One thing I hate is when politicians, most of whom are millionaires, try to make themselves out to be just regular guys. It’s a weak effort to try and connect with their constituents who make far less money, and work much harder for it.
The latest example of this came last week when a spat erupted over whether or not stay-at-home moms actually work. The fact that this was even questioned should have been a dead give away that politicians and their ilk live far different lives than most of us. For most of us who grew up with a stay at home mom or is married to one, it’s not really a question. We see the work that they do and not through the filter of nanny’s, au pairs or a staff.
But millionaire politicians can’t help but to look down upon the masses and try to their best to convince us that they are just like us.
Remember the “Beer Summit” where the President sipped a Bud Light on back patio while he and his guests tackled a tricky racial issue? Just like regular folk.
After all everyone knows that the best way to solve those really tricky, controversial, issues is after you’ve had a few.
“I noticed this has been called the ‘Beer Summit.’ It’s a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys,” Obama told reporters. “This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. And that’s really all it is. This is not a university seminar” is what the president said at the time.
If the President wanted to add some real authenticity he could have put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and mowed the lawn prior to the “summit.” I wonder if the President or Mitt Romney has ever pushed a lawn mower in their lives? I somehow doubt it.
So when Democratic Consultant, Hilary Rosen got into hot water for saying Mitt Romney’s wife never worked the President just couldn’t help tossing in his two cents, noting that as struggling Harvard Law School grads pulling down a combined $479,062 a year, that the Obama’s could not afford the “luxury” of Michelle staying home.
“Once I was in the state legislature, I was teaching, I was practicing law, I’d be traveling,” he said. “And we didn’t have the luxury for her not to work.”
So they were just a couple of struggling young people trying to make it in this big ol world. Got it, but even without her $316,000 salary he was still making $162,000 a year. That would seem to be a comfortable amount for many Americans.
In 2010, according to wage statistics from the Social Security Administration (http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2010) the median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.
Over 66 % earned less than $39,959.
Yet in politicians minds, a person making $162,000 a year is just a regular guy who drinks beer, and who’s wife has to work to make ends meet. Right.
Mr. Obama’s salary is far more than my wife and I make put together and I doubt he has worried about a mortgage payment, fretted over a stack of bills, wondered what he should fix first, the car or replace some household appliance that has gone on the fritz. Do you suppose he understands what it means to have to play the timing game between writing a check for groceries and the deposit of a paycheck? Does Mitt?
And the thing is we are the lucky ones. We have jobs, good jobs, but there are others, in increasing numbers lately, who make far less than even we do. Some make nothing at all.
That’s the problem with being a regular guy, it doesn’t take much of a miss-step to send it all crashing to the ground. I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Romney and the President have a much larger margin of error.
Despite the outrage over her comments, Hilary Rosen was right about one thing, Ann Romney, and Michelle Obama for that matter, never HAD to work outside of the home a day in their lives. But it was certainly disingenuous to imply that stay at home moms don’t work or that Ann Romney’s situation is all that different from Michelle Obama’s. It is equally disingenuous for the President to imply that his financial situation was anything remotely similar to most Americans.
Politicians who play this game are making a fundamental mistake. We know that these people aren’t regular “folks,” as much as they would like us to believe it. What they seem to be missing is that we don’t want our presidents to live like us, we would much rather live like our presidents. We aspire to achieve a better standard of living, one much like what they are living now. That’s why we get up and go to work every day, despite the struggles.
I’m thankful that my wife and I are able to live comfortably and take care of our family. And I hope that, through hard work, our lives will continue to get better.
Focus on helping us do that Mr. President and we’ll take care of the “regular guy” stuff.
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