--Forbes announced that former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney placed fourth in their "creepiest candidate" poll. We can understand why – and it has nothing to do with Mormonism or big sticks. It's simply the fact that the man has not aged for several decades. Of course he's creepy – he's hiding a portrait in the attic!

--Romney's new "crazy eyes" ad certainly won't help him get off the creepy list. Earlier in the week, Bostonist noted the excess of passion in Romney's latest ad, in which he promised to "work like crazy." Bostonist writes, "If you watch closely with about 6 seconds left in the [campaign ad] Romney uses the phrase 'work like crazy' and simultaneously widens his eyes and gives a fairly scary hungry look of yearning for the White House."

Maybe Romney should go with his new designation as a "creep" and run with it. It's too bad that he's not calling for a vote on his campaign theme song a la Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Otherwise, we'd vote for Radiohead's "Creep"!

--Romney might be creepy, but his Republican opponents who insist on stoking Mormon Fear are even worse. Why do people have such a problem with Mormons? Rudy Giuliani's camp released an e-mail about a Mormon prophecy, and Sam Brownback's team recently did something similar.

In fact, the e-mail from one of Brownback's field directors was even more insulting than Giuliani's gaffe. The staffer wanted to investigate statements such as "the only thing Chrisitanity and the LDS church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ." Brownback has since publicly apologized, and Romney accepted the apology. Insult, apology, and acceptance of said apology is swiftly becoming a theme in the Romney campaign.

Romney's rivals - either Republican or Democrat - can critique Romney all they want, but they'd be a lot more effective if they just let Mormons mind their own business. If anything, these smears make Romney's competitors look bad.

--Last of all is Romney's association with alleged creeps. The co-chair of Romney's Utah finance committee, Robert Lichfield of Utah, has been slapped with lawsuits alleging child abuse. Lichfield runs boarding schools for troubled youth, and he may have taken the discipline way too far. Another group filed a lawsuit saying Lichfield tried to defraud them. Yep, that sounds like the kind of guy you want in charge of your pocketbook!

--And last, but certainly not least, Jay Garrity, the Romney aide who hassled an NYT reporter and who apparently liked impersonating the law, has taken a leave of absence.

Image of the "work like crazy" pose from mittromney.com.