For those who didn’t watch the Dec. 10 Republican debate, the most memorable moment was when Mitt Romney challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet over something Romney allegedly wrote in the first edition of his book No Apology. After the debate, Perry said the amount proposed was “a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen.” To that, I say “So?”
Nobody disputes that Mitt Romney is a wealthy man. The question is, did the challenge make him come off as an insensitive rich snob? If so, how much should he have suggested? It is worth noting that Perry isn’t poor either, reporting a net worth of $2.8 million earlier this year.
As a gambler, I applaud Romney for suggesting the bet. When two people simply can’t agree about something, a wager is the usual way to settle it. For example, recently a friend of mine predicted that Miley Cyrus would be pregnant, in jail, or in rehab by the age of 21. I disagreed, so we bet $250 on it, which for us was big enough to make it interesting, yet small enough to keep it friendly.
Democrats, best positioned to paint Romney as out of touch with middle-class Americans, had a field day reacting to Romney’s debate wager, mocking him in Web videos and soliciting suggestions on Twitter about what $10,000 could buy in the “real world.”
Among the suggestions proffered by the Nevada Democratic Party: three years of gasoline, or 13 months’ rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas.
The Democratic National Committee produced a fake $10,000 bill with Romney’s face in the center, hoping to draw as clear a contrast as possible between President Obama and the man whom general-election polls show poses the biggest threat to a second Obama term.
“This is a blindside for him. He really doesn’t understand what people go through in their everyday life, because he is a millionaire 200 times over,” said Maria Cardona, a veteran Democratic strategist.
Cardona said other snippets during the campaign have hinted at this weakness. She pointed to comments Romney made about corporations being people and the foreclosure market needing to bottom out in Nevada instead of the government intervening to save troubled mortgage-holders.
“Anyone who’s studied political science knows when a voter goes into the booth, at the most basic gut level, they’re going to pick someone who understands what they’re going through,” she said.
Romney’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
But Democrats haven’t been the only ones taking advantage of the opportunity to knock Romney while he’s down.
Perry called the offer of a wager “out of touch” and said it caught him off guard. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) supporters took to Internet message boards to point out that Mormonism, Romney’s religion, prohibits gambling. Some went as far as to say he had violated Iowa state laws pertaining to gambling and might have committed a felony.
And pressed by Romney to give back the money he was paid by federally backed mortgage lender Freddie Mac, Gingrich on Monday agreed to consider doing so — if Romney would give back the money he made as an investor running companies that sometimes laid off workers to save costs.
“And I’ll bet you 10 dollars, not 10,000, that he won’t take the offer,” said Gingrich, according to CNN.
Romney surrogate Tom Stemberg, who founded Staples, shot back with a retort geared at flipping the tables on the “out of touch” smear and re-establishing Romney as the candidate of discipline and values.
“Newt Gingrich comes from the world where politicians are paid millions after they retire to influence their friends in Washington,” Stemberg said in a statement. “Mitt Romney comes from the private sector, where the economy is built by hard work and entrepreneurial drive.
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