Mitt Romney is willing to say and do a lot of distasteful things to pander to Republican voters, but lighting his hair on fire apparently isn't on the table.
At a rare campaign press conference this morning, a reporter asked Romney about his difficulties in generating excitement among GOP voters. The candidate replied, "It's very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments. We've seen throughout the campaign, if you're willing to say really outrageous things that are accusative, attacking of President Obama, that you're going to jump up in the polls. You know, I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support."
It struck me as an odd thing to say. The not-so-subtle implication is that Republicans are an excitable bunch, easily manipulated by rabble-rousers and extremist rhetoric.
That's not an unreasonable assessment of the GOP base, but it's unusual for leading Republican presidential candidates to characterize his own party's base as impressionable rubes.
As for Romney's reluctance to light his hair on fire, Jesse Berney joked that the candidate doesn't seem to mind his pants being on fire.