Millionaire Mitt still whining about how hard it was 'to make ends meet'
by Kaili Joy Ray
Dude. Dude.
As Jed Lewison reported, Mitt Romney's new "biographical" ad attempts to re-re-re-re-re-introduce him to voters, as if not knowing about him is the problem. Uh, Mitt. The voters know more than enough. They're just not that into you. And this doesn't help:
Mitt and his chief adviser on lady things (and horses), Ann, have talked so much about just how hard they had it back in the day that it's clearly a strategy, not a gaffe.
Recall this tale of woe and hardship from Ann:
Clearly, Romneyland believes that if Mitt and Ann insist often enough that they're just regular folks who've had it tough, lived on the edge, struggled to make ends meet, and, of course, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps all on their own with no help from anyone (except for that stock portfolio from Daddy Romney, of course, and that house from Daddy Romney, of course), maybe voters will believe it.
But that's not really the worst of it. The truly sick and twisted thing about this utterly false tale of woe is that Mitt and Ann, though they swear they can relate to people who struggle today, are actually sadists who relish the struggling of others.
Mitt Romney, after all, likes firing people. (Oh, sure, he meant corporations—because he can't tell the difference between corporations and people.) He tells "humorous" stories about his father, as president of American Motors, shutting down a factory in Michigan and putting a bunch of people out of work. Humorous indeed.
And of course, the supposedly more sympathetic Ann Romney, Mitt's "greatest asset" who supposedly humanizes him, yukked it up at the Connecticut Republican Party’s Prescott Bush Awards Dinner, saying:
Who says that? Seriously, who says that? What kinds of monsters enjoy the struggling of others, take pleasure in the unemployment of others, find the hardships that their fellow Americans face to be "humorous" fodder, and then, on top of it all, they dare to claim that they too know how hard it is, they too have struggled, because gosh, it sure is tough to raise a family on an inherited stock portfolio.
These are terrible people. Really terrible people.
Lol Sauce
Mittens, can you and your wife just stop embarrassing yourselves, please? Your privilege is showing. I'm sure you've had your hard times too and I'm all for not comparing who's had it hardest, but clearly... you cannot even begin to relate with the majority of the people you are looking to lead. Off-shore accounts? Shell companies? I'm sorry that your primary source income came from stocks. I'm sorry that you're able to afford your wife staying at home and that she can afford to stay home.
by Kaili Joy Ray
Dude. Dude.
As Jed Lewison reported, Mitt Romney's new "biographical" ad attempts to re-re-re-re-re-introduce him to voters, as if not knowing about him is the problem. Uh, Mitt. The voters know more than enough. They're just not that into you. And this doesn't help:
The ad opens with Mitt Romney talking about his business background and saying that he knows what it's like to start a business and create jobs and "to wonder whether you're going to be able to make ends meet." If you're the Harvard-educated son of an auto industry CEO who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has bank accounts in the Caymans, a secretive Bermuda shell corporation, and, until recently, a Swiss bank account, those are words that should never escape your lips. And that's doubly true if you've made millions while firing workers and bankrupting companies.
Mitt and his chief adviser on lady things (and horses), Ann, have talked so much about just how hard they had it back in the day that it's clearly a strategy, not a gaffe.
Recall this tale of woe and hardship from Ann:
They were not easy years. [...]
We were happy, studying hard. Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time. [...]
Mitt and I walked to class together, shared housekeeping, had a lot of pasta and tuna fish and learned hard lessons. [...]
We were living on the edge, not entertaining. No, I did not work. Mitt thought it was important for me to stay home with the children, and I was delighted.
Right after Mitt graduated in 1975, we had our third boy and it was about the time Mitt’s first paycheck came along. So, we were married a long time before we had any income, about five years as struggling students.
Clearly, Romneyland believes that if Mitt and Ann insist often enough that they're just regular folks who've had it tough, lived on the edge, struggled to make ends meet, and, of course, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps all on their own with no help from anyone (except for that stock portfolio from Daddy Romney, of course, and that house from Daddy Romney, of course), maybe voters will believe it.
