Judging from their rhetoric, both Democrats and Team Romney already think the GOP nomination fight is sealed up, and they’re turning their focus on the general election.
Consequently, even though it’s early in the year, we already know what one of the defining themes is going to be. There are a lot of phrases you could use for it. Dems might be minded to use “fairness” or “inequality.” Republicans might be quicker to call it “class warfare.” Now we know, however, how Romney himself is going to frame it: “the politics of envy.”
In his New Hampshire victory speech Tuesday night, Mitt Romney called President Obama “a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy.” Wednesday, a reporter asked Mitt Romney to clarify his remarks. Are discussions of inequality really about envy, or are they about fairness? Romney doubled-down:
QUESTIONER: Did you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious? Is it about jealousy, or fairness?ROMNEY: You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on 99 percent versus one percent, and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent, you have opened up a wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God.
What’s interesting here is that Romney isn’t trying to blur the distinctions. A different approach might have been to declare something along the lines of “I want to be the President of the 100 percent.” Instead, however, he burrowed further down into - in effect - protecting the status of the much-vilified one percent.
QUESTIONER: Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy, though?ROMNEY: I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like. But the president has made it part of his campaign rally. Everywhere he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires and executives and Wall Street. It’s a very envy-oriented, attack-oriented approach and I think it will fail.
In many ways this would seem to be Romney moving to just where the Democrats want him. President Obama has already made it fairly clear that his re-election campaign will have a Theodore Roosevelt-like quality to it that will stress “fairness” and the Buffet Rule. However, Romney’s rhetoric suggests his team thinks they can battle this head on, and instead of blurring the grounds, make this a key distinction between the two men.
Democrats aren’t the only ones who will try to use Romney’s “envy” rhetoric against him. In Rock Hill, South Carolina Wednesday, Newt Gingrich also saw Romney’s comments as a golden opportunity:
I think it’s funny that on the one hand he wants to run around touting his record, on other hand if anybody asks a question about his record, he hides behind an entire framework and to question the facts is to be anti-capitalist. That is nonsense — baloney is the term I think I was using the other morning…That is the smoke screen of those who are afraid to be accountable.
Of course, the more Republicans like Newt weigh in on this, striking the same notes as Democrats, the more this line of attack seems a legitimate and non-partisan one rather than a sign of liberal extremism.
Watch the video of Romney on “the politics of envy” below:
Pema Levy
Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.
Quiet rooms? Let's go back to the good old boys dividing up America like we did in 2001 with the SCOTUS and even before that with ole Phil Gramm telling the banks it's now a free for all or even before that when we chased those blacks down a road and hung em and then laughed about it over some Jim Beam speaking red neck all the way.
Yeah..quiet rooms and envy. Romney..your quiet rooms told America much. Is that where you burned your $100 bills lighting your cigars after raiding a company?
Putting Mitt Romney in an anagram finder program gives you, among others:
Memory tint
Minty metro
My torn item
My, I'm rotten
and my favorite:
Not my merit.
Robber Baron Romney.
If this is the tack Romney intends to take in the general, Obama will stomp him like a narc at a biker rally. I can't wait!
Does Romney seriously think I envy HIM? He's such a sad person.......
This must be why he won't release his tax returns--he' worried we'll turn even greener with envy if we know his true financial worth!!!
He really thinks people envy him because he has mone? All righty, then!
So Warren Buffett who's worth 500 Mittens is envious of Mittens.
Tell that to Warren.
Really Mitt, all the American People want is for you and your Rich croonies to pay your fair share of Taxes!! If you and your croonies love your country like you say you do then Do the Right Thing!
The more I see of Romney, the less I like him. I doubt that I am alone in this.
mark Since likability and "having a beer with..." is so important nowadays, this perception is going to dog (and his poor Irish Setter is another story!) and damn Romney. Folks just aren't going to like him on either side of the aisle especially when the only accomplishment he's not trying to run from is putting people out of work.
