Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has some hurdles to overcome if you believe a recent Washington Post/ABC poll giving him only a 34 percent favorable rating and a 50 percent unfavorable rating among respondents. That’s much lower than John McCain, George W. Bush and Bob Dole, the three previous candidates who competed for the Republican Party’s nomination.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC, New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman interpreted that data to mean that the Republican Party has become radicalized, and that Romney isn’t doing much for to make a case for his authenticity.
“I think it’s two things,” Friedman said. “I think it is the fact that in my view the Republican Party is no longer a conservative party. It’s become a radical party on a lot of these key issues. That’s number one. And number two, I just came back from New Zealand, OK. You have people living in the outback of Australia who would look at Mitt Romney, say, ‘Haha. Not authentic.’ I mean, it is just so obvious. I mean, you know this is a guy who’s running against everything he’s believed his whole life. And it’s just so staggeringly [obvious].”