Romney’s So-Called Gaffes — It’s Not Class Warfare, It’s Just What They Do
They’re not really gaffes at all. Those oddly class distancing things Mitt Romney says that have dogged him on the campaign trail among the non cento-millionaire class. It’s really quite simple to explain: Romney speaks exactly as he would to those of his social and financial class. That’s not gaffe, that’s habit.
Fitzgerald: The rich are different than you and me.
Hemingway: Yes, they have more money.
Wealthy Is As Wealthy Talks . . . Some well-known examples follow. Imagine, though, how he expresses himself when he’s really alone with his trusted buds and out of microphone distance . . .
“Rick [Perry], I’ll tell you what — ten thousand bucks? Ten thousand dollar bet?”
“Corporations are people, my friend. . .Of course, they are, Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.”
“I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners.”
“I got a lot of good friends – the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets, both owners are friends of mine.”
“I have a couple of the Cadillacs at two different houses. You know, small crossovers.”
“My income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past, whether ordinary income or earned annually. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speakers’ fees from time to time, but not very much.” [Ed. note – #327,000 in 2010]
“Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
“The idea of the federal government running around and saying, `We’re going to give you some money for trading in your old car…or we’re going to keep banks from foreclosing if you can’t make your payments . . . The right course is to let markets work.”
“As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
It’s interesting. I’ve always wondered how the super duper wealthy talk to each other when no one else is listening. If nothing else, Mitt Romney has answered that one for me.
