Who’s Mitt?

Conservative pundits don’t agree among themselves on the question “Who is Mitt Romney? Today, after Mitt’s C-Pac speech, his campaign favored Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin, an avid Romney booster all year, with a sit-down with the on-again, off-again frontrunner. She begins her account like a true homer, in unctuous tones:

“Following his very well received CPAC speech, I met with Mitt Romney in a small meeting room in the hotel where thousands of conservatives have gathered.”

She wants readers to believe this privileged access has afforded her deep insight into the pol’s deepest character traits:

“While his critics and much of the media ding him as ‘plastic,’ in person he is warmer and more at ease than the average pol. Most politicians after a big speech will pump you for compliments: ‘How was I? What d’ya think?’ Romney doesn’t do that, perhaps reflective of the fact that he really didn’t live most of his life as a politician and doesn’t crave personal approval as many who’ve spent their lives in public office do.'”

Got that? Mitt “doesn’t crave personal approval.”

But wait, what about David Brooks’s NY Times column this morning, “The Crowd Pleaser”? Drawing on The Lonely Crowd, he cites Mitt as a classic example of the “other-directed personality type . . . attuned to what other people want him to be. The other-directed person is a pliable member of a team and yearns for acceptance.”

I favor Brooks’s interpretation, but reading these pieces in succession I chuckled and wondered, “Hey, guys, which Mitt is it?”