Another Romney Gaffe

I posted yesterday about the incredible social awkwardness of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. While he's a favorite of the Republican establishment (because they think he has the best chance of winning among the current candidates), he is just not good when having to meet and socialize with the public. And that's why he's having trouble pulling away from the pack of other candidates in the polls. He just doesn't excite voters, especially when they meet him.

Well, it only took him one day to prove my point. Romney, who was born into wealth and became even richer by helping people hide money from the government in secret off-shore accounts, tried to tell a crowd of unemployed people in Tampa (Florida) that he was just like them -- unemployed.  After listening to these people tell about how hard their search for a job has been, Romney said he could sympathize with them because, "I'm also unemployed."

He added later that, "I may be unemployed for longer than I like." I would have to agree with that if this is the best he can do. These people are not stupid and being unemployed is a scary and very serious business to them. It's the difference between being able to pay the rent, make the car payment, and feed their families -- none of which Romney has to worry about.

Romney is nothing like the millions of unemployed people in America, and he probably insulted most of them by saying he was. He's not just a millionaire -- he's got hundreds of millions of dollars (and was able to blow over $40 million of his own money in the last presidential election). I'm sure that most unemployed people in America would feel exceptionally fortunate if they only had a tiny fraction of Romney's wealth.

There's a big difference between a rich man seeking power and an unemployed American trying to find a job to support his/her family. It's too bad Romney doesn't understand that.