Mitt Romney, Obvious Elitist

The first three paragraphs of an L.A. Times piece about a Romney fundraiser could've been written by a Democratic ad copy writer -- not because it's so biased, but because the facts fit the Democratic narrative of Romney as the candidate of the 1% so well. It's hard to counter the "out-of-touch, wealthy elitist" charge when you actually are an out-of-touch, wealthy elitist.


As protesters assembled on a beach in advance of Mitt Romney's evening event at the home of conservative billionaire David Koch, the candidate slipped to East Hampton for his first of three fundraisers on this tony stretch of Long Island.

The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman's estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman's property -- the Creeks -- checked off names under tight security.

They came with high hopes for the presumed Republican nominee, who is locked in a tight race with President Obama. And some were eager to give the candidate some advice about the next four months.


The only variation from Democratic messaging would be the conclusion of the final paragraph. You don't buy the right to give "advice" with a minimum $25,000 ($75,000 for an evening fundraiser), you're probably looking to buy the right to give marching orders.

But let's continue to call it "advice" -- with quotes -- to avoid falling into the bad punditry trap of mindreading. So here's the bulk of that "advice": kindly remember that people who aren't rich are morons and you shouldn't listen to them.


A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies—everybody who’s got the right to vote—they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income—one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”


Writes Zandar at Balloon Juice, "On one level, she’s right.   We’re just too dumb to get how we’ve been mauled economically by people in Range Rovers with East Hampton beach permits.  If we truly understood that nearly 95% of the economic income growth over the last few years went to just the top 1% in this country, if we truly grasped what that meant, we’d be out there playing 'Who Wants To Pitchfork A Millionaire?'

"Sadly, a great many of us are engaged in Stockholm Syndrome with these bozos."

Apparently, what we're all too dumb to understand is that this supply side BS about "trickle-down" and "job creators" is true, true, true, true. Sure, it's not happening now, but it's going to any minute now. Just you wait and see. The problem is that we've got this Barack HUSSEIN Obama commie in the White House and that's stopping the wealth from trickling down from on high because -- well, voodoo or something. Economics are far too complicated for us peasants to understand, of course.

Because, if the argument were actually factual, we'd be awash in trickled-down wealth this very minute. Mittens himself inadvertently spilled the beans about that.


[CNN:]

The reception and dinner in Southampton and lunch at Perelman’s estate in East Hampton were private events and closed to reporters. During the reception in the afternoon, Romney was speaking outside when CNN and another reporter overheard his remarks to people gathered under a tent on a tennis court.

“By the way, you guys are doing fine,” Romney was heard saying at Sobel’s beachfront home. “If you’re here, by and large you’re doing just fine. And I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about those that are doing as well as you guys are, or how I’m doing, but I spend a lot of time worrying about those that are poor and those in the middle class that are finding it hard to make a bright future for themselves.”


Never mind that this is yet another flip-flop from Romney (he cares about the poor now!), consider the incoherent reasoning -- if rich folks are "doing fine," why isn't everyone else? If that money's not trickling down now, it's never going to. This supply side stuff is snake oil; it never has worked, it isn't working now, and it never will work.

What is working is a massive transfer of wealth from you to the already wealthy. There's no "trickle down," it's all "gusher up." Fix the economy? Ask that question at one of these Koch-hosted fundraisers and they'd probably give you a blank stare, answering, "Why? What's wrong with it?" "Doing fine" is a tremendous understatement -- they're thriving.

If Mitt Romney wants Democrats to stop saying he's the candidate of wealthy elites, it'd probably be a good idea to stop running as one (at a Koch brother estate in the Hamptons, no less). Because, until then, the Democratic campaign ads are going to keep writing themselves.

-Wisco

[image credit: DonkeyHotey via Flickr]