But Can He Bake A Cherry Pie?

Though not warm and fuzzy by a long stretch, Mitt does seem to demonstrate potential as a throwback to simpler times.

With the IBM/company man aura, the huge family with the My Three Sons vibe, the religiosity, the legacy of Dad, the connection to Detroit and America’s romance with the automobile, and the defense of the “traditional family” (and what’s wrong if Mom’s favorite space is the kitchen?), Mitt seems to have the 1950’s written all over him. Like the pancake breakfast pic that jumped out at me last September, these comfort food  photos seem to really work for Mitt.

What’s going on here, though, is not just a nostalgia play associating Mitt to simpler times. Given how impatient and temperamental he is in real life, this photo-op really is, as much as anything, about putting ribbons on rolling pins.

Update:

A  food, politics and photo aficionado I know seemed to be thinking along the same lines. Upon seeing Mitt’s photo op in the NYT, she sent me a link to this fabulous unpublished LIFE photo from 1956 by Margaret Bourke-White, remarking on the similarity of the dresses. The point being, that’s about as far as the parallel goes, the Bourke-White image blowing the idea of 50’s innocence to bits.

Via:  Black and White in Color: Segregation in 1956 South Carolina (LIFE.com)

(photo 1: Larry Downing/Reuters caption: U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney makes a cherry pie with the help of owner Linda Hundt while he visits the Sweetie-licious Bakery Cafe in DeWitt, Michigan, June 19, 2012.) photo 2: Joe Raedle/Getty Images photo 3: Margaret Bourke-White— caption:Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Not originally published in LIFE. An African-American maid prepares a white family’s supper in Greenville, SC, 1956.)