WHAT MITT ROMNEY REALLY SAID. “Romney as the nominee will be flyspecked and criticized over every word. He needs to avoid actual gaffes. But he can’t keep the media from editing out all the inconvenient parts of every sentence, paragraph and interview. He’ll need to work on talking directly to voters, making his case in ads and debates. The good news for him, at least in the primary, is that the media that are predisposed to pounce on every (other) word and offer the most negative interpretation of his every statement and performance appear to have zero influence among voters.”
Frankly, I think he’s got a point. People whose livelihood comes from the government — whether the very poor, or the government employees — are doing fine. It’s people who depend on the actual economy who are hurting.
Meanwhile, my call for “shared sacrifice” back in 2008.
UPDATE: Reader Jeffrey Hollister writes: “I wonder if anyone has passed along your wise advice to Team Romney: always have your own video crew recording everything whenever the MSM’s cameras are rolling.”
I may be wrong, but I don’t think a lot of folks there read InstaPundit.
MORE: Bill Quick says I’m wrong. But the “very poor” on government assistance, while they have serious problems, haven’t been hit by the economic downturn the way the middle class has.
STILL MORE: Brian Epps says Bill Quick is right and I’m wrong:
The very poor have to spend more, as a percentage of their income, on food and transportation than those better off. When one considers the fact that gas and food prices have risen dramatically in the last three years with no end in sight, I’d say that there is reason to be concerned about the very poor.
While income inequality has dropped in recent years in dollars, in terms of actual buying power, the poor have had their incomes slashed by Obama’s inflation tax on necessities. Even if one wants to get out of the hole and off the dole, the path to self-reliance has had caltrops tossed on it with the increase in minimum wage and the current policies that discourage hiring, especially on the low-wage, low-skill level most of the very poor are qualified for.
Good point.