Mitt Romney: The Gated Candidate

The wealthiest Americans live in gated communities, designed to shield them from the intrusion of those Ann Romney calls “you people.” Now Mitt Romney has taken that a step further, offering Americans a gated candidacy, with whole areas walled off to keep “you people” from knowing about them.

The scope of information walled off is striking and unprecedented [1] in modern presidential politics. Romney erased records on his stint as Governor and as CEO of the Olympics. Bain walls off access to his history there. Romney hides his taxes, and buries information on his religious beliefs and activities. He walls off information about the bundlers who are raising the money for the campaign to whom he will be deeply indebted. He is as Maureen Dowd concludes [2], “hiding in plain sight."

Romney clearly has made a calculated cost-benefit analysis, as befits a man from Bain. He believes the benefits of letting Americans know his background are outweighed by the costs likely to be suffered by a wealthy Wall Street predator who pays a lower tax rate than the cops who patrol his streets, is running on a platform that trashes what he did as Governor, and worries about scrutiny of his management of Bain or the Olympics.

Mitt Romney, the perfect tribune of the 1%. The gated candidate.