Tagg Romney: Mitt had “no desire” to run

[JHB]

21. He has that "I'm a CEO! What do you mean I have to APPLY for a job?" attitude.

The article stressed how much the family wanted to stress "what kind of person he was" through anecdotes about people he helped.

But that also shows the disconnect: there are relatively few "warped frustrated old men" of the Mr. Potter/Ebeneezer Scrooge vein who are uniformly sour. Most people can find it in themselves to be kind to individuals.

The key is when that gets abstracted a level and one starts thinking of groups. At that level, how freely do your prejudices flow? Romney put his on display in the 47% video, and has followed up showing it in his post-election excuse-making about "gifts".

So Romney proposed months of intense preparation, with 16 mock debates. (Obama did 11.) Then, just as Romney seemed ready, the campaign ­received news that a video had been leaked in which the candidate characterized 47 percent of Americans as “victims” who wanted government benefits and would never vote for him. That left the impression that Romney was referring not just to people on welfare but also to recipients of Social Security and veterans benefits. It seemed to confirm the worst view of ­Romney, that he didn’t care about average people. His poll numbers plummeted

Yeah, it left that impression... because to hit that 47% number, you are talking about Social Security recipients and veterans. And people on unemployment for economic reasons that Mitt only had experience in exacerbating, not counterbalancing. And people who do work at a job (or jobs) using Republican-supported tax credits, so that the income tax liability on their low-paying jobs is zero.

People noticed that it was the most honest he'd been in the entire campaign. The rest was all "Who let the dogs out". Months and months of it.