This item is equally frivolous, though it casts a new light on the Romney campaign’s sudden effort to suggest that the mere appearance of their candidate’s lantern-jawed, steely-eyed visage on the world stage would cow America’s enemies into respectful submission.

In a poll done by Langer Research Associates for Esquire and Yahoo that was pre-released yesterday, when asked which presidential candidate “would win in a fistfight,” 58% chose Obama and only 22% picked Romney.

Maybe all the conservative yammering about “Chicago politics” and the victimization of Mitt Romney has backfired.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.