June 17, 2011 05:38 PM UTC

What An Incredibly Stupid Thing To Say, Mitt Romney

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• by: Colorado Pols

New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny–let’s count up the problems with this:

Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop [in Tampa, FL] on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.

“Are you on LinkedIn?” one of the men asked.

“I’m networking,” Mr. Romney replied. “I have