Friday, June 17, 2011

Poor Mitt, Poor Us

I've said for a while now that the GOP presidential nomination is Mitt Romney's to lose. This week it appears that he's working in that direction. His quip about being unemployed is about as tone deaf a comment, no matter how lighthearted, made in a long time. And the fact that he made the comment in a room filled with unemployed people only made it worse.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats were quick to pounce on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s remark in Tampa on Thursday that he can relate to the jobless because “I’m also unemployed.”

“I’m networking,” Romney reportedly told a small gathering of job seekers. “I have my sight on a particular job.”


The former governor is hardly suffering from his current lack of employment. He doesn't have to worry about losing his home or feeding his family. He can spend his time raising hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to keep his campaign going. He can fly in a private jet, if he chooses, to the next speech or meet-and-greet. He can choose whatever he wants from the menu without worrying about the cost.

It was a stupid, deeply insensitive set of remarks, and the Democrats were only too happy to jump all over them. He deserved what they had to say, but, to be fair, I'm not so certain the Democrats get it either. Their behavior sure hasn't shown that they can relate to the unemployment problem wracking the country. Instead of designing programs which would immediately put people back to work repairing infrastructure and building innovative green energy projects, everyone in Congress and the White House has been busy giving tax breaks to the wealthy and to businesses who are only too happy to spend that money in other countries.

Mitt may remain unemployed, but I can think of a whole lot of others on the government payroll who deserve that prospect come November, 2012.

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