Romney to Unemployed: I'm really one of you!
Awwww, how utterly populist of Mitt Romney. During a Florida event he "felt the pain" of the unemployed by sharing his shameful secret: he's also unemployed. Of course, with $200 million in the bank and a few houses around the country, maybe he's not quite as desperate as some of them, but nevertheless, he's their guy because he shares their pain.
TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.
“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”
He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.
“Are you on LinkedIn?” one of the men asked.
“I’m networking,” Mr. Romney replied. “I have my sight on a particular job.”
Steve Benen reminds everyone of how Romney made his millions:
But when an extremely wealthy person jokes to people who are actually struggling about being “unemployed,” it rankles. Indeed, Mitt Romney became extremely wealthy in a way that seems relevant to this discussion.
“You see, Romney made a Mittload of cash using what’s known as a leveraged buyout. He’d buy a company with ‘money borrowed against their assets, groomed them to be sold off and in the interim collect huge management fees.’ Once Mitt had control of the company, he’d cut frivolous spending like jobs, workers, employees, and jobs. […]
“Because Mitt Romney knows just how to trim the fat. He rescued businesses like Dade Behring, Stage Stories, American Pad and Paper, and GS Industries, then his company sold them for a profit of $578 million after which all of those firms declared bankruptcy. Which sounds bad, but don’t worry, almost no one worked there anymore.
“Besides, a businessman can’t be weighed down with a bleeding heart. As one former Bain employee put it, ‘It was very clinical…. Like a doctor. When the patient is dead, you just move on to the next patient.’”
Really, joking about being unemployed sort of grates a bit given how many jobs Romney has killed over the years. As Ezra Klein points out, it's not his jokes so much as his economic analysis and values that are the problem. And
Romney just showed just how out of touch his values are with the rest of America.
How could those people at that table not give him a big fu*k you after he said that. I sure as hell would have.
Was he trying to do a bill clinton, " I feel your pain"? Talking about being without a job when you have a poop load of money isn't saying I feel your pain, it's saying, Look I can make a joke at your expense.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
(EOM)
is intended to be a factual statement
Poor unemployed multi-millionaire with enough money to feed a small state. Cue violins.
far left loon >.<
I remember working for a company one time and the new CEO just moved from another state to CA.
There he was up at the microphone trying to complain about how much it cost to live here.. "Holy cow, I can't believe the price of homes." Then the sound of all these imbeciles laughing at his stupid joke.
I'm looking around at all these nodding head morons thinking, "really, you're laughing at this multi-millionaire complaining about housing??"
It would be difficult for me to come up with a name of a person who is as tone deaf as Mitt Romney.He seems to be trying to lose something that is his if he just shuts the fuck up. Bachmann is going to beat him.
...but that certainly doesn't mean he doesn't have "income"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
He can easily live off the bank interest. That's what's really disgusting.
your immediate family of 89 can, Mittens.
Janek
And we intend to keep you that way for a very long time. Just how delusional can he be? He is a multimillionaire who has multiple million dollar plus mansions in the U.S. and compare himself to your average middle class unemployed voter. WOW!!! Talk about being self-centered! This is a man who made millions by selling failing companies at fire sale prices and selling off assets and plants and laying off the employees. Words have failed me in trying to understand this freakazoid.
See my first post above.
is intended to be a factual statement
What a jerk.
but ignorance of the real issues those folks are facing. He and those like him are so out of touch they can't even fathom what it's like to be unemployed and can't pay the rent and feed their families.
Whatever Romney says...assume that he's lying.
He said, "I'm really one of you." But did he say he's not a witch? He's sadly lacking in self promotion skills. You gotta say I'm you AND I'm not a witch, if you want anybody to take notice.
That goes without saying doesn't it ? Applies to all right wingers / Republicans . It's their MO after all .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
It isn't like he can be honest about it. What is he supposed to do go to the unemployed and say:
"Hey, I probably own the company that laid some of you off! I am enormously rich because I made money flipping companies after laying off most of their work force! I pretend to feel your pain but really I am just trying to figure out which of my mansions I want to sleep in today. Speaking of homes, you will probably lose yours soon. As a Republican, I feel that you are should do a society a favor and really just die. But vote for me first.
