The “aw shucks,” “just one of the guys” act put on by the richer than Croesus candidate is killing him.
As Romney, who likes to fire people, mixes it up with Americans, it’s becoming clear how out of touch he really is. His verbal gaffes make Rick Perry proud. [The entertainment value of the GOP campaign will be seriously diminished without Rick. America can’t depend on the antics of Ron Paul, who has no shot at the White House.]This week’s Romney bombshell of dismissing $374K in speaker’s fees as “not very much” money resonates with people. The AFL-CIO reports that a working family with a media income of $49,445 would have to work seven years to equal Romney’s one-year take of speaker’s fees.
There is nothing legally wrong with Romney’s disclosure of paying a 15 percent capital gains rate. It just reinforces the perception among many that the game is rigged toward one-percenters like Mitt.
While Romney parks “millions of dollars in personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven,” according to ABC News today, America’s married working stiffs pay a 25 percent tax on income from $68,000 to $137,300K, 28 percent on income from $137,300 to $209,250 and 33 percent on $209,250 to $373,650. What a bunch of losers, hey Mitt?
What did Romney say about his tax advantage? “If there’s an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity,” he said in New Hampshire. The typical American doesn’t have the same battery of financial advisors as the former Governor of Massachusetts must have. More importantly, Americans expect more from a person who is running for leadership of the country than “I am just following the tax rules.”
Romney will never be a man of the people. That’s okay.
But he does have to present himself as an authentic person, a guy who shouldn’t joke with a bunch of jobless people about being unemployed. Romney’s hokum rankles people.
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