Mitt Romney Says He Is Also An Unemployed Person In America

I thought Mitt Romney's "Bumps In The Road" ad was a very good opening salvo, because it told this story: Calling the unemployed "bumps in the road" serves to render them as abstractions, but when you come face to face with jobless people, you realize that there's a real human life in crisis. Don't misunderstand me -- this is the language of advertising and I don't mistake it for authenticity -- but it throws a powerful marker down in this election and it suggests that Mitt Romney might conduct himself with a degree of sensitivity to the nation's unemployed. (Whether or not he has any sort of plan to ameliorate the problem is another issue entirely.)

Writing about that ad, I also said that one of its strengths was that it did not include Mitt Romney -- the thing that is often the most annoying thing about any "Mitt Romney campaign." What happens when you combine actual people, a discussion of unemployment and the candidate himself? You get this, from Jeff Zeleny, on the stump with Romney in Tampa, Fla.:

"I should tell my story," Mr. Romney said. "I'm also unemployed."

He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.

"Are you on LinkedIn?" one of the men asked.

"I'm networking," Mr. Romney replied. "I have my sight on a particular job."

Yep, that's Mitt Romney, some unemployed derelict with nothing but millions of dollars and several homes to fall back on for comfort. He does not have a job and that is his "story." What will he do to pull himself up by his bootstraps? Oh, just battle President Barack Obama over millions of dollars worth of Wall Street campaign handouts, like all the hobos are doing.

At any rate, that's the sort of easily -- VERY EASILY -- avoidable rhetorical drivel that reminds me of the terrific distance between the lives of office-seekers and actual Americans. I mean, do we really need to have the unemployment crisis trivialized one more time? Because here to trivialize the crisis one more time is Mitt Romney:

"I wish I had a job for everybody," Mr. Romney said at the end of his discussion. He added, "I may be unemployed for longer than I'd like."

What will become of Mitt Romney if he remains unemployed for 99 weeks? Will he be okay?

(Zeleny, for some reason, calls this remark "humble" and "self-deprecating." This is actually what is known as a "humblebrag.")

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Comments

[Edwina Montgomery]

02:46 PM on 06/24/2011

I think Mitt Romneys unemployed comment was uncalled for. He would never get my vote if I was a Rebuplican, which I am not. I hope he looses everything he has, but that is not for me to say, He will answer to his master one day. I would just like to be around to see it. Out of work I dare him. I'll swap places with him anyday or anytime. See if he can live on $250/week, or excuse me survive. This is not living, we are just surviving. Please do not vote for anyone who can make a joke of our situation. 99er in Tennessee

[Frog in a pot]

08:45 PM on 06/22/2011

Anouther trust fund baby who made his fortune shiiping jobs out of te country and gutting US companies.

It used to be called treason.
Now its just "good" business.

[Charles L King]

05:12 PM on 06/21/2011

I view that as a sneer at the poor, on the level of Marie Antoinette's supposed, "let em eat cake," utterance.

[danglines]

12:11 AM on 06/21/2011

Unemployed, but rich. A really typical American.

[the A Cappellan]

10:09 PM on 06/20/2011

OK, sir I think you meant well by your comment to associate with the group . But beyond those present, beyond the microphones are Unemployed Americans. I have even said."Just two more years of Unemployment and I can call it a CAREER". I have worked hard to find a job. So have so many others. There are so many implications upon our current situation that it has become a pandemic. No quick fix, no shortage of blame, no end in sight; because there are no real jobs. For the most part there are low pay, bottom feeding positions that people are fighting for that deserve so much more. They have degrees, experience and knowledge. But, corporations want them on-call 24/7. Away from their families, almost puritan in stature and morals. You have money in the bank. WE DO NOT. The only bank I go to is the FOOD BANK. I wish you the best in your job search. But, you don't have my VOTE. You need to employ; a greater and more compassion ed understanding, experience and for-site.

[Art Scott]

05:32 PM on 06/19/2011

Any politician receiving 6 figures in "political pension"s has absolutely ZERO! right to call himself unemployed. We're a country which pays our 100% RETIRED DISABLED vets barely above poverty wages, and these are people which don't have the choice to work or not. THESE people receive barely enough to survive, cannot afford an average American house (or these days qualify for a mortgage for one), and Romney wants us to believe HE'S hurting? By all means Mitt, how about you switch places with one of those 100% Disabled Retired Vets? How about you face what THEY face?

