A Paranoid Romney Accuses Obama of Making Voters Jealous of Him

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Last updated on February 10th, 2013 at 07:07 am

In a bit of unhinged paranoia, Mitt Romney claimed that Obama is making voters jealous of him and his wealth.

Here is the video from CBS News:

Romney was asked about how this campaign is about hatred, and he answered,

If you look at the ads that have been described and the divisiveness based upon income, age, ethnicity and so forth, it’s designed to bring a sense of enmity and jealousy and anger and this is not, in my view, what the America people want to see. I know what I’m running for. I’m running to get American working again, to get good jobs for people with more take home pay. And the President seems to be running just to hang on to power. I think he’ll do anything in his power to try and get reelected. I want to get this country going again. That’s what brought me to the race and hopefully we can have a debate about issues and our differences on issues and contrast in that area. But these personal attacks, I think, are demeaning to the office of the White House and the comments yesterday by the Vice President, I think, just diminish the White House that much more…. I think the comments of this nature sink the White House just a little lower. The American people expect something better from the President than these kind of divisive comments.

Romney used one word in that answer that stands out. Romney accused Obama of making the American people jealous. Who are voters being made jealous of? Why, they are jealous of Mitt Romney. For those who have followed the Romney campaign, this should all sound familiar.

In an interview with Matt Lauer after the South Carolina Republican primary, Romney claimed that anyone who talks about distribution of wealth, wealth and power, or Wall Street is envious of him and his fellow one percenters.

Here is the video:

Transcript:

LAUER: When you said that we already have a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy, I’m curious about the word envy. 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. The American people, I believe in the final analysis, will reject it.

It is very difficult to believe that Mitt Romney is seriously interested in the middle class and job creation when he believes that their complaints are based on envy and jealousy. Romney’s personal attacks on Obama are the mark of a very desperate campaign. The Romney campaign is trying to undo hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ad spending on their part and behalf by claiming that they are the real positive force for change in the race.

They have also given up on trying to make Romney more personally popular, and are now focused on attacking President Obama’s personal popularity. Mitt Romney is running the textbook negative campaign. Each step in their strategy is straight out of Negative Campaigning 101, but the reason why candidates like Romney lose, and in most cases lose badly, is because the negativity has cumulative effect that pushes voters away from them.

Mitt Romney exasperates this by being genuinely, personally unlikeable as a candidate. Romney’s rich guy, you are all just jealous of me claims are a peek into the real thoughts of the Republican nominee. The whining, complaining, and apology demanding strategy is designed to attack the personal character of Obama, but an unintended consequence of this is that is also reveals a piece of Romney’s true character.

No one is going to feel sympathy and vote for the complaining rich guy, especially when he believes that everyone is jealous of him and his money.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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