Jonathan Tobin must be thinking of a different Mitt Romney:

The assault on Kerry worked because he was an elitist who had little sympathy for the views of most Americans….Romney is a rich guy, but for all of his wealth, he epitomizes the sort of mom and apple pie traditionalism that is hard to hate. Efforts to portray him as weird or sinister are not likely to succeed in the long run because they don’t fit in with his basic character.

According to the findings of the late June NBC/WSJ poll, Romney’s favorability numbers declined from one survey to the next:

Among the voters in our poll living in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, Obama’s lead over Romney increases to 50%-42%. Also in these swing states, Romney’s favorability numbers have dropped: A month ago, Romney’s fav/unfav score stood at 34%/38% nationally and 36%-36% in these 12 swing states. But in this latest survey, his national fav/unfav score is 33%-39% (that 39% unfav is tied with his all-time high) and 30%-41% in the swing states.”

So Romney’s favorability numbers are upside down, and they’re actually quite awful in the swing states listed above. It might be time for partisans to consider the possibility that a candidate whom more people dislike than like is not, in fact, the epitome of “the sort of mom and apple pie traditionalism that is hard to hate.” As that Robert Draper story in New York Times Magazine noted, Romney is still unknown to many voters:

What became clear was that voters had almost no sense of Obama’s opponent. While conducting a different focus group — this one with non-college-educated Milwaukee voters on the eve of Wisconsin’s April 3 primary — Burton and Sweeney were surprised to learn that even after Romney had spent months campaigning, many in the group could not recognize his face, much less characterize his positions [bold mine-DL].

Painting Kerry as an elitist worked because there was enough in his background and record to lend credibility to that description. Whatever else one wants to say about private equity firms and offshore bank accounts, no one will confuse it with “mom and apple pie traditionalism,” and it’s ludicrous to think that this is how most Americans familiar with Romney actually perceive him. When they start paying attention to Romney, most Americans will see him as the embodiment of corporate America and Wall Street, which is understandable since he is basing his entire candidacy on his experience in the corporate world.