It works in Colorado and may draw a national constituency.
“Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper stood in front of a slew of cameras hours after the carnage in an Aurora movie theater and struggled to find words:
‘The victims of this senseless act of ... of violence ...’
Hickenlooper stumbled, then gave up. ‘Again, there just aren’t words,’ he said.
The governor's remarks, at a news conference last Friday, sounded even more unfocused by comparison with the crisp report delivered minutes later by Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates.
But his halting performance on the national stage did not seem to bother the governor’s constituents. On the contrary, the geeky Democrat with the funny name has earned high marks from Colorado voters precisely because he's unpolished, unscripted and slightly awkward - all of which makes him seem authentic and, especially in recent days, genuinely empathetic, political analysts say.
Hickenlooper consistently earns favorability ratings of 60 percent or higher in a state where the electorate is roughly divided in thirds among Democrats, Republicans and independents. That makes him one of the most broadly popular governors in the country; he's sometimes mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2016.
Watching him at the news conference, wearing rumpled shirt sleeves and fumbling to find the right tone, outsiders might have said ‘He was not as professional as he could be,’ said Floyd Ciruli, an independent pollster in Denver. ‘But that is pure Hickenlooper. He is in no way artificial or practiced.’ (Stephanie Simon, Reuters, July 25)
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