Mitt Romney has been running for president since he left the Massachusetts governorship in January 2007.
So why does he need to take six days off the campaign trail in order to prep for the debate next week?
Here is a screenshot of Mitt's official calendar:
OK, so maybe there are a lot of fundraising events behind closed doors in that period - they don't typically get posted to this calendar. But there is an unofficial calendar available on the Politico website, presumably based on what the traveling press corps knows about Romney's schedule. It lists one fundraiser, in DC, tomorrow, as the only event on Romeny's schedule between the end of today and the first debate.
After 5.75 years of running for President, how is it possible that Romney needs this much time to prep for the debate?
My answer is simple: his staff believes that he needs a lot of physical rest in order to be ready for the debate.
In 1968 Romney was in a car accident and received head trauma severe enough to put him in a coma. There is circumstantial evidence that he is suffering the after-effects of that brain trauma to this day. His awkward personality. His volcanic temper that Ann has to "manage". His forgetfulness. His bizarre circumlocutions.
Many of Mitt's most famous incidents of inexplicable behavior happened in the first quarter of this year, when he was maintaining a pretty normal campaign schedule, with only three or four days off the trail each month. The singing, "the trees are the right height", the NASCAR gaffes I and II all date from this time.
In the last 6 months he has only campaigned two days out of every three. (In making those calculations I used the Politico calendar, as it is more thorough than the "official" calendar. I included every day he had nothing on his schedule but a fundraiser as a work day.)
I think his staff has concluded he simply has to be rested in order prevent future dimbo eruptions.
Of course, the plan isn't working very well. Remember when he went to London? Of course you do. Jet-lagged and in unfamiliar surroundings, the gaffe-count went off the chart.
And of course this week we all enjoyed Mitt's musings about the pity of airplanes not having roll-down windows. Is it coincidence that this happened after a pretty tough week? Here's a screenshot of a disheveled Mitt at his 47% tape "clean up" press conference:
That doesn't look a man who is sleeping very well at night to me.
My conclusion is that Mitt Romney's campaigning indicates that he is physically not up to the demands of the most stressful job in the world. Yes, there are also a million other reasons to not vote for him. But this one should not be ignored. Republicans, why don't you do a better job of vetting your candidates?