Mitt Romney has been taking some heat for chronically misspeaking, otherwise known as telling the truth. Whether the faux pas of the day is an admission that hiring undocumented workers -- illegal immigrants in Republican party speak -- was politically bad for him as governor of Massachusetts or his more recent disclosure that he doesn't care about the poor: Mitt Romney just calls things as he sees them. And that's an eye opener for the rest of the nation.
Perhaps the American public has been groomed by the political process to expect subterfuge on the part of their major party candidates and that's why no one seems to be as delighted as they should be by Romney's unabashed candor. No reading between the lines when Romney prattles on, what you hear is what you got.
In the case of the undocumented landscapers grooming the millionaire's lawn -- even though he could certainly afford to hire U.S. citizens or documented workers and pay payroll taxes and the other expenses associated with both state and federal employment laws -- he admitted that failure to do so was merely bad political form: "So we went to the company, and we said, 'Look, we can't have illegals working on our property. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake. I can't have illegals.'"
And now, more recently Romney claims to be concerned with improving the plight of the middle class. Well, one way to improve their plight would be by paying a legitimate landscaping company to mow his lawn. Or Romney might better understand the middle class if he spent some time mowing the lawn himself.
Additionally, the nation's wealthiest 2012 presidential wannabe came under fire last week when he tried to explain his "concern" for middle income earners by detailing who he doesn't care about, "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it." This statement isn't just indicative of Romney's lack of concern for what life is like for Americans living in poverty -- even with food stamps or a homeless shelter bed for a safety net -- it's also contradictory. Romney's statement acknowledges that the safety net may be torn, inadequate, and overburdened, while in the same breath that he claims it exists which relieves him of any need to worry about the plight of these impoverished Americans.
This would be like saying, "I'm glad my son is riding in his car seat, even though I know the straps may be defective." Romney's comment proves that he and many other lawmakers know the system is failing the poor while at the same time a failing system is their justification to look away.
And lastly Romney's inability to invoke politically correct speech -- a.k.a. his chronic truth telling -- is proof that either he doesn't know the facts as they pertain to the nation he wishes to lead, or that he simply can't do the math necessary to determine the extent of the problems facing the U.S., "I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling." He further clarified, "My energy is going to be devoted to helping the middle income people."
Sadly, the middle class isn't 90 to 95 percent of the country. According to the IRS a little less than 3% of income tax filers last year made more than $200,000 and the U.S. Census Bureau says that poverty is at a record high of more than 15 percent. That leaves a potential figure of only 82 percent of the nation falling somewhere between the abjectly poor and the comfortably affluent. If we wait until a person or family has earned double the poverty level before we consider them middle class then the middle class shrinks to less than 60 percent of Americans.
Supposedly, Romney's advisors are scrambling to coach him so that his utterances become more politically correct. They should stop trying. His honest confessions are not only refreshing, but they are proof that he has no clear picture of the challenges facing the average American. And without understanding those challenges, no voter should believe he can eliminate them.