Our agenda to to eliminate unemployement, unions, child labor laws, any regulation (so more of you can get fired), and healthcare is custom designed to do nothing for you, have little impact on the deficit but my rich friends will be very happy. As the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and our Fox friends have spent years telling you, happy rich people means that one day we might make you happy. But not with jobs. They hurt the bottom line to much but maybe with something else. Survival of the richest...err I mean fittest, right! That is the American way!
So vote for me. I will bend you over backwards in the raping I plan to give you but at least I will protect you from whatever boogie man Fox News helps us come up with next year!"
He's delusional!
Well Mittens hasn't had a job in five years. He is long term hard core unemployed multimillionaire.
He spent $42 million of his own money on his last campaign. Just regular folk. See he is just unemployed like everybody else.
This guy has no shame. Even if he never liquidated thousands of jobs he is wealthy and unemployment means something very different to an unemployed single mother than what it means to Romney.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
botched campaigns. I hope to see more of the same. $42m on a job whose return monetarily is $400k per annum last time I checked. ANd this incompetent job killing fuck got $0 back.
May all your future endeavors be as successful, Mittens. Just for payback on the dog in the crate on top of your car, asshole.
me-oww!
"May all your future endeavors be as successful, Mittens. Just for payback on the dog in the crate on top of your car, asshole."
But it was airtight! Honestly, that's what he said. Airtight!
These people are evil and stupid.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
When the repubs say their #1 priority is jobs, they simply mean their own.
None of those people gathered at the table kicked him in the nuts? They're too fucking stupid to have jobs.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
who have ended the jobs of 1000s, and who enjoy condescending to those way less fortunate than them. You'll find the unemployed saying the same to Somali nationals, Syrians, Libyans and the like, for example.
me-oww!
Where's Ricky or Jack or Peter G.? Can't wait for the justification squad to chime in on this one.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
but the pro business side is bound to be here soon.
Ripping C&L and all of us commentors on his blog.
Love you too ,Jack
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..now they are feeding us chicken crap- sign my petition:
https://www.change.org/petitions/usda-stop-th...
www.ickenittlepost.com
What is it - pro business weekly?
Tee hee. I'm not the only one who's noticed, I see.
far left loon >.<
Do we have to pass some kind of a purity test here at C & L now ? Would be useless and pretty fricking boring if everyone just said ditto wouldn't it ?
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
If he were truly unemployed he couldn't afford that hair.
the unemployed he was sitting with, unemployed CEOs that missed the boat to China?
Why wasn't he protesting with the others that the media is ignoring, with stupid stories like this?
He'll spiff up the balance sheet by axing all public services and infrastructure projects, sell the remaining pieces and parts off to the highest bidders, and move to southern France when it all comes crashing down after 4 years.
France? What sort of a cheese eating surrender monkey do you think he is? Europe? France?! Pshaw. I'm sure there are multiple tin pot born again dictators that will let him set up some fancy estate on some African coastline. Or even easier than that, he'll just end up in some backwater US town full of people that watch Fox News.
You know, he was really roughing it.
Mitt, you are not one of us. We don't have millios tat are in accounts earning enough interest we can live your lifestyle. We don't have three luxurious homes in three differents states. Hell Mitt, we couldn't afford the taxes on one of your homes dude!
Fact is Mitt, we don't even have magic undrewear like you. So, you delusional bastard, America, the real America is nothing like you.
corporate raider. maybe after all our jobs have moved offshore they can sell america, oh wait, they are already doing that.
feel his pain!
He's not the jerk. The jerks are the imbeciles who actually fall for this bullshit.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Bingo! You took the post right off of my keyboard.
Fact is, there are millions of red state morons and rednecks who will chuckle at this bulls*it and vote GOP again.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Ditto that LP.
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
Paris Hilton
Koch Bros
Warren Buffet
Saif al-Adel last months new leader of al queada.
there was a time recently when he was supposedly living in his son's basement.....
Listen, given this man's gift of gaffes, I doubt that he will get through the republican primary easily if at all. That's nothing compared to the general election where that particular soundbite should get good airtime.
Hey Mitt, Are we supposed to be stupid or what? You do not have any of the problems REAL unemployed people have.
He's done, not crazy enough, he's just stupid.
