Voices
HOWARD
FINEMAN
HUFFINGTON
11.04.12
Race
to the
Bottom
I HAD MY FIRST SIT-DOWN with
Barack Obama in his Senate office. The sun was streaming in. He
came around from behind his desk
with that beaming smile, his tie
loosened. He sat in a deep chair,
his feet up on the coffee table. I
was taken with his confidence,
talent, grasp of the issues and
buoyant charm: the real deal.
That was early in 2007.
Later that year I sat down with
Mitt Romney on the Republican
primary-season campaign trail. I
had interviewed him years earlier,
at his suburban Boston home. He
hadn’t changed a bit: chilly smile,
ILLUSTRATION BY LESLIE HERMAN
wary but gracious, well-informed,
a mix of a steely mind, ferocious
ambition and earnest Mormon
good will: a class act.
Today I ask: Where did those
two men go? Or were they mirages? The way both have campaigned this year makes me wonder. Is there something about the
Howard
Fineman is
the editorial
director
of the
Huffington
Post Media
Group