Perhaps the reason you're unemployed, Mitt, is because you can't pass the basic honesty tests given to minimum wage employees.

[Kenz300]

04:22 PM on 06/19/2011

And he has multiple homes each worth over 10 million dollars.

[Gatormouth]

02:07 PM on 06/18/2011

Hoo, boy. "I feel your pain (and it makes me giggle)."

[James Bridges]

12:10 PM on 06/18/2011

Poor Mitt. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth and now he is unemployed and destitute. Hope he gets some help, soon. He is down to his last billion.

[PS Nymn]

12:07 PM on 06/18/2011

Mitt probably also believes that he is unwealthy.

[mamiller517]

09:27 AM on 06/18/2011

How cute can you get! Mitt Romney chuckling about being unemployed! I want to know what that is like. I am single and in my fifties and I haven't had a job in over a year. I should chuckle about it. Mitt Romney is in exactly the same boat I am in. I just didn't realize I could chuckle about it. YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE, CHUCKLE HEAD!

[spinotter11]

10:06 PM on 06/17/2011

You know what? Romney really is unemployed. He has no employer that I am aware of - correct me if I'm wrong. He IS thus unemployed. And all of you clowns would pillory him for telling the exact truth.

[Iheartniki]

10:17 PM on 06/17/2011

He is not unemployed. He has chosen not to work because he doesn't need to.

Big difference.

What this event shows us is Romney unplugged from his handlers, i.e. the real person underneath.

[spinotter11]

10:52 PM on 06/17/2011

He is unemployed by choice, yes, but he is unemployed because he does not have an employer or any employment. He is unemployed.

[Charles L King]

05:15 PM on 06/21/2011

No we would pillory him for highlighting the difference between unemployment for a billionaire and unemployment for a man or woman down to their last dime, highlighting it and making a joke of it. Being rich and unemployed is worth a chuckle. Being poor and unemployed is no laughing matter.

[spinotter11]

09:47 PM on 06/17/2011

He chuckled. It was a joke. What a bunch of whining losers on this board!

[csnyfan13]

01:05 PM on 06/18/2011

Some so-called "jokes" are not funny in the real world. He looked like a loser; his grasp of the reality faced by the voters is shallow at best.

[pane2knowyou]

04:36 AM on 06/19/2011

Some individuals are so enamored with Mit/tens smile they fail to see the idi/ocy, on the face of it all.

[spinotter11]

08:27 AM on 06/19/2011

I am enamored neither of the Mitt's smile, his politics, nor his religion. But he still has the right to crack a joke, and one which made me like him better. Especially before the era of political correctness about unemployed jokes which apparently dawned two days ago after his heinous comment. Bunch of wimp-out Chicken Littles running around with your heads chopped off.

[fortressfountain]

08:29 PM on 06/17/2011

At least he does not criticize like a lot! He acknowledges the problem is globalization.
People like Newt think everyone should just grab a broom and live happily ever after while he takes tax dollars and gives them to corporations or international banks.

[teletom]

05:34 PM on 06/17/2011

Gawd forbid somebody crack a joke. At least he didn't blow $800 billion on 'projects that weren't so shovel ready"

[MiddleMolly]

06:00 PM on 06/17/2011

I don't think that my family members and their employees who kept their companies open and kept their employees on their payrolls due to stimulus projects would consider that money "blown". And neither would I, for the generosity of one of the recipients of stimulus money has helped many family members and friends keep their heads above water during this recession.

Any number of jobs "created or saved" hasn't to date included the multiplier effect.. Money paid to support vendors, suppliers, then to grocery stores, retail establishments, etc., as the companies that stayed open were able to go about the business or enhancing their businesses and the lives of their families.. and their employees' families.

[angry in ct]

07:26 PM on 06/17/2011

Then you have a very sick sense of humor.

Unemployment ain't funny. I was until recently a long term unemployed worker myself until re-entering the workforce early this month, and believe me it wasn't a situation comedy.

[spinotter11]

09:49 PM on 06/17/2011

angry, you know I'm on the 99ers side, but this was just a joke. Are we about to add one more class of Americans to the list of people about whom it is forbidden to make a joke? I hope you aren't thinking that way, because then our paths part at that point.