Latest Romney Laugher: "Just a Guy from Detroit"
In his campaign of gymnastic flip-flops and mind-bending distortions, Mitt Romney topped himself Monday with his hilarious claim that he's just "a guy from Detroit." While Detroit and Romney's suburban childhood home in tony Bloomfield Hills might be separated by just a few miles, his privileged life there was light years away from Motor City.
Romney's latest uproarious Mitticism took place in an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News. Asked if he's frustrated with his primary campaign showing so far, Romney presented his roots as more akin to rapper Eminem and less like that of the son of auto magnate-turned Michigan Governor:
"Why would I be frustrated? This is fabulous!" Romney said. "Literally, at the beginning of my campaign I was number five or six off the list. People said 'how do you think you can run against John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson?' Now I'm in the lead in every early state - tied for the lead or in the lead. I'm in rarefied air. Hey, for a guy from Detroit, this is pretty cool."
Of course, Mitt Romney is not from Detroit. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, which resembles Detroit in much the same way that bricks float.
The numbers tell the tale. Detroit, which has lost half it population since 1950, has a median household income in 2000 of $29,526. At that time, the median value of a home in Detroit was $63,600. The Motor City is also approximately 82% African-American and just 12% white. In 2000, 26% of its residents lived below the poverty level.
In contrast to the urban blight in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills might as well be on another planet. In 2000, median household income there topped $170,000, almost six times higher than Detroit. The average house or condo in Bloomfield Hill was worth $1,076,900 in 2005, up from $854,000 just five years earlier. In 2000, the township was 91% white, with about a 2% black population. And as the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce will tell you:
Rolling hills, small lakes and wonderfully designed houses nestle on treed acreage. Within Bloomfield Hills is Vhay Lake which provides a beautiful residential setting. It is near the Bloomfield Open Hunt Club which has hosted horse shows for more than 50 years. It has been the training site for the Michigan Olympic Equestrian Team. Over 500 horses from around the world compete in the Motor City Horse Show making it one of the largest on the circuit. Landmarks such as the copper-turreted Fox and Hounds Restaurant and the Kingsley Hotel and Suites offer the finest of dining opportunities.
To be sure, this is far from Romney's first act of historical revisionism when it comes to his biography and privileged background. Romney, after all, announced his presidential run in Michigan, rather than in the ultra blue state of Massachusetts (where he currently lives and had just been governor) or in Mormon-rich Utah (where was briefly his state of residence just prior to his 2002 gubernatorial run). And famously, Romney spoke of his father marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960's through the similarly upscale Grosse Pointe.
Mitt Romney's political fate may well hang in the balance in New Hampshire tonight. But if it doesn't go well for him, Mitt can always go back home to Detroit.
UPDATE: For more on Mitt Romney's everyman life on the mean streets of Bloomfield Hills, visit here, here, here and here. As it turns out, Romney is so fond of his days in the Motor City that he never mentions Detroit in his campaign bio.
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"Of course, Mitt Romney is not from Detroit"
Wow, it seems that the writer of this post is equally talented at historical revisionism, considering the fact that Romney was born in Detroit.
Posted by Curious on January 8, 2008 1:38 PMNo doubt being born in a Detroit hospital must mean Mitt was keeping it real with his boyz ever since.
From the "ClickonDetroit" bio linked to above:
Posted by Perrspective on January 8, 2008 3:57 PMNAME: Willard Mitt Romney
AGE: 59; born March 12, 1947, in Detroit
RESIDENCE: Belmont, Mass.
CHILDHOOD: Grew up in Bloomfield Hills, went to school at Cranbrook High School
EDUCATION: Bachelor of arts degree, Brigham Young University, 1971; master's degree in business administration, Harvard Business School, 1975;
"Of course, Mitt Romney is not from Detroit. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, which resembles Detroit in much the same way that bricks float."
Actually, Mitt left Detroit at the age of 10. I know because I grew up directly behind the Romney's in Palmer Woods, Detroit.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20071217&Kategori=NEWS05&Lopenr=712170328&Ref=AR&Show=0&imw=Y (pic of now foreclosed house on Balmoral Str.)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3187769.ece
Posted by Jeff Brochstein on January 22, 2008 1:04 PM