But that's not really the worst of it. The truly sick and twisted thing about this utterly false tale of woe is that Mitt and Ann, though they swear they can relate to people who struggle today, are actually sadists who relish the struggling of others.
Mitt Romney, after all, likes firing people. (Oh, sure, he meant corporations—because he can't tell the difference between corporations and people.) He tells "humorous" stories about his father, as president of American Motors, shutting down a factory in Michigan and putting a bunch of people out of work. Humorous indeed.
And of course, the supposedly more sympathetic Ann Romney, Mitt's "greatest asset" who supposedly humanizes him, yukked it up at the Connecticut Republican Party’s Prescott Bush Awards Dinner, saying:
I love the fact that there are women out there who don’t have a choice and they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids. Thank goodness that we value those people too. And sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us.
Who says that? Seriously, who says that? What kinds of monsters enjoy the struggling of others, take pleasure in the unemployment of others, find the hardships that their fellow Americans face to be "humorous" fodder, and then, on top of it all, they dare to claim that they too know how hard it is, they too have struggled, because gosh, it sure is tough to raise a family on an inherited stock portfolio.
These are terrible people. Really terrible people.
Lol Sauce
Mittens, can you and your wife just stop embarrassing yourselves, please? Your privilege is showing. I'm sure you've had your hard times too and I'm all for not comparing who's had it hardest, but clearly... you cannot even begin to relate with the majority of the people you are looking to lead. Off-shore accounts? Shell companies? I'm sorry that your primary source income came from stocks. I'm sorry that you're able to afford your wife staying at home and that she can afford to stay home.
Oh, you sold off your stock portfolio while you were unemployed in college?
I sold off my plasma.
Seriously lady, if you spent $50 MILLION of your own money last campaign and LOST, must you run again? Must you run "I understand being poor" ads?
The Senate primary here isn't for two more weeks, so we're getting the deluge of ads right now.
Mittens, don't you fucking dare pretend you've ever known what it means to be poor. Just do not fucking even.
This, SO fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, FUCKING much.
Honestly, I don't get why people do this shit. It's so much more insulting than it is "OH I AM JUST LIKE YOU, SEE?" And then you have those candidates who say shit like this but "loan" their own campaign millions in funds. *flail*
Wow.
I can't decide if she's as clueless and socially inept as Mittens, or if she's truly, simply a clueless, condescending asshole who actually sees the 99% as peons "to be valued too".
Yeah, my heart bleeds for your lame attempt at a sob story. Feel the tears on this dry tissue?
Don't even.
RAGERAGERAGE.
P.S. Mitt and Ann, I hate both your guts. Please just STFU already.
Caring about people who are worse off than you doesn't involve pretending you know exactly what they're going through. It doesn't involve pretending you actually went through something comparable. It involves listening to people when they tell you what their problems are, and fighting to improve things for them, and acknowledging that no one should have to live that badly off, and not putting profitability, or your favorite economic model, ahead of people's quality of life.
Seriously, I read them as "I'm so rich and important that I get to rewrite reality!" And . . . no and also fuck you.
Liar. Liar. A little from selling off stocks? Didn't they also get the interest from Ann's trust fund? I remember hearing somewhere that they lived off 40k a year during these times of "struggle". How much is that in today's money? About 135k a year?
Gee golly! How did they survive? I can't think of a person who could live off 135k a year. Can anyone else?
We were living on the edge
That reminds me of this:
I don't think their version of 'living on the edge' is the same version most of us are familiar with.
I barely understand how stocks work, let alone have any to sell off to pay bills.
Poor is joining the church so you can have some kind of social support system. Joseph Smith? Who cares, tonight's a potluck. BOOM!
What I've noticed is that when Romney's wealth is actually flaunted, people almost worship his wealth and admire his business acumen. Despite the way Americans whine about the rich, they're pretty much trained to respect, envy and feel inferior to the wealthy. They also will subconsciously assume that because he's wealthy, he must be very bright, hardworking, competent, etc. I think Romney needs to start looking at his wealth as a way of wowing potential supporters rather than as a liability.
Edited at 2012-08-01 04:36 pm (UTC)
I'll tell you what Mitt & Ann, tell me how many times you've had generic mac & cheese (6 boxes/$1!) made with powdered milk for dinner? I ate it nightly for months at a time because that's all I could afford. And you know what? Some people can't even afford that.
