Harry Reid grew up in a house with no hot water or indoor toilet. Barack Obama’s mother was on food stamps. Bill Clinton never knew his birth father, lived with his grandparents while his mother went to school, and defended the rest of the family from his abusive stepfather. George Mitchell grew up on the wrong side of the tracks…literally, between the train tracks and the heavily polluted Kennebec River in a neighborhood that was later torn down during urban renewal.
Mitt Romney is finding out what George H. W. Bush found out—the ones who grow up on the edge between poverty and the middle-class are the toughest opponents:
- It was Mitchell’s determination and political savvy that forced Bush to break his “no new taxes” pledge in the 1991 budget deal.
- It was Clinton’s ability (and Bush’s inability) to connect his childhood experiences with the pain and suffering many Americans had suffered in the 1990-91 recession that helped him defeat Bush in 1992.
Now, three months before Election Day, Romney finds himself in an alley fight with Reid over income tax returns. Meanwhile, Pres. Obama’s campaign has steadily and ruthlessly forced Romney into a series of Sophie’s choices—either antagonize a Republican base that doesn’t trust him, or antagonize the moderate voters whose support he needs to defeat Obama.
Despite all that, the economy is bad enough that Romney still could win this race. But he’s just now finding out that there are life lessons that can’t be learned on the mean streets of Bloomfield Hills or the playgrounds of the Cranbrook School.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