Romney is caught in a Catch 22 situation. He has made his experience at Bain the foundation of his argument as to why he should president. Without this experience to point to, all that remains is a sketchy one-term governorship. But everytime that he points to his business experience, questions are raised about his tenure at Bain.
Economic inequality is the GOP's new Climate Change. Simply deny the existence of the problem and do nothing to provide solutions.
Exactly, we should all talk about envy and pretend that what Mitt Romney's philosophy of capitalism as manifested through Bain Capital Management never hurt anyone. He never caused people to loose their jobs, children to go hungry, people to loose their homes and their health care, loose their lives, destroy the American economy and the American dream. No lets all pretend its about envy.
Is that why the guy asked him about his member?
So, Romney's multi-millionaire opponents are practicing class warfare against him?
In a desperate bid to attract Irish-American voters, Mitt Romney has asked the Elders of the LDS Melchizedek Priesthood to change the name of the Angel Moroni to the Angel Mahoney.
He's really blaming OWS on Obama? And we're supposed to believe that? What a fool.
Apparently David Eisenhower was John Fogerty's inspiration for "Fortunate Son." If you look at the lyrics Mitt Romney is by far a much better fit.
Wasn't "Up in the Air" originally called the "Mitt Romney Story?'
Pema,
It's Buffett, not that hard to find out: http://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/.
We already tried -- just three years ago now -- the "businessman President" model. Turns out that running a business does *not* qualify you to run the Executive Branch. Who 'd 'a' thunk it?
David Especially since Shrub specialized in running businesses into the ground and getting bailed out by Daddy's friends.
MaybeDavid Daddy's SAUDI friends.
Romney's a governor's son . He has no idea of what working class people go through . Loves to talk about his business credentials for the White House but can't take the scrutiny of his career that comes along with it. Income inequality , unfair tax policies , and a bloated and unproductive financial sector that he exemplifies and he whines about class warfare . Not all business ventures or styles of capitalism are the same . His is the problem , not what makes society more productive. I like that " one nation under God " comment . Typical right winger . Thinks he's got a lock on religious virtue . Between his Bain career , 47th in jobs and his endless gaffs and flip flops and we have a guy we can run against.
Alan Wilkov It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no governor's son, y'all.
Alan Wilkov Of course not, that is why his campaign is desperately trying to hide his tax returns and his offshore accounts. These should become as much of a cause celeb among democratic circles as President Obama's birth certificates. We need websites tracking down every last detail, every name of everyone slime-ball that worked for this guy, the works. Plaster it over the entire planet until Romney is smeared in the very same tar he used to cover over the lives and livelihoods of so many Americans who lost their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives. There are people who committed suicide over what Romney did. He needs to take credit where credit is due. Romney makes Gordon Gekko look like a philanthropist.
Let me see if I got this straight. I shouldn't be envious of Mitten's money, but I should just shut up and accept the fact he gets all the bennies those millions provide him?
Riiiiiight.
And don't you dare go envying the low marginal (i.e. capital gains based) rate he got in the VC biz! He earned the right to that low rate, and you didn't! He was a job creator, for crying out loud! larbro
Dixon 2.0larbro Job Cremator is a more apt description.
Just spent a long weekend with pre-school granddaughters and realized that Mittens is a dead ringer for the Man with the Yellow Hat.
pdodell And then there's Curious George.
Take the R out of Romney and all you've got is money.
Shorter Mitt: "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful... and rich... and white..."
Mitt Romney, CEO President here, making my first official acts as president of the USA. First, let me say that I appreciate all the hard work that everybody in these here United States have put in to get this company, I mean country, where it is. However, we have come to a crossroads where we just have to face up the fact that certain parts of the country are under performing. It doesn't do anybody any good if we stick our head in the sand and wish things were better.
