Why this is the end of the road for Romney

Dear Reader,
     If you've had enough of my Romney rant, just skip this.   However if, as I do, you savor every morsel of the Romney-bashing (it has a wonderful German name for it:   Schadenfreude) as the just payback for all the Obama-bashing, birtherism, and false accusations thrown at him -- then read and enjoy this death knell.

     Oh, I don't mean that Romney is going to drop out.   That would be too drastic and would likely result in a loss for Republicans anyway.  Let him stay in and damage other Republicans down the ticket.  And let Paul Ryan damage his future reputation as a national candidate along with the sinking ship.

     The following is an essay by Peter Goodman, business editor for the Huffington Post.
 
The reason the Romney campaign is now curtains is not the tone of those disdainful things he said about struggling Americans when he was behind closed doors with campaign contributors in Florida. We already knew that Romney views less fortunate people as losers and parasites.

The reason the video kills what remains of his bid for the White House is because of what it tells us about his understanding of the basic facts of the American situation: He thinks there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the economy, and there are plenty of lucrative opportunities out there for anyone willing to work for them. . . .


But what Romney just got caught saying on video is that everything is pretty much fine. If it's not fine for you and your family, that's your own whiny fault. . . .

Given how many are not doing well -- 80 percent of the workforce has seen their wages decline in real terms over the last quarter-century, and the average household has seen 40 percent of its wealth disappear during the Great Recession -- this is politically incendiary stuff. It lumps together people who have never missed a day of work in their lives with the worst stereotypical version of a welfare queen living on the public dole. Goodbye, Mitt. Go and pursue your own opportunities in the private sector. 

Ezra Klein has adroitly handled the factual vacuity of Romney's claim that roughly half the country pays no taxes, noting that almost two-thirds of these people were working last year and handed over payroll taxes, making their effective tax burden -- 15.3 percent -- higher than Romney's 13.9 percent.

But forget those facts for a second and focus on the implications of Romney's message. In an America where nearly half the population is content to mooch off the government -- paying no taxes while using their food stamps for caviar and their Section 8 vouchers for suites at the Four Seasons -- the policy solution is straightforward: Yank the safety net and make those parasites go get one of those fabulous jobs just lying around for the taking. . . . 

Romney has already let us know that he regards the poor as deadbeats. These toxic comments at the fundraiser in Florida tell us that he sees the middle class in similar terms.

He simply does not grasp that tens of millions of Americans make so little from their jobs that they pay no federal income taxes. He does not get that many people are saturated in debt and require help to get housing, health care and groceries -- not because they are lazy or morally degenerate or carry a sense of entitlement, but because their paychecks are inadequate. . . .

We just got a glimpse of the America that Mitt Romney sees from his privileged perch, one where anyone unable to attend a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser simply hasn't tried hard enough. 
That's too much of a contrast from the America in which most people live. It's going to be hard to explain to regular people.

Which is why this is the end of the Romney candidacy.

Ralph