Politico's Simon: Romney "up close ... is almost overpowering. He radiates vigor"

In a February 13 column for The Politico, chief political columnist Roger Simon claimed former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney "looks so much like a president would look if television picked our presidents (and it does) that sometimes you have to ask yourself if you are watching the real deal or a careful construction," as noted by blogger Atrios (Media Matters for America senior fellow Duncan Black).

Simon continued:

Romney has chiseled-out-of-granite features, a full, dark head of hair going a distinguished gray at the temples, and a barrel chest. On the morning that he announced for president, I bumped into him in the lounge of the Marriott and up close he is almost overpowering. He radiates vigor.

Romney announced his 2008 presidential candidacy on February 13 at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

As Media Matters for America previously documented, on the January 3 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, Simon's colleague, Politico chief political writer Mike Allen, said that Romney "looks like a president."

Additionally, on the January 19 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews said of Romney: "He has the perfect chin, the perfect hair, he looks right. He looks like a Mountie. He looks like from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police."

From the January 19 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: What do you think of him as an opponent? We're looking at him right now. He has the perfect chin, the perfect hair, he looks right. He looks like a Mountie. He looks like from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Can that guy capture the hearts of the American people, Steve McMahon?

STEVE McMAHON (Democratic strategist): That's a question that remains to be seen. He certainly does look presidential. I guess my question would be, are the Republicans in -- around the country clamoring for a Massachusetts liberal? Because that's what --

—S.P.