Therefore, as of 2pm this afternoon, certain assets of the country are going to be spun out, folded, or combined to increase national effectiveness, and to increase cash on hand to help with our persistent cash flow problems.
Now, now, I know many of you have lived in the United States for a long time, and again I want to emphasize this isn't a judgement on you, but these things have to be done to hit our targets. In recognition of the all their years of service, people in the states we will be terminating will receive a one time cash payout equal to one thousand dollars for each year of service as a citizen. They will also be receiving gift certificates to Disney World for their entire family, plus repatriation training to help them find productive lives in a new country.
I'd also like to announce the rebranding effort, spear-headed by the newly formed Bain branch of government, to help build our image overseas. The logo isn't finalized yet, but I think you'll all be very pleased to see what we've come up with. Introducing, the Exceptional States of America (tm).
Those of you who are not being dislocated and who still with to be part of the Exceptional States of America, you'll be getting a, well, it's really just a formality, but some forms you need to sign, just to make sure we are all pulling together in the same direction.
Good night, and God bless.
Shhhh, quiet I'm running for office, for Pete's sake. I can't be telling people I'm a multi-millionaire vulture capitalist. Let's talk about this in a quiet room.
I don't envy Romney his wealth at all. What I can't abide are his hypocrisy and political opportunism. When he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994, he ran as a prochoice moderate Republican who was also supportive of gay rights. He ran a similar campaign when he ran for governor. Once he became gov, however, and set his sights on the national scene, he tacked 180 degrees to the right on both issues and many others. I have no use for any of the GOP field, but at least some of the others have been consistent in their idiocy and seem to have the courage of their deeply misguided convictions. Romney has flip flopped and said whatever he thinks a given audience wants to hear, depending on what office he is seeking for two decades now. He has no courage and no convictions, besides trying to win the office he believes was unfairly denied his father
macsurf I agree. Mr. Romney may have his money but at least I and many of my fellow Americans have our integrity, our honor, and a sense of human decency, which is a lot more than Mr. Bain Capital Management will ever have and he knows it.
Terrible analogy, Robo-Mitt. What kind of war is it in which one side makes up only 1% of the population?
Mickey Bitsko The side that's comprised of alien reptilians from Sigma Draconis.
bluestatedon That does it. Notify Blake's 7!
bluestatedonMickey Bitsko All your base are belong to us.
Mickey Bitsko Oh, didn't you know that there is no such thing as the 1% and 99% according to Romney, we are all 100% American. According to Santorum there is no such thing as class in this country.
Is it just me, or am I the only one who finds that Mitt Romney is the most repulsively cold and calculating individual we've had running for the White House in my 50-year lifetime? This guy is running in large part upon his record as a businessman and venture capitalist in the private sector, yet he very publicly begrudges and rebukes anyone who seeks to discuss the details of that record. He is a disingenuous, prepackaged, Grade A phony.
I agree with you. I think his handlers will be limiting the press interviews from here on out. He's callous. He's the anti-empathy candidate. Put a giant % next to him and you know what you've got. I knew whatever chance of decent vision emerging died when he ran that anti-immigrant advertisement against Perry. Tax policy is secret? Wow. OTOH, he could be the best thing that ever happened to the electorate's awareness, hopefully! Donald from Hawaii
i'm about the same age and I agree. I was apapthetic about him before this election. Now I find him disgusting, and a dick generally.
Donald from Hawaii Did you seek Jack Welch and his trophy bride Suzy sharing a Cialis moment over Mittney the other night? It was like watching porn.
Donald from Hawaii Yes, he appears to have the morals of Richard M. Nixon. He is another Nixon just waiting to happen.
Envy you and your kind? I think not.
Romney thinks that TALKING about these disparities is nothing more than the "politics of envy." What then do we call the ACT OF CREATING such disparities? There is nothing wrong with doing it but talking about it is immoral. Romney [fingers in ears, eyes shut]: "You're all jealous! LA LA LA LA LA LA."
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