Piling on Mitt Romeny

A few of my readers thought I went far too easy on Mitt Romney the other day in my blog about his comments on the 47 percent!
by Charlie Leck

Several readers pointed out to me that I went way too easy on Mitt Romney when I cited the David Brooks column in the NY Times and quoted only the little corrective comments that Brooks made about Romney’s “divided nation” speech to a small gathering of the wealthy. [See my previous blog!] They suggested that I should have included the following two (three) paragraphs from the Brook’s column:

“Sure, there are some government programs that cultivate patterns of dependency in some people. I’d put federal disability payments and unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to one another, and it reinforces every negative view people have about him.

“Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign.

“Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?”

Well, these readers are correct. I should have included those two (three) paragraphs, but, then, I could have really piled on and included these few comments from Brooks as well…

“It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of the United States.”

“It reveals that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture.”

“Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact.”

“The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about motivation.”

Of course, each one of these four sentences above was followed by an explanation of what Brooks meant and it all makes good reading. So, I again suggest you read the original David Brooks column, which was called Thurston Howell Romney.

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