If Mitt Romney Calls You 'a Nice Guy,' Brace Yourself

It kind of makes sense to let his super PAC do all the dirty work if the best insult the determined-to-be-likable Mitt Romney can come up with is, "He's a nice guy, but ..."

It kind of makes sense to let his super PAC do all the dirty work if the best insult the determined-to-be-likable Mitt Romney can come up with is, "He's a nice guy, but..."

Monday night Romney was crisscrossing Ohio, when he spoke about the President and opened up a can of... friendliness: "This is a failed presidency," Romney was quoted as saying. "He's a nice guy, but he's in over his head." Though we'll never know if Romney actually believes any part of that unsult, we do know that "Nice guy" has become the candidate's favorite setup when taking a dig at his rivals.

In January, when Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped out of the race all Romney could come up with was, "He's a nice guy." And more recently when dueling with the other Rick, Romney was quoted as saying, "Senator Santorum is a nice guy, but he's never had a job in the private sector." Obviously it'd be weird calling Michele Bachmann a "nice guy" and there doesn't seem to be any "nice guy" rhetoric or love lost with Newt Gingrich. Last month, CNN asked Josh Romney about the negative attacks on Gingrich. He proved that the "nice guy" crutch might run in the family: "I don't think President Obama was going to be much nicer to [Gingrich] if he were to win the nomination ... My dad is a nice guy." The younger Romney's "nice guy" departs from the elder's in that it seems to actually mean what it sounds like it means.

On the other hand, Chad Romney, a cousin of Mitt's and an avid Ron Paul supporter, employed the family phrase in Mitt's classic style: "I don’t dislike Mitt at all," Chad Romney said. “He seems like a nice guy. He just doesn’t understand the constitution like Ron Paul." Nice.