Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney continues to provide lots of material for stand up comedians, topics for blog posts — and ammunition to Team Obama with his unscripted comments that continually show him to be someone who seemingly doesn’t have a clue about what most American families (of parents from both parties) go through. His latest was this advice to young people worried about college loans and how they will finance their education: borrow the money for college from your parents.
Um…Mr. Romney. Many American parents who didn’t have fathers who were governors of Michigan or bigwigs at car companies cannot afford to lend money to their kids for college..
This kind of devisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.
Romney’s problem is clearly when he is unscripted. But, it could be argued, the unscripted moments give a more clear glimpse of how his mind works, his values, his assumptions, and what he is willing to do (not much) to help Americans in need.
If the Dems are competent they will frame this comment in political commercials. But that is a huge if. I increasingly feel the Democrats don’t do well when matched up against GOPers in years when they don’t have a built in advantage (such as post-Watergate, and America suffering from recessions). His handlers will try to control his comments more than ever: most likely few press conferences, as few non-Fox long interviews as possible. He’ll be on Sean Hannity a lot.
Footnote: I was lucky. My father could afford to pay for my college at Colgate University and later at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism for grad work. But many parents can’t — and if relying on parents to pay for or loan the money is the solution, college would remove huge chunks of youths from the prospect of higher education. It would limit the American dream.
FOOTNOTE: Our politics is now so predictable now I won’t surf the web. I can imagine some GOPers now insisting, why, yes, loans from parents is the way to go in education. There’s nothing revealing about that quote about Romney’s assumptions about families and what young people face, some will argue.
I’m sure someone will even soon suggest that parents not only lend the money, but the parents should take the money they lend out of the family’s money put aside for health care.
Graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.