He was born, raised, and worked all his life in a very wealthy, elitist bubble where he could get away with anything (including bullying his school mates) and firing subordinates at his pleasure. CEOs don't have to explain themselves to their subordinates. The skills of financial engineering and running a command organisation are somewhat different to running a political campaign.

He is very comfortable in, and exemplifies, many of the cultural attributes of the WASP elite and country club set which is increasing divorced from a rapidly diversifying US population.

Successful business leaders are almost revered in the US with an obsequious media and social milieu. That can also get you quite far in politics (ONCE) but re-election is more difficult.

Nevertheless it was appalling to see how inept his performance in Britain and Israel where. He had simply no idea how offensive he was being to host sensibilities. And he had spent some years as a Mormon missionary in France so you might have expected more sensitivity to cultural differences. There is a difference between financial and emotional intelligence and Romney is notoriously one dimensional in that regard.

But if you look at the other GOP candidates for the Presidency - Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Hermann Cain, Rick Perry- the standard is appallingly low. Newt Gingrich had some demonstrated abilities, although notoriously unstable.

The problem with having a corporate culture taking over the political space is that you don't have to be very bright to be a CEO or a front of house representative. In fact too great an intelligence can be a distinct disadvantage.

Index of Frank's Diaries