Romney: Just Too Rich for his own Good
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 26, 2012
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21 comments
Via CBS News:
Asked by a reporter from the Associated Press about whether or not he follows NASCAR, Romney reportedly responded "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans," he said, continuing, "But I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners."
See? He’s just reg’lar folk.
h/t: Taegan Goddard.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Come on. I’m not “rich,” and I could not possibly care less about a bunch of cars making left turns for three hours every weekend.
@Doug Mataconis: If you knew some of the team owners, you might care more.
@Doug Mataconis: Not my point (I can’t stand NASCAR either): read the last sentence of the quoted paragraph.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Yes. A politician trying to awkwardly relate to the regular folks. Happens a lot. Personally, I would rather hear a politician say “you know, I’m not really a fan of this sport”
@Doug Mataconis: Agreed, but I think this is along the same lines as his wife driving “a couple of Cadillacs” as a way of showing his allegiance to American made cars. The man is tone deaf on the wealth issue.
@Steven L. Taylor: Indeed! As they say on the radio, “and the hits just keep on comin’.”
Does he actually think of what to say? I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious.
I just thought of something that I can kind of respect in Romney. At least he doesn’t claim to be from Texas nor affect a phony accent.
@Doug Mataconis:
Yeah, but the fact that Romney is so rich and can’t hire anyone who can say to him, “Stop sounding so rich,” is rather telling on its own.
It’s not hard to sound unrich.
This just shows that Romney can manage his advisers adequately. He let his advisers talk him into saying or doing things that are blatantly stupid or awkward.
Of course, there is no one that the Republicans could nominate anyone who is going to beat President Obama. The only question for 2012 is whether Obama gets a more than 53% of the vote.
Instead of the obsessive posting about the irrelevant republicans why not post about actual issues and what the Democratic lead house and senate will be doing about them in 2013.
Romney does have a remarkably tin like ear in the context of a presidential race but he’s probably a bit perplexed why anyone should think this comment noteworthy. I can see why. It doesn’t bother me, of course he knows people who own sports teams, so the question is why is Romney’s wealth such an issue. Other wealthy men have run for president but there hasn’t been this same undercurrent or at least to the same degree. Is it his tax levels, just a sign of the times. Hard to tell but there’s no question Romney’s background at Bain (which largely revolves around financial engineering and asset stripping) and the tax issue are major millstones on his candidacy. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of these by any means. For example he’s not going to get away with producing one years tax returns in the general. This is why to some extent I think Republicans may be deluding themselves in thinking he’s a notably stronger candidate than a more obvious fruitcake like Santorum.
Given…Romney is a phoney with a tin ear.
The danger here is that it begins to look like his wealth is the issue.
IT IS NOT.
The issue is that Romney pays a lower effective tax rate on all that wealth than I do on my earnings. And his tax plan does nothing to change that…and in fact it cuts the taxes of the wealthy even more, and it does it on the backs of the poor, the sick, and the elderly.
The issue is that when he says things like this – NASCAR team owner friends, family fleet of cars, six-figure speaking fees not being very much of his total income – it reinforces the feeling that his previous “I’m just a regular guy” comments are phoney. He comes across as uncomfortable in his own skin, which is also not helped by his apparent willingness to get along with any and every Republican subculture, niche and special interest group around.
He should have had the self-respect to tell Donald Trump where he could stick his endorsement, after all the put-downs Trump threw at him. Instead Romney and his wife flew in to appear with Trump. You want to be president and you’re sucking up to this jerk? Really?
It’s stuff like this that convinces people he’s a robot – a real person would not so consistently demean his own achievements, his success and his dignity like this.
Um, I actually had a link in that last post; not sure what happened? Here it is again:
<a href="http://www.5min.com/Video/Trumps-Most-Scathing-Romney-Comments-The-Mashup-517261969“>
I wonder which owners he knows?
Yeah. Dude was born with a silver spoon in his tin ear.
tillman:
See, here’s the problem. He does have people around him who are telling him, correctly, that he is seen as robotic and he has to be more personal and ‘real.’ So how does one do that? By making an effort to be open about who you really are and how you really see yourself. So that’s what Mitt is doing when he makes these remarks.
And that brings us to the problem. The problem is not primarily that he is rich, or even how he made the money, or the low tax rate he pays. The problem is that his money is so important to him, such a critical part of his self-image. Imagine giving Romney a truth serum, and then asking him this question: ‘tell me the most important thing about yourself.’ This would he his answer, or one of his first answers: ‘I’m filthy rich.’ He sees the money as a terribly important part of who he is. By doing so, he implies that his money is a sign of self-worth, and he implies that people with less money are worth-less.
We all love money, and the GOP especially loves and worships money. But in this regard Mitt represents the GOP too well. He loves money too much. We love money and we love people who love money, but we are not comfortable with people who love money too much. To a great extent, this is why so many people find Trump repugnant.
In Mitt’s world, it’s normal to deeply love your money, and to love communicating how much you love your money, and how your life revolves around the worship and display of money (and the famous photo of Mitt and his Bain buddies literally displaying and fondling money is a nice example). Money is the meaning of life.
So the irony is that these remarks are a sincere attempt by Mitt to be real with us, to show us who he really is, to show us how he really sees himself and what really matters to him. That’s why this is a deep problem that will not go away. ‘Hide who you really are’ is advice that’s not going to work.
My comment got flagged as spam for some reason?
I’m sure Marie Antoinette was friends with some bakers.
Paging Thurston Howell III…Romney make Poppy Bush look down-to-earth…