Romney, Daytona and the CEO Circuit

So, once again, Romney couldn’t help telepgraphing his elite pedigree during a press-the-flesh visit to the Daytona speedway, stating he may not be a huge NASCAR fan, but he has “some great friends who are NASCAR team owners.”

If a lot of the media still thought the pic of the day involved Romney coming, by chance, upon a Santorum-sponsored car, still others accented Romney’s “CEO problem” by leading with the shot of Mitt and the Sprint boss:

Scouring the news wires, what I happened to notice — the race being quite a VIP affair — was the scarcity of photos from the “CEO breakfast.” This issue was probably still on my mind after Friday’s post about smoke filled rooms, and how rare it is for the visual media to document politicians rubbing shoulders with big donors and the elite of industry (often one in the same).

In this case, the technique is notable for its subtlety. Romney gets facetime, the CEO breakfast gets covered — sort of, while the elites got their anonymity preserved.

(photo 1 & 2: Chris Graythen/Getty Images caption: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (L) speaks Sprint President and CEO Dan Hesse during the driver’s meeting prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Florida. caption 2: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (C) speaks to driver Greg Biffle (L) and team owner Felix Sabates during the driver’s meeting prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. photo 3: John Harrelson/Getty Images caption: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (L) and Brian France (2ndR), CEO and chairman of NASCAR, attend a CEO breakfast prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida.. photo 4: John Harrelson/Getty Images caption: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (L) speaks Sprint President and CEO Dan Hesse during the driver’s meeting prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Florida.)