Ann Romney: ‘I Don’t Even Consider Myself Wealthy’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/05/438264/ann-romney-wealthy/

Ann Romney: ‘I Don’t Even Consider Myself Wealthy’

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Mar 5, 2012 at 5:07 pm


Apparently “Romneying” — defined as “accidentally bragging about your place high up in the economic stratosphere” — runs in the family.

His wife, Ann Romney, inexplicably talked about her wealth this afternoon during an interview on Fox News. “We can be poor in spirit, and I don’t even consider myself wealthy, which is an interesting thing, it can be here today and gone tomorrow,” she said.

Watch it @ link~

The couple made $20.9 million last year, making more in a day than an average American makes in a year, and are worth about $250 million overall.

From discussing his NASCAR team-owning friends, to saying he likes firing people, to bragging about Ann’s two Cadillacs, Mitt also has a problem with accidentally and inappropriately touting his enourmous wealth.

[Jello Biafra]

1. Easy one...that's because it's her husband's money......n/t

[mike_c]

2. one of the hallmarks of privilege...

...seems to be an utter unawareness of it.

[WingDinger]

35. And how much more they have to deal with than the lessers.

[HughBeaumont]

42. Not to mention their shamelessness and insufferability quotients shoot through the roof.

[MrScorpio]

43. Bingo!

That comes with every other type as well

[Happyhippychick]

3. Did her butler forget to tell her?

[Avalux]

4. Well, maybe the allowance Mittens gives her is modest, aside from the two cadillacs.

She's primarily a homemaker so she's been dependent on him her whole life. BTW, she has MS, so I really don't want to beat up on her too much. Unless of course she puts her foot in her mouth.....

[Worried senior]

17. She may have MS

but when she makes stupid statements she doesn't get a free pass.

[hlthe2b]

5. She wins "most annoying" hands down. Mitt, "most embarrassing"....

(well at least, after GWBUsh*--that one's close)

Why the hell anyone would want them representing this country. And have Mitt break out in a rendition of "Davy Crocket"? or have Ann demand "obedience?"

Good Gawd...

[demosincebirth]

6. I guess neither does Queen Elizebeth. If you've never known anything but wealth, you can say that.

[Moonwalk]

7. If she really identifies with the poor in spirit, why no objections to her husband...

making money by firing people and destroying companies? No one who identifies with the poor in spirit would live off wealth made by creating and exploiting poverty.

[karynnj]

24. I could be wrong, but I interpret "poor in spirit" differently

If I were to say that someone poor was rich in spirit, I would mean that they are surrounded by love ones and are able to enjoy the life that they have. As I read it that way, the sentence was actually sad - and admission that you could be worth millions, but at heart, be a poor little rich boy or girl - lacking for nothing material, but not being happy, healthy, and emotionally sad.

I suspect she meant it as you interpreted - that she can identify "in spirit" with those who are poor. I suspect that ANYONE willing to say that - really can't. After all, it presupposes a group who main identifier is that they are poor. I suspect that there is in reality no heterogeneity in that "group".

It is strange that the Romney's don't use the words of the Kennedys, and others, who quoted the Bible saying that to those who much was given, mush is expected. I would have suspected that the Romneys will site the charitable contributions given. It is mind boggling that she would imply that there was any question that she was incredibly wealthy. (In 2004, I respected that Kerry did not try to point out that his immediate family was not wealthy - just upper middle class - and that he worked summer jobs for spending money in high school and college. The fact was he was born into an elite world that gave him strings that most of us don't have to get opportunities that we will never get. In Mitt Romney's case, he was every bit as privileged and far richer. Ann has been wealthy since she married Mitt 45 years ago.)

[ProSense]

8. Ann Romney: Oh

...these little old things: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002347914

She's just helping to steer: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002361173

[R.Blue]

9. Well that's nice (sarcasm)

Grass is always greener on the other side syndrome? Or just not rich enough?

[Gormy Cuss]

33. In their case, the grass was greener because of the undocumented workers caring for it.

But Ann was nice to them, so that makes it alright.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/01/illegal_immigrants_toiled_for_governor/

[KamaAina]

10. Is "Ann" short for "Marie Antoinette"?

[Iggo]

11. Oh, honey...

[nobodyspecial]

12. It's easy not to think about money

when you have so much of it.

[DefenseLawyer]

13. A three hour tour..... a three hour tour..... n/t

[MichiganVote]

14. Me neither. It wasn't there yesterday and it won't be there 2morrow.

[Blue Owl]

15. Well she is a few Cadillacs short of obscenely wealthy...

They haven't reached the C. Montgomery Burns level just yet.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. She and her husband should invent a new dance: doing the Romney

which involves waving your hands in the air and letting wads of $100 bills fall all around the floor.

