Arnold Schwarzenegger is worth about $200 million, about the same as Mitt Romney. Yet Schwarzenegger, despite his widely publicized flaws, projected a public persona both as an actor and governor of California, of being engaged with the public and wanting to interact with people.
I’ve heard Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, speak. He’s a billionaire yet was perfectly at ease talking to five hundred people about tech trends.He connected with the audience and seems like a regular person.
Romney lacks that completely. He appears to have little or no empathy. This isn’t because he is in the 1%, because so are Schwarzenegger and Schmidt, and both of them are capable of interacting with regular people.
Hmm. I got the flu last year. But it isn’t because I was exposed to the flu virus, because my wife was also exposed and didn’t get the flu. Did I get that right?
I used to teach. Romney reminds me of my Asperger students.
My wife read a fascinating book by someone either w Aspergers or something like he. He was plenty smart but clueless w people. One day he found Amy Vanderbilt’s Book of Etiquette and it completely changed his life because now he knew what the rules were. Walk into a room, look at people, smile, shake their hands – that kind of thing.
AARP Magazine carries an interview with Romney in which he says that small businesses aren’t hiring because they fear new regulations and higher taxes. Really? We’re not hiring because the economy sucks.
This was one of several idiocies spouted in the interview, including:
* The enormous burden of taxes on the Middle Class. (The median family income is about $48K; a two-child family making $48K pays little or no income tax. Methinks he considers Middle Class to start at about $100K, which is actually more like the top 7%.)
* By removing regulations on offshore and ANWAR drilling, the U.S. could cease oil imports and become energy self-sufficient. (Offshore reserves are projected to contain enough oil to last our voracious oil appetite for 9 months, while ANWAR is projected to last a year. Then what?)
After reading the interview, my first thought was, the man’s an idiot. But could he be that stupid, or is he just saying what some folks want to hear?
Where have all the leaders gone? We don’t really have any any more…