Romney: ‘I’m also unemployed’
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire, joked today that he is unemployed, prompting laughter among the unemployed people with whom he was meeting but criticism from the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
“I should tell my story,’’ Mr. Romney said after listening to the group of eight speak at a coffee shop in Tampa, Fla., The New York Times reported. “I’m also unemployed.’’
After one jokingly asked, “Are you on LinkedIn?,’’ Romney replied: “I’m networking; I have my sight on a particular job.’’
Romney has not had a paying full-time job since he left Bain Capital to run the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. He volunteered for that post, and served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 without taking a salary.
Since his unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, he has been gearing up for a second race next year. His only source of outside income since 2008 was a stint on the Marriott hotels board of directors.
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a US House member from Florida, released a statement branding the comments “inappropriate and insensitive to the millions of Americans looking for work.’’
She said that Romney, “a man who wants for nothing and whose only occupation for more than four years has been to run for president,’’ is out of touch.
While there is a Democratic president in the White House, Wasserman Schultz said, “The fact is, the failed policies of the past, that (Romney) is advocating for, got us into the situation we’re in the first place.’’
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