Guess it's Bachmann.
I agree , they prefer em as crazy and far out as can be .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
What type of state would hire a corporate fascist, job outsourcing goon, who got filty rich screwing working people - because they wanted someone who could create jobs?
Why, your typical republican moron voter. This is exactly what they did in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania..........., and those are just the blue states.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
We are people too and these high taxes really hurt our bottom line.
Hey Mitt, go ahead spend your millions on another wasted campaign.
Maybe your magic Mormon underpants will soften the landing.
Yep , me and Mitt , we're brothers we are , both in the same boat . JC ! These F'ers test one's grip on reality 24/7 .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
He really is a whore.
Far be it from me to.....is this on? We're live? Oh....
This heartless bastard is going to slither through the news cycle unscathed just like that cracker Senator in Alabama who referred to African-Americans as "aborigines."
It isn't what you know, you know.
Does it hurt when you do that? Then don't do that!
You have never known so much as a second's-worth of uncertainty or need in your entire life. Your comments show that you are devoid of any demonstrated capacity for empathy. You were born with a golden spoon up your ass, and there has never been any question that every day of your life would be lived in unearned privilege.
Slimey snake.
Mitt gets laid-off so he heads for one of his 4 multi-million dollar homes to ponder his future, while in the real world when a person gets laid-off the first thing they "PONDER" is "HOW IN THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO PAY MY RENT OR MORTAGE,FEED MY FAMILY,PAY FOR MEDICAL CARE,KEEP MY UTILITIES FROM BEING TURNED OFF........ you get the picture and I know one truth Mitt.... WHEN REAL FOLKS GET LAID-OFF, IT IS NOT FUNNY.....EVER, you fucking worthless piece of dog SHIT.Man, would I love to wear my knuckles out on Mitt's perfect smile, but, I'll let Mother Karma fix this asshole's "aura".
What a d-bag. This guy doesn't stand a chance, sorry. When the contenders get fewer and the mittens, er, gloves, come off and they start bringin up the Mormon thing, the religious right will start in on him. To people like the Southern Baptists he might as well be Muslim.
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
The only thing I do like about Mitt is the fact that not only is is blowing a lot of his own $$$$$ on his fool's errand to run for POTUS he's also pissing away a LOT of donator's $$$$$. THANKS MITT, YA FUCKIN' HAND JOB. Mitt., in closing, I'd like to say that the best part of you ran down your mother's GASH!
wonder how many pairs of "magic briefs" Mitt has socked away for "emergency only".
Um Willard, you're not unemployed, you're "at leisure", as in "a gentleman of leisure." In other words, a social parasite so well endowed with accumulated capital that the returns on such suffice to support your useless life.
I have a hangnail on my big toe. By Romney's standards, I'm disabled. Where are my benefits, my SSDI, my Medicare?
So send him out to live in a pickup truck for two years on the proceeds of whatever garage sale or auction house bottom-feeder boxes he can sell at the local flea market. He can eat ten-cent dented cans of beans and bruised produce. He'd be a better President and a better man for it.
Until he has lived in a vehicle with no UEC as so many Americans (or, for that matter,unemployed illegals) have done, give him all of the hell he deserves for such a statement.
All of us have, at one time or another, had our eyes on a job for which we qualified, deserved, and could do with one hand tied behind out backs, and have seen that job given to some less-qualified son or daughter of the financially secure. Romney is about to have the same experience. .
...they wanted to dimiss it as a lame joke and attempt to be folksy.
Here's the problem: if unemployment is around 4%, then you can joke and say, "hey, I'm unemployed right now." When unemployment is such a huge issue with so many Americans and affects so many families in every part of the country, it's as tone deaf as saying, "I think I have cancer, yuk-yuk."
This reveals two extremely important facts. 1) Romney has NO sensitivity to real unemployment. 2) The beltway media still treats unemployment like it's a theoretical example in macroeconomic class. NO pressure on Obama to create jobs, no pressure on the Repubs, no pressure on the Dems.
Timid policies and "everyone wins a trophy"-type compromises won't do it. There's a way to tick off the powers that be and please the 70% -plus voters that would work, but that might upset the dinner circut in DC where the stenographers, hack politicians and hangers on waste our tax money.
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