Mitt Romney's Decline

You have gobs and gobs of money. You have succeeded beyond anyone’s dreams. You are running for president of the United States on the ground that you can revive the nation’s flagging economy.

You know, because everyone knows, that the epicenter of the financial crisis exists in property values and the mortgage market. You know, because everyone knows, that millions of American homes are in foreclosure, about to be in foreclosure, or are worth less than their mortgages.

American families are feeling the pain. You want these families to come out and vote for you.

What do you do to show your sensitivity to the pain of everyday Americans?

If you’re Mitt Romney you file papers to raze your 3000 sq. ft. home in La Jolla, the better to replace it with a 11,000 sq. ft. home that is more befitting your circumstances. Link here. And you do it in California, of all places, because, you state, you want to hear the ocean.

To the average American, the symbolism could not be more jarring. The gesture tells the average American, that even in time of trouble, when everyone is struggling to make ends meet, that you are so rich that you can do as you please.

Not what I would call a winning message.

Maybe there’s something in the Massachusetts water. But this public relations blunder immediately invoked pictures of the hyper-rich former presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry kite boarding off the coast of Nantucket in 2004.

I don’t know who does Mitt Romney’s PR, but if he can afford his new digs, he can certainly afford some world class PR.

If his PR team signed off on the project, they should be fired.

But then, maybe it means that Mitt Romney knows, somewhere deep in his unconscious mind, that he is not going to be the Republican nominee for president.

In that, he would very likely be correct.