Just STFU - you are offensive, patronizing and disgusting.
Edited at 2012-08-01 04:39 pm (UTC)
"I've been lucky enough in my life that as a child I was in a financially stable home. My parents similarly, also came from such homes. Where I got to today is not entirely built on my own work but also others. I had support. Support that not everyone has access to. I was able to afford college and not go through all the monetary hardships many students, and others of this nation face today. I never had to choose between for instance, getting groceries and getting a check-up from a doctor, let alone full and complicated surgery for myself or loved ones. I think in fact however, that it is morally wrong that people at all have to such a difficult choice, which can mean life or death if not further hardship for the rest of their lives. Health care should be a fundamental right regardless of financial background and nobody deserves to suffer because they are poor. I got to my financial position and was able to maintain my health and my family's health mainly through luck and being born into a specific family. No child or adult deserves to die or suffer just because they weren't. Every person matters and makes up this nation, and thus should be cared for."
People won't necessarily hate you if you're rich. It's if you're acting like it's someones fault if they're poor and suffering/ that you got there ALL BY YOURSELF that gets peoples goat among other things I feel.
Fuck you, you homophobic misogynistic rich fratboy douchebag. Fuck you with something hard and sandpapery.
So they chose to be unemployed because they had enough money in investments to live on. And why should we view that as "struggling"? No debt when you graduate, don't have to worry about cramming a job or two in between your classes, you just have to budget a bit to make sure what you liquidate for each semester will cover everything... how terrible.
most normal people must get a job or be homeless and starving. they "struggled" while living off of stocks, but apparently werent struggling enough to need a job.
WTF?
Poor people? They're not rich, so there must be something wrong with them. Who says that dehumanizing 'them' versus 'us' is relegated to race or religion? You can do that with socio-economic class, too
Another thing to add to your assessment is that the fact that he was born into wealth signifies for many that he's of "good stock." So he doesn't even have to go overboard showing that he earned his current fortune.
The sad thing is, I think that they really think they DO relate to us poor folks because of their sob "selling stocks" story. I mean, they're so utterly clueless that they don't even KNOW that they're clueless! I've got a lot of second-hand embarrassment for this stuff, negl, but I really DON'T want them to stop talking or embarrassing themselves. 'Cause every time I hear something like this, I imagine independents kinda cringing and then shaking their heads. :-D
Jesus H Christ.
I stayed home for several years, while my husband worked two jobs so we could manage. My son is on the autism spectrum, and daycare AFTER all day at a public school was too much for him. Things for him were a lot more manageable after I could just pick him up at school.
Fast-forward from 2002 to 9/2005, and my husband decides he doesn't want to be married anymore (which he tells me via phone from California). Then he disappears for four months, leaving me unemployed, out of the job market for years, with a special needs kid and NO INCOME AT ALL. By mid-2006 I'd finally found a job...that I was laid-off from three years later (almost to the day).
I maxed out my unemployment at 99 weeks. While on unemployment I lost my son's SSI, because unemployment is counted dollar-for-dollar since it's unearned -- no not-counting half of it. I ended up having to file bankruptcy, because there were too many months I had to decide between making my car payment and paying the $300/mo I had to pay to keep my COBRA going.
I started back to school, and was living off student loans. If I ever do manage to land a job again, well, it's likely my son will inherit my student loan debt. Oh, and we lost out on about $150/mo in food stamps because I'm over 18, and a full-time student, who isn't working at least 20 hours a week @ minimum wage.
I recently was awarded SSI for myself...and lost the rest of the food stamps we were receiving, because that money tipped us over the allowable amount each month -- even though I still don't count to receive foodstamps because of still being in school. But they'll count my income (such as it is) against me.
I wouldn't vote for Mitt Romney on a dare, but it infuriates me that he and his wife think they have a CLUE what "struggling" means. God, I'm actually angry enough right now I can feel my blood pressure rising. AUGH.
All this hot air about how they've struggled... it's so stupid you don't know whether to laugh or smash your fist into the wall.