On this Sunday's State of the Union, when asked if Mitt Romney coming from a privileged background is going to harm him in the presidential election, Speaker of the House John Boehner did his best to try to pretend that Romney is just another example of how average Americans can work their way up the economic ladder, despite the fact that upward mobility doesn't really exist in the United States anymore.
Boehner thinks Americans "don't want to vote for a loser" but ignores the fact that Mitt Romney made his millions making sure that a whole lot of Americans were never going to have a chance at even earning a middle class living, much less achieving the sort of "success" Boehner was touting here.
If anyone has not read Pete Kotz's article on Romney at The Village Voice about his time at Bain, I highly recommend it -- Mitt Romney, American Parasite.
If being a "winner" means taking over companies, busting unions, destroying communities, sucking the benefits and retirement packages dry to line you and your investors' pockets, bringing in incompetent people to manage companies that only care about production and throw safety and good work practices out the window and moving on to your next target, then I guess Mitt Romney is your man. For most Americans, he was the guy that you live in fear of coming in and buying out your place of employment if you're still lucky enough to have any kind of retirement package, seniority rights, benefits, or are making a living wage.
Transcript below the fold.
CROWLEY: What do you think of Mitt Romney? You both -- you come from such wildly different backgrounds that I find it fascinating. What do you think of him?
BOEHNER: Listen, I've known the governor for 15 years. He's a very likable person. And, frankly, he has a very -- has had a very successful career, and I, frankly, I think the governor should be proud of his accomplishments. He and I are both striving for the same thing, to make sure that our kids and grandkids have an opportunity at the American dream like he and I have had.
Every American ought to have this chance. And I think he has a background where he can go out and talk about how to create jobs, how to turn this economy around and how to give the American people exactly what they want: more jobs.
CROWLEY: You know, he comes from a privileged background. You did not come from a privileged background. This is a time -- an economic time when people are hurting and have been hurting for quite some time.
Do you think that someone who is as wealthy as he is, who has had as much privilege as he is, has a hill to climb to overcome that?
BOEHNER: No. The American people don't want to vote for a loser. They don't want to vote for someone that hasn't been successful. I think Mitt Romney has an opportunity to show the American people that they, too, can succeed.
CROWLEY: Are you two in any way -- can we say working together on the election now? Have you talked to him?
(CROSSTALK)
BOEHNER: I have not -- I have not talked to him.
CROWLEY: Really?
BOEHNER: But I would -- yes. I try to avoid to talking to all the candidates.
CROWLEY: But now he's the guy.
BOEHNER: Now he's the guy. He called and I called him back. We've kind of traded some voice mails. But I expect that I will soon.
