One of my conservative facebook friends posted something about people suggesting that "we don't need a rich president". She didn't understand the distinction between Obama and Romney when it comes to personal wealth. She admits that Romney is richer, but then suggests that the Obamas have "cashed in on this presidency with books, talks, etc." I know that Obama's writing has earned him millions, and a lot of that millions came from books that he wrote before he was ever running for President, but really sold well once he got famous. (I don't think that he's made a lot off "talks, etc." as president - that usually comes later. It certainly did for Reagan and Clinton.)

It's interesting that someone can't see the distinction between these two candidates' personal wealth. I mean, there's well-off and then there's obscenely wealthy. I don't say that as a judgement call - I'd love to try being obscenely wealthy. But the difference is staggering. I don't know what their personal net worths are, but from what I've read, the Obamas are middle-of-the-road wealthy and Romney is part of a very exclusive class.

How they got their wealth is instructive also. Obama didn't get rich as a community organizer or as a professor of constitutional law at University of Chicago. He got rich (his level of rich) from intellectual property. Something he created and wrote and was famous enough that it sold. Snooki probably made as much from her book. (I don't know. Perhaps that book was the flop that I'd guess it deserved to be...)

Romney got his wealth the old fashioned way - he inherited it. Does anyone really think that he'd be able to buy and sell companies and ship jobs overseas and be in a position to earn those fat bonuses if he wasn't super wealthy to begin with? If he didn't have capital that the rest of us cannot access? Does anyone really think that we can all get to where Mitt Romney has gotten from where we are today?

I really don't care whether my president is wealthy beyond anyone's wildest dreams or simply well-off. I do care about how he appears to connect with the things that I have to deal with in my own life. And how well he appears to connect with the things YOU have to deal with in YOUR own life, because they are probably very different from the things I deal with. A presidential candidate who seems to think that we all should just do what he did and be successful like he was doesn't seem to be doing that in my view.

I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself well here. What I'm trying to say is that their wealth is irrelevant, but how they came by it is not, or shouldn't be. I'm also saying that I'd like some indication that the candidate realizes that there is a FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE between business and government - businesses exist to make money as their primary goal, while government exists to protect and aid their citizens in ways that citizens agree to. If government is a business, or the same as one, that would seem to mean we can all be fired by those running it at any time when we cost it more money than we make for it.

Sometimes, listening to Romney, I sort of think that this is exactly how he views government. And that just does not seem right to me.

*****