By gail collins

The New York Times

On the morning after the Florida primary, Mitt Romney bounded out of bed, inhaled the sweet air of victory, donned his new cloak of invulnerability ...

... and went on CNN to announce that he doesn’t care about poor people.

Photos

• 

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

"I’m not concerned about the very poor," he told a slightly stunned-looking Soledad O’Brien.

Whenever the topic turns to wealth, or the lack thereof, some inner demon seems to make Romney say something that sounds ridiculous, offensive or ridiculously offensive.

If this had been post-South Carolina, we might have assumed that he was making a play for the segment of his party that believes the greatest threat to the American way of life is greedy paupers. But the nomination was in the bag! Mitt was just being Mitt and trying to present himself as the candidate of the middle class, which he defined as "the 90-95 percent of Americans who, right now, are struggling."

Subtract the 1 percent at the top and Romney appeared to be saying that he was absolutely not going to direct his campaign at the bottom 4 percent of the American public. That certainly makes sense politically, since you are talking — according to my very rough calculations — mostly about folks who are living in households with incomes under $5,000. Not a group with terrific turnout.

Let’s deconstruct his entire remarks:

I’m in this race because I care about ... (tiniest of pauses) ... Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. ...

I don’t think he actually meant to suggest the very poor were not Americans. But still.

We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. ...

Does anybody truly believe that Romney is planning to spend any presidential time dreaming up ways to fix the safety net for the benefit of the very poor? Be real. This is the guy who drove to Canada with the family dog strapped on the roof.

I’m not concerned about the very rich. They’re doing just fine. ...

Gee, he should know.

I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who, right now, are struggling.

Difficult as these times are, I don’t think 90 percent to 95 percent of Americans are struggling. If they were, the whole country would look like a scene out of "Contagion" or "The Walking Dead."

We will hear from the Democrat Party (about) the plight of the poor. ...

Not really. If we had a dollar for every speech President Barack Obama has given about the poor, we would ... not have a lot of money. However, it is interesting to hear a candidate directly attacking the opposition for being concerned about the destitute.

And there’s no question, it’s not good being poor. ...

Here, Mitt Romney demonstrates his capacity for empathy.

And we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle-income Americans. My campaign — you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich. That’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus. ...