Mitt’s Rich Predicament
MITT ROMNEY may be as close to a walking, talking dollar sign as presidential politics has ever witnessed. If money were made flesh, it would apparently have fair skin, flawless hair and an off-key tropism toward patriotic anthems.
I say that only partly because of all of those awkward asides of his, the ones that keep reminding voters, who need no further reminding, that he’s loaded. And I’m not really focused on just how loaded he is. With a personal net worth in the vicinity of $225 million, Romney is no Warren Buffett, no Bill Gates. There have been more affluent candidates for the presidency. For lesser offices, too. Michael Bloomberg could buy and sell Romney several times over and still have enough left for a couple of Cadillacs.
But every discussion of Romney’s campaign, no matter the angle, winds up referring to riches. It’s uncanny. Wealth is the Go on the Monopoly board of Mitt: you’re either starting there, heading there or circling past it. If only you collected $200 each time.
His detractors, citing his personal awkwardness and policy flip-flops, believe that money is the only reason he’s doing as well as he is, which isn’t as well as he’d hoped. His campaign’s fund-raising total of nearly $75 million by the end of February dwarfs those of his Republican rivals, and that’s not counting the coffers of the super PAC supporting him. The two treasuries combined fuel a spending juggernaut.
But they also hammer home the image of him as the designated frontman of the moneyed establishment: Mammon’s missionary. At a time of populist rancor and class resentment, that’s no asset, and some of his supporters believe it’s holding him back.
The truth lies in between. Romney’s presidential bid, a fascinating commentary on wealth in politics, suggests various ways in which a financial advantage can curdle into something more complicated, a tactical blessing turned optical curse.
Last week provided fresh examples of just how thoroughly money defines him. On Friday morning, the banner headline atop the Politico Web site was this: “Romney calls in cash cavalry.” The story below it pegged him as someone who could marshal greenbacks at will and noted that his campaign and super PAC together deployed $32.7 million in January alone.