We’re all competent scholars, and trying to do better; and we’re pretty good teachers, and most of us try to do better at that too.

Romney has been running a campaign centered on resentment, in many forms: the resentment directed at the “successful” that he imagines is driving his critics; the resentment he is trying to fan in his base voters; and, increasingly and most strangely, his own. Romney’s resentment has become a matter of temperament, of policy, and of politics. He and his wife, Ann, have made it clear that they take offense when his good will is questioned. Fixated on what he sees as the jealous motives of his critics, he misses the important truths about our economy and the reality of people’s lives that might have informed his agenda. He also reveals a great deal about himself. . . .

[In Romneyworld] Social programs are acts of pity . . .rather than investments in our futures and our communities. Perhaps this is why we are meant to be so grateful to high earners, and why Romney is affronted enough to decide that those who question the rich are beyond the reach of rationality. (It may also explain why Ann Romney thinks she can answer questions about the family’s unseen tax returns by talking about their gifts to charity.) . . . .

Any gratitude toward the country we’ve all built, Romney seems to be saying, is misplaced. Instead, the feelings Romney regards as proper ones for the rest of us to assume are a cheerful appreciation of the wealthy and an eager resolve to be just like Mitt—and also a little nicer to him. Romney has reduced the great issues of fairness and a just society to the rather boring question of whether people are being fair to him and his friends, and whether they admire his fine qualities. Among other things, this cannot help him electorally: What is less attractive than a manifestly lucky man sulking about how everyone is jealous of him?

(Emphasis mine.)

I’ve felt all along that Romney’s secretiveness and shirtiness whenever he’s questioned would be his downfall. I don’t like people like that, especially when they’re asking me to do something for them. I’ve also predicted all along that in nominating someone even Republicans don’t like, they were dooming their chances this fall. And he’s not getting any more likeable, the more we get to know him!

Your department is unique. Mine, and others I know, has about 50% capable researchers and 50% pretenders. Teaching is slightly better. As far as common sense and ability to carry out complex tasks, at most 10% are fit. What a bunch of schmucks. (From Yiddish: you better look up this one yourself…)

To use it in a sentence, “The Republican Presidential candidate has all the self-awareness of a Romney.”