From the Left

/

Politics

Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe

By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services on

"And then, finally," said Romney, "Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people." And, I would add, to many of their parents.

That President Obama sure is a clever fellow, giving so many Americans what they want. I wonder why that notion, apparently, didn't appeal to Romney? Oh, right. It did.

He promised seniors, for example, that he'd restore President Obama's $716 billion in Medicare cuts, despite his passionate pleas for cuts in soaring budget deficits. He also promised that, no matter what, he wouldn't touch Medicare and Social Security spending for at least a decade?

He looked like Santa Claus to upper-income earners with his promises to protect them from Obama's proposed income tax hikes. He also promised Wall Street that he would roll back the Dodd-Frank financial regulations that were legislated to rein in the abuses that led to the 2008 financial crash.

Yet Romney referred to none of these offerings as "gifts" on the campaign trail. Now his sour-grapes postmortems have sent even his fellow Republicans Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, among others, fast-walking away from him. Wise move, gentlemen.

 

Romney's remarks echo his earlier secretly-recorded comments to donors last year in Boca Raton about the "47 percent of Americans" who "don't pay taxes," refuse to take responsibility for their lives, and will support Obama no matter what. "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," he said. What is it about talking to donors that brings out Romney's inner upper-class twit?

"My job is not to worry about those people," he said. That's OK. I don't think they're too worried about him, either.

========

E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com.


(c) 2012 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

Comics

Steve Breen Steve Benson Bill Day Tim Campbell Chip Bok Eric Allie