celebrities, and the president of the United States will reliably “slow jam the news” with Jimmy Fallon on his late-night TV show. But is this how Americans envision the presidency? The fact that Mitt Romney tends to shrink from such spectacles, and relies on others to talk about himself, may yet prove more, not less, appealing to voters.

Philip Terzian, literary editor of The Weekly Standard, is the author of Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century.