The Politics of Envy and Resentment

It's not necessarily relevant, I just love this picture

So now the Republicans are really screwed. Newt won South Carolina, and Mittens is tripping all over his own tongue and his taxes. If Newt is the nominee, Obama wins without breaking a sweat. Newtie cannot sustain the politics of resentment against cultural elites in Washington and New York. His basic message is "These fancy people wanna take America and make it into a European socialist haven where your hard-earned money goes to lazy minorities and snooty Hollywood types look down their noses at your churchgoing fineness. BTW, I know you forgive me for having an affair...or two. I'm 68 and a grandpa now, so you know I don't fool around no more. And even though I'm a professor, I ain't no intellectual."

Meanwhile Mitt accuses anyone who criticizes his 15 percent tax rate as practising the politics of envy. I think he will prevail and get the nomination and he could win against Obama.

We just finished watching DVRed segments of the roundtables of Meet the Press, Chris Matthews, and This Week. The consensus seems to be Romney has a great message (according to the right-leaning pundits) but still cannot connect with the average voter. They forgave Bain Capital, but it was the brushing off of $350K as if it were nothing that turned people off.

Yesterday we were flipping the channels looking for news about any early returns on the SC primary. My partner Jerry stopped on Fox News and we thought we'd give the other side a chance. It was the Wall Street Journal Editorial Bloviating Session or whatever that thing is called. I had not seen the host Paul Gigot in a long time since he only appears on Fox. Anyway, I disagreed with just about everything the WSJ crowd but one guy had an interesting point. He said Romney feels guilty for making so much money and paying such a relatively low tax rate, so whenever he talks about it, he comes across as embarassed, stilted and uncomfortable in his own skin. That's why he laughed when he said he didn't make very much in speaking fees. He's not at peace with all that money. That may be. While Mitt is uncomfortable, Newt is shameless and has absolutely no tinge of guilt about anything he's ever done including cheating on two wives while they were sick. That's what attractive to those SC voters, they sense Newt's unapologetic brashness. That type of ease got W. into the White House, but it won't work for Newtie.