Mitt Romney has thrilled us with his most recent recollections of his fun-filled trip to Paris. Most of his audience have never been to Paris and will probably never be; they can't afford it.

They won't miss much really. The French are rather rude and they insist on speaking French even if you shout at them in English. They just don't get it. Americans don't speak French. Or any number of other languages for that matter. We don't have to. We are No. 1. Just get it straight.

Really that trip of Mitt's brings things into perspective a little for a lot of people. Mitt isn't a regular guy like us. He's rich, he's handsome, he has a Barbie-doll kind of wife and a number of children who are also rich and handsome with beautiful wives and girlfriends.

They have nice new cars, all paid off, big houses, summer homes, job security, they work for dad, very nice health plan including dental. They aren't regular guys.

The whole family looks like it was bought from a catalogue just to get the presidential nomination. A sort of perfect presidential candidate package, the top-of-the-line product direct to you.

Most of us are a lot less perfect, we at best are mediocre, irredeemably mediocre.

We might want somebody to represent us as president who is just a regular mediocre sort of guy. We might be happier with somebody who watches a lot of football every Sunday during the season and drinks a little too much beer, maybe.

We need somebody who drives something of a clunker, has a house that needs a little work, kids who are on the edge of getting in trouble, maybe. We're the guys whose kids do all right in school; they're not setting any records, just getting by. They don't look like Mitt's catalogue models but they're all right.

We need somebody who has had it a little tough getting by. We need somebody who had to struggle a little just to get that house, keep that job, keep the marriage working, hope to steer the kid's right, without really knowing all the answers, not even all the questions.

We need somebody who like most of us is a little baffled at all life demands and deson't always seem to get it right. Not a loser, just a guy who hunkers down, and pushes through and most of the time comes out OK but just OK.

Maybe once we wouldn't have to hear about all the great things these guys did, all their achievements, all their money, their houses, their yachts, their trips to exotic places.

We might not have to look at their perfect families, with their perfect smiles, and their poise and feel sort of crummy because we aren't like that. We don't even know anybody who is like that.

We have to wonder a little how come it didn't work out quite that way for us. Maybe once we could get a guy who says, "You know it beats the hell out of me how all this got so screwed up and I don't have a clue as to how to fix it."

This whole country is filled with us average folk. We are the big looming mass of people who just struggle to get some of the things that seem to have fallen right into Mitt's mitt. He never talks about his tough times, if he had tough times. He seems to have just shown up, and bingo look at me, wow look at you.

We could use somebody we could talk to maybe, over a beer or two. We need somebody we could shoot a little pool with, or watch a good football game with, provided there are a suitable number of six packs.

We never get guys like that.

We get a lot of people who spend a lot of time showing us that their not like that, they're not like us. They have to show they are a lot better than us because we all know what a mess we would make of the place if we were in charge. Of course we are supposed to be in charge, technically at least.

One other thing is that all these guys who tell us they are so much better than us at just about everything have screwed the pooch really badly. Maybe having all that they have makes it impossible for them to know what they don't have, and what we, and they really need. A little mediocrity, a little humility maybe?

(Morgan Strong is a former professor of Middle Eastern and American History and was an adviser to CBS News program "60 Minutes" on the Middle East.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)