Romney gone wild

Here is a link which shows Mitt Romney at a Boca Raton fundraiser:

Romney exposed

The video is surprising on many levels, but I suppose it is always surprising to hear a Parseltongue speak carelessly.

What is most offensive to me is that Mr. Romney was born rich and personally embraces every tax loop-hole he can discover, yet derides the poor and the elderly as government-dependent moochers for taking credit where credit is due.

Mitt seems to forget that the Earned Income Tax credit was a conservative idea that was proposed to offset tax-cuts for the wealthy in the interests of fairness, but it has been successful at lifting people out of poverty. If anything, Mitt should be proud of the idea because it works, and remind the Florida elderly in particular about the unintended benefits of cooperative conservatism. 

Instead, Mitt characterized the largely GOP-voting elderly in a crucial swing state as "takers", as "moochers", and as essentially bought-votes. One expects that if voters were to watch this video and juxtapose it with their own finances, as perhaps military men might, that these same voters would vote against Mitt or else stay at home.

This speech was self-defeating.

More than that, it highlights a view that conservatives have adopted recently that they should be ashamed of. If a neighbor needs help, you offer a hand. It should be a self-evident truth that cooperation is better for all.

It is flattering to believe that if you are successful it is due to your virtues, but self-flattery is not a virtue even in the rich. There is more to success in life than success in finance and this video makes clear that Mitt has a lot to learn about being both human and American.

Shall we live in a society that laughs at Katrina victims, throws the elderly on the streets, slams a door in the face of the talented-but-poor, and idolizes tycoons as virtuous?

If so, then Mitt is your Messiah and Paul is your patron saint.