MITT ROMNEY won the Republican nomination thanks to big margins in affluent areas. To win the presidency, he must also court white working-class voters, says a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
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It's easy:
"My name is Mitt Romney. I'm worth a quarter of a billion dollars. I've created nothing of great or common usefulness that I can point to to explain this. No, we're not going to get into all the money I've stashed overseas.
I pay 15% income tax on tens of millions of dollars of income. I think that is much too high, so I want to cut taxes on the rich. No, you can't see my tax returns.
To pay for lower taxes on the rich, I want to gut Social Security and Medicare, the programs that allow middle-class Americans like you to retire in minimal comfort and dignity."
How can he miss?
Apparently, the Wicked Witch of the East is among the 50 percent (+/- 1) who will vote to re-elect Obama because of the IRS's long-term capital gains tax.
My take-away from this interview:
Romney's appeal is really high with rich guys.
And, if the electorate were full of rich guys, he'd be in...
Such times! That men of standing and nobility must debase themselves for the foul humors of the mob. Why the very notion has quite upset my composure. I must retire to my smoking room and fortify myself against such democratic assaults on good sense.
Personally, having traveled widely within Enid, Oklahoma -
I often take my cue from that font of all knowledge regarding the tension between social classes, Young Frankenstein, to wit -
"A riot is a horrible thing. And, it's just about time we had one!" :)
Good interview. I've sort of missed Barone since Bush '43 was elected.
You could have found him at U.S. News and World Report. He was there for 18 years.
Sure. But he got kind of unreadable for awhile.
I sometimes think Buckleyites are more constructive frustrated.
I'm not sure what frustrated Buckleyites are, but Barone said that much of the criticism and commentary of the Bush years was incoherent and hysterical.
Right, that's pretty well all he said for the first three years of the Bush presidency which is why I stopped reading him. I'm glad to find him tolerable and smart again but now I wish he was still at USN&WR.