Late Night: Mitt Romney delivers Top 10 list

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It’s become something of a tradition for American presidential candidates to willfully submit themselves to ridicule, to prove they don’t take themselves too seriously. Who knows if the capacity for self-deprecation is actually a valuable asset in a president, but it seems like a requirement on the campaign trail. So it was that Mitt Romney, who’s been pigeonholed as the handsome-but-charmless candidate, stopped by ‘The Late Show’ Monday night to deliver the Top 10 list. The theme: ‘Top 10 Things Mitt Romney Would Like To Say To The American People.’

Several of the entries, like No. 10: ‘Isn’t it time for a president who looks like a 1970s game show host?’; and No. 1: ‘It’s a hairpiece,’ were riffs on Romney’s cartoonish good looks. Others, like No. 9: ‘What’s up, gangstas -- it’s the M-I-Double-Tizzle,’ were funny because of their contrast with Romney’s square image. No. 2 was the only entry that seemed like something Romney might honestly be thinking: ‘Newt Gingrich? Really?’

As for Romney’s performance, the former Massachusetts governor was as wooden as ever, though he earned points for his willingness to play along. The Times’ Maeve Reston assesses the politics of Romney’s cameo.

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-- Meredith Blake
Twitter.com/MeredithBlake