Romney's wealth

[blackhawk]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

 

[Steelplate]

Because sour grapes is a conservative's favorite fruit?

 

[NYcarbineer]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

 

[Oddball]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

 

[uscitizen]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Lets look at this from another direction ok?
Why was Kerry the ketchup king's wealth an issue with the right then and now Romneys is not with them?

 

[uscitizen]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

So did McCain marry his money....
I do not recall the right making an issue of that.

Partisan parrots is the answer to this thread.

 

[Oddball]

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

So did McCain marry his money....

Yeah, and all the homes that he didn't know about were an issue as well.

Still, I bet that Cindy McCain knows what the hell chili is.

 

[JoeB131]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Funny, I remember the right doing nothing but complaining about Kerry's wealth and the fact he married into it.

BUt Kerry didn't get wealthy screwing working people out of their pensions and health insurance, I think there was that going for him. All he had to do was fuck a really ugly rich broad.

 

[JoeB131]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

If you mean, "Looted companies of their assets and leaving other people holding the liabilities" as "earning", then, yeah, i guess Romney earned it.

 

[blackhawk]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Of course that is understandable as is the Democrats focus on Romney's wealth what I was talking about and I should have been more clear about is the medias focus on Romney's wealth compare the number of stories about Romney's wealth so far to those about Kerry's wealth in 2004 it's not close also remember that John Edwards was his running mate also a very rich guy. So in 2004 you had two very rich men on the same ticket who got far less attention for their wealth from the media than Romney gets now.

 

[uscitizen]

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

So did McCain marry his money....

Yeah, and all the homes that he didn't know about were an issue as well.

Still, I bet that Cindy McCain knows what the hell chili is.

 

[AquaAthena]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Of course that is understandable as is the Democrats focus on Romney's wealth what I was talking about and I should have been more clear about is the medias focus on Romney's wealth compare the number of stories about Romney's wealth so far to those about Kerry's wealth in 2004 it's not close also remember that John Edwards was his running mate also a very rich guy. So in 2004 you had two very rich men on the same ticket who got far less attention for their wealth from the media than Romney gets now.

"I guess the president and you and I are three examples of lucky people who married up. And some would say maybe me more so than others." --

Sen. John Kerry, during the third presidential debate.

 

[Zander]

Marrying for money; John Kerry knows how to do it.

 

[whitehall]

The dirty little secret is that democrats are protected by the liberal media. Kerry's wealth wasn't an issue because the media would not allow it to be an issue. Wouldn't you think that FDR and the degenerate Kennedy clan would make the wealth issue moot? It's sad but that's all the left has these days.

 

[NYcarbineer]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

Romney wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid so he can keep more of his.

 

[Zander]

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

Romney wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid so he can keep more of his.

And dirty air and water!!!

 

[Zander]

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

Romney wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid so he can keep more of his.

And dirty air and water!!!

Drowning puppies too!!!

 

[SniperFire]

Conservatives tried everything they could think of to make Kerry's wealth an issue in 2004.

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

Romney wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid so he can keep more of his.

My, how .... Marxist of you.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Lurch married his money and Romney earned his.

Romney wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid so he can keep more of his.

My, how .... Marxist of you.

That should be the GOP campaign theme.

Anyone who thinks that it's wrong at this time to cut food stamps and Medicaid so the richest Americans can have a huge tax cut is a Marxist.

good luck with that.

 

[ladyliberal]

I have a simple question why is Mitt Romney's wealth such a big issue in this election but the wealth of John Kerry in 2004 was not?

Short version: Romney's wealth is more of an issue because Romney's policies favor the wealthy and Romney has defined himself by how he got his wealth.

I agree that Romney's wealth has proven and will prove more of an issue than Kerry's did. I think there are two main reasons:

1) Romney's policies directly benefit the wealthy, whereas Kerry's did not. Romney broadly endorses cutting taxes on the wealthy and reducing spending on programs that directly benefit the non-wealthy. Kerry seemed to favor letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire and expanding programs that directly benefit the non-wealthy. Of course, we can argue about what the actual effects of their programs would have been or will be, but there is a widespread (and to my mind, accurate) perception that Romney's plan will directly benefit people like him. Such a perception did not exist for Kerry.

Still, Bush was a wealthy guy who favored cutting the taxes of wealthy people (and did). Why wasn't his wealth as much an issue as Romney's is?

2) Romney has defined himself by his time at Bain, which is of course directly tied to his personal wealth. More than any other major-party candidate in recent memory, Romney has de-emphasized his government service and focused on his private sector experience. While people argue about whether Bain actually served its clients well, everyone agrees on how his time at Bain affected Romney-- it made him very, very rich. When Romney talks about his time as a job creator (and, more circumspectly, as a job destroyer) it is inevitable that he reminds the listener that while he was creating jobs he was also lining his own pockets in a way that a public servant would not.