Mitt Romney’s struggle to win the hearts of his party was encapsulated in a photo shared on Twitter this week by his son Tagg. It showed Romney and his wife Ann doing laundry in a hotel basement, with Romney wearing a starched shirt and jeans. Tagg captioned the image with “Nothing like the glamorous life on the road”. This comes in the same week as the release of Romney’s tax return, which revealed that he is, in fact, unemployed and pays a tax rate of 13.9%.
This begs the question: why is Romney doing his own laundry? With his immense wealth, there are surely millions of people who could do it for him. Is he taking away jobs by washing his own clothes? After all, he has previously been criticized for outsourcing jobs and destroying companies while at Bain Capital.
Romney seemed to revel in the Average Joe image the photo created, telling NBC News “We do our laundry at least once a week, because we’ll be on the road for 30 straight days. Who else do you think is going to do our laundry?”. However, his choice to do his own laundry has raised eyebrows, as it appears to be denying a job to a professional laundry service.
Mitt Romney’s recent comments about doing laundry at least once a week have raised questions about whether the GOP-dubbed “vulture capitalist” is attempting to appear relatable to the average American. While it is true that most of us do our laundry at least once a week, for a man with holdings in the Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts, the attempt to connect with the “kitchen table” concerns of working people may come off as disingenuous.
The suggestion that the wealthy should pay their fair share of taxes was met with Romney’s insistence that he only pays what is legally required. However, the photo op of Romney doing his own laundry has raised eyebrows, as it appears to be an attempt to pander to the public.
The suggestion that a millionaire should do his own laundry is an odd one, as it implies that he is either lying or not a very good CEO. A great politician should be able to relate to both the elite and the everyman, but Romney’s comments have only served to raise questions about his ability to do so. It appears that he is attempting to have it both ways, and the public is not buying it.