[malthaussen]

18. Hey, Ann, I don't think of myself as poor

Can I stop paying taxes now?

-- Mal

[marlakay]

19. She is not thinking clearly

At least if you are rich,embrace it but in a good way like Buffet or Gates.

[hifiguy]

20. This proves that she and Mittens are the most tone-deaf couple

in the history of American politics. Un-freaking-believable.

[enough]

23. You said it. (nt)

[malaise]

21. Whatfuchingever!

[EC]

22. Yeah, like she ever worried about having food

at the end of the month. Or heat, or electric and on and on.

[Arugula Latte]

25. Keep flappin' those privileged lips, Ann.

You're making it easier for the President to kick your husband's ass back to Utah or Massachusetts or Michigan or California or wherever he'll go to lick his wounds in November.

[spanone]

26. with $250 million it doesn't matter how you consider yourself, ma'am

[renate]

27. what a profoundly ignorant and callous thing for her to say

Short of a zombie attack, there is no way--NONE--that Ann Romney will ever find herself medically bankrupt or homeless or with a negative balance in the bank. WTH is she talking about, "it can be here today and gone tomorrow"? I mean, really, what is she talking about?

[Moonwalk]

30. Sounds like the kind of thing depression era wealthy folk say...

...I don't know Ann's background, but I've met a few, relatively wealthy depression era people who do act and think that it might all vanish tomorrow because they remember a time when millionaires literally did go from riches to rags overnight. As you said, however, it's highly unlikely anything like that would happen to the Romneys. Not unless all that money they made is in stocks and bad banks. Or loaned out to Greece

[kestrel91316]

31. Seriously. If I ever found myself with $250 million, they'd have to pry it from

my cold, dead hands. It would be stuck in the securest of investments, sacrificing income for stability of principal.

Anybody who HAS that money and manages to lose it all DESERVES to have lost it all. That takes pretty major stupidity.

[HughBeaumont]

44. Right? You'd have to be phenomenally incompetent with money to lose $250 million straight.

Even if you put all of it in an MM rich people's account that earned a measly 1 percent, that's 2.5 million a year . . . for doing absolutely NUTHIN'. Even the Romneys could easily live on that.

[Marrah_G]

28. I really do hate these people

She is clueless about how most people live.

She probably spends as much on her hair as I make in a year.

[mainer]

29. The wealthy never do. They're basically insecure, which is why they became wealthy.

A lot of the psychology of wealth has to do with a sense of insecurity. That's why so many of them are incredibly thrifty and obsess about running out of money.

[limpyhobbler]

32. "The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it." -Edith Wharton

The Romneys keep making weird ridiculous comments about the issue of their wealth.

The problem is they are trying to justify their unimaginable personal wealth, something there is really no justification for.
So they have to get really creative and it ends up sounding just dumb.

[Arkansas Granny]

34. I'd swear that the only time the Romney's open their mouths,

it's to trade feet. Has no one explained to them just how these statements sound to the "average American"? I can't believe that their handlers have not cautioned them about this.

[HughBeaumont]

45. Ooooh . . . Chris Wallace (a Faux-rightist tool) asked him just that. His answer?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002356339

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace pressed Romney about that statement as well as his answer during Wednesday's GOP debate when he refused to directly answer a question on the biggest misconception about him.

"Governor, can you understand why some voters would be put off by those things?" Wallace asked.

"You know, I can't be perfect," Romney said with a laugh, defending the Cadillac comment by saying his wife has a car at each of their homes, one in Massachusetts and one in California.

He continued, “If people think there’s something wrong with being successful in America, [font size="3"]then they’d better vote for the other guy, because I’ve been extraordinarily successful and I want to use that success and that know-how to help the American people." [/font]

UN. Believable.

[perdita9]

36. How can a smart woman say something so dumb?

Like your husband wasn't struggling enough to get people to like him, you had to make it worse, Ann.

[Robyn66]

37. Here's a good one for Anne

Let them eat cake!

[gatorboy]

38. No, she considers herself "extremely" wealthy?

And this "poor in spirit" remark makes me want to vomit. It's rich man code for, "See we're just like you little people!"

[snooper2]

39. The Comments ROFL

Martin Pinkerton · Framingham State College

Newt's Moon Colony will be tax-free, they should move there. I'm sure the magic underwear is capable of withstanding a vacuum, it's handled those two long enough.

[mnmoderatedem]

40. I'm beginning to think

Obama does not need to do anything to win reelection except sit back and let conservatives talk.

[HughBeaumont]

47. The modern Republican's problems are five-fold:

1. None of them is named "Bush" (quick: name the last winning Republican that didn't have a Bewsh or Nixon on the ticket!).
2. They refuse to learn from mistakes or admit error.
3. They want this to be the "Greed is Good" Reagan 1980s (when they peaked, IMHO)
4. They think strapped-for-decades people are still buying the Reaganomics pile.
5. There's no way any of these hyper-theo-fascists can be sold as a moderate like Bewsh somehow was.

[LongTomH]

56. Don't expect an easy victory!

Remember, no matter what gaffes the Romneys may make:

• They have half a billion dollars promised for their general election war chest; 200 million from the Koch bros. alone, and
  
• they also can rely on the Dark Arts of Sith Lord Karl Rove, and
  
• they will face a compliant main$tream media that will go easy on them and highlight any errors by Obama (including those he really didn't make!).

Be prepared for an uphill fight, or be prepared to listen to this couple's Richie Rich rhetoric for 8 years, plus the damage they will do to whatever remains of a middle class existence in the United States. Oh, and be prepared for them to get us into more wars.

[FedUp_Queer]

61. You could NOT be more right.

I remember more than one sentiment in 2000 like this: http://www.anusha.com/gorewill.htm

[Liberalynn]

41. Keep on talking Romneys

Continuing waking the country up to just how cluess the both of you really are.

[dynasaw]

46. Of Course Everyone Can Afford

"a horse in every port," a couple of cadillacs as well as "a $10 million home in New Hampshire.. . a townhouse in Belmont, Mass., and a nearby mansion, where one of Romney’s sons lives, and where Romney was registered to vote as recently as last year. There was also the $5 million ski-house in an exclusive area in Utah, but he sold it last year." In addition there's the remodeling going on in La Jolla, California . . .to nearly quadruple the size of his $12 million oceanfront manse in La Jolla.

Romney has filed an application with the city to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot, single-story home at 311 Dunemere Dr. and replace it with a two-story, 11,062-square-foot structure…. Tentative plans call for new retaining walls and a relocated driveway, but would retain the existing lap pool and spa."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_08/romneys_real_estate031688.php

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

48. Her chauffeur told her to say that. Or, maybe one of her maids.

[polichick]

49. To be fair, she was saying that her true "riches" are...

...family and friends.

[Yavin4]

50. Wrap Your Heads Around this number: 8,000

There are only 8,000 Americans richer than the Romneys.

[liberal N proud]

51. She is poor in spirit?

[LynneSin]

52. I personally think she's uncomfortable as hell being thrust into this position

I feel a bit bad for her.

Dealing with MS is no laughing matter and the stress the campaign trail has got to be wearing on her.

She's obvious a woman who has lived a comfortable life for a very long time and really just has no clue how to relate to us 'common folks'.

Whoever advised her to say "I don't Consider Myself Wealthy" should be fired. Really? You think the world will feel sorry for her for living a life of privileged owning several Cadillac and millions of dollars in show horses (she won't even tell her husband how many she owns).

She would have done much better to just acknowledge she's been fortunate in life and then move on from there. Perhaps talk about charities she has worked with or something like that. Last night she said the equivalent of "Let them eat cake"

Saying "I Don't Even Consider Myself Wealthy" was about as smart as saying "I'm Not a Witch". It just shows you have no clue with reality.

[Cleita]

53. If Mitt and Ann want to try to live on minimum wage for a month,

like rent an apartment, get transportation to work, negotiate health care issues and eat and buy insurance and whatever else they need, and if they still feel they aren't wealthy after than, then I will call them liars.

[Ganja Ninja]

54. Here's a clue to knowing if you're wealthy or not.

If your daily income is more than most American families make in a year you might be wealthy.

[NICO9000]

55. She needs a "Nickled and Dimed" moment

Although I doubt it would make any impression on this little sociopath.

[Dont call me Shirley]

57. No doubt, she's spends more in a year on beauty services and supplies

than most people make in a year. All from her husband's job cutting company, off-shored "savings" and investement income. No earned income there.

[ProfessorGAC]

58. She Is As Out Of Touch As He Is

GAC

[Incitatus]

59. Hey, she can't buy her own spaceship and vacation home on the moon.

We're in this together!

[FedUp_Queer]

60. I would LOVE to be that not wealthy.