Granted, W. stopped sipping the sauce years before he was elected, but lots of folks still felt he was a guy you could have a beer with or sip a cafecito and shoot the breeze. President Obama still has high likability ratings (even when voters aren’t going to vote for him they tell pollsters they like the guy) and he uses beer for “teachable moments,” but he, too, can seem aloof at times.

So my big plan this week is to set aside political planks and focus on the man who would be charged with comforting us and leading us out of a crisis. To find out who Romney really is, the “Real Slim Shady,” if you will, without the cursing. Is he the moderate who ruled Massachusetts and brought healthcare reform (copied by Obamacare at the national level) or the cold-blooded hardliner who cares not a whit about an immigrant kid brought here illegally by his parents, through no fault of his own, and now faces an immigration hell?

I suspect Romney is more pragmatic than anything else, swaying with the political winds, not so much leading as following the pitchfork crowd if he must.

Ever the optimist, I’m hoping he’ll prove me wrong. Some of Romney’s supporters liken him to the modern party’s standard-bearer, Ronald Reagan. In looks, maybe, but Romney doesn’t seem to have the natural wit and self-deprecating humor that Reagan (and W., too) were comfortable sharing with Americans.

Right now, Romney is our Tin Man, shiny if a little rusty on the edges, heading to Florida’s “City of Champions.” searching for a heart.

Follow me on Twitter @MyriamMarquez and on The Herald’s Facebook page during the RNC in Tampa.