I spent yesterday riveted by the Mitt Romney Boca Raton video.  It was almost too good to be true.  If the resolution hadn’t been so bad, I would have suspected it was manufactured.  It was just too perfect – confirming every negative assessment of the Romney character that’s been made since his campaign began.

Fun fact:  “Boca Raton” translates directly to “mouth of the rat.”  Seems fitting, doesn’t it?  

Even better, Mitt didn’t walk back from his statements.  Most of the media said he “doubled down” (an expression that I’d like to see retired completely, by the way).  To be honest, though, he didn’t.  He did that much clumsier – and I think sleazier – maneuver that the conservatives have employed so often.  He tried to reinforce the part of his comments that were relatively innocuous while ignoring the truly offensive parts.

Wasn’t this exactly what they did in the aftermath of the Todd Akin blooper?  Home in on the sanctity of life argument while pretending all that talk about “legitimate” rape and spermicidal secretions was an incidental slip of the tongue.

Romney said his comments were “inelegantly put,” and a number of other prominent Republicans have agreed.  But if you’ve seen the video or heard the audio, the striking thing is how smoothly he makes the case against the 47% of Americans who see themselves as victims, believe the government should take care of them and who can’t be convinced to take responsibility for their lives.  Up to now, I’ve been struck by how haltingly, almost ditheringly, Romney speaks when answering press questions.  There was none of that in this section of the Boca Raton video.  He spoke directly, definitively and without hesitation.  Unlike his public appearances, he didn’t seem to have any reservations about what he was saying or how he was saying it.  It also sounded like something he’d thought through a long time ago.

As the day progressed yesterday, the conservative pundits and surrogates kept trying to highlight the “small government versus big government” philosophy that was hinted at in Romney’s comments while shrugging off his slap at half of the country.  They said that the American people know this is what he meant, however poorly he stated it.  To that I have one thing to say:  “Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life.”  Remember that one?  Conservatives took that one for quite a few spins around the block without ever admitting they knew Hilary Rosen meant Mrs. Romney had never worked outside the home.

And don’t get me started on “You didn’t build that.”

I can’t help wondering what it is that has drawn a man into public life when he so clearly wants to remain as private as possible.  There are plenty of reasons to want to take the White House including the “Dad didn’t make it, so I will” motive peculiar to Romney, but nothing comes without a cost.  In politics, one cost is loss of privacy.  How can anyone run for office in the 21^st century without knowing that?  For that matter, I don’t know why anyone in 2012 doesn’t assume that there’s someone nearby with a cell phone or a mini-cam ready to record any embarrassing or incriminating thing they may do.  I think that’s been the norm since Rodney King.

I expect it’s too late to make a significant difference now, but I still think Mitt should seriously consider removing the veil.  Whoever he really is, his public persona just keeps getting shadier and shadier, which is probably not the way he wants to be remembered.