America
owes thanks to a courageous act, probably involving civil disobedience, done,
probably by someone on the catering staff, during a high roller fund raiser for
Mitt Romney at the home of a Florida gazillionaire, Mark Leder, last May.
Because of this brave act, all Americans at last have what only millionaires
could afford before: an honest and candid view of the real Mitt Romney. Until
now, Governor Romney was Multiple Choice Mitt, here, there and everywhere on
this, that and every issue. He was the candidate who either wouldn't take a position
or took them all at one time or another, at least in public, at least until
now.
It
doesn't surprise me that most of the attention lavished on the newly
released video focuses on Romney's candid observation that
"47%" of voters don't care for him and that he returns the sentiment
in spades. But Romney talked at length on many subjects. The 2 minutes and 8
seconds that told me the most about Mitt Romney the person was his reminiscence
of a business trip he took long ago. Take a look and then come out into the
tall grass to see a transcript and to talk about what a horrible person this
anecdote makes Romney out to be.
“95% of life is
set up for you if you were born in this country. And, I remember going to ah,
uh, sorry just to bore you with stories.
“When I was
back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there. It
employed about 20,000 people. And they were almost all young women between the
ages of about 18 and 22 or 23. They were saving for potentially becoming
married.
“And they work
in these huge factories, they made various uh, small appliances. And uh, as we
were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they
worked per day, the pitance they earned, living in dormitories with uh, with
little bathrooms at the end of maybe 10, 10 room, rooms. And the rooms they
have 12 girls per room.
“Three bunk
beds on top of each other. You've seen, you've seen them? (Oh...yeah, yeah!)
And, and, and around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire
and guard towers. And, and, we said gosh! I can't believe that you, you know,
keep these girls in! They said, no, no, no. This is to keep other people from
coming in.
“Because people
want so badly to come work in this factory that we have to keep them out. Or
they will just come in here and start working and, and try and get compensated.
So we, this is to keep people out. And they said, actually Chinese New Year as
the girls go home, sometimes they decide they've saved enough money and they
don't come back to the factory.
“And he said,
so, on the weekend after Chinese New Year there will be a line of people
hundreds long, outside the factory, hoping that some girls haven't come back.
And they can come to the factory. And, and so as we were experiencing this for
the first time, going to see a factory like this in China some years ago.
“The Bain
Partner I was with turned to me and said, you know, 95% of life is settled if
you are born in America. This is uh, this is an amazing land and what we have
is unique and fortunately it is so special we are sharing it with the world.
Mitt
Romney looked around the World for something to buy to make his investors more
wealthy. What caught his eye was a chance to make money off of gadgets
manufactured by young women living in a barbed wire compound, in cramped
barracks with one bathroom for 120 women. The way Romney tells the story, it's
obvious that he perceived and understood the terrible exploitation of these
women with perfect accuracy. He just didn't really care. He had no impulse to
protect, but rather considered how he might profit from the exploitation of
these women. Why does Romney tell this well practiced old story? So he can pat
himself on the back for being American.
This 2:08 of the larger video of Romney portrays with horrifying
clarity the complete lack of empathy for the suffering of others in the
character of Mitt Romney. It isn't exactly a revelation, as Romney has long
been mocked as robotic, including, brilliantly in our own Hunter's Chronicles
of Mitt. Still, it is strong confirmation that human compassion and empathy
toward mankind are qualities that do not abide in Mitt Romney. He might treat
his friends and family and business cronies (that's really just one group,
isn't it) terrific, but the rest of us can go hang in Mitt's World.
There was a second thing in the 2:08. It was the total
credulousness of Romney when he swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the yarn that
his Chinese minders fed him about the barbed wire being to keep people out, not
in. They were, after all, trying to sell him the place. But the way Romney
tells it, he totally bought it. I'll bet Romney's Chinese minders who peddled
that stuff to him still laugh about it when they have drinks. There are many
character traits that I value in a U.S. President in the conduct of foreign
affairs. Being a credulous dupe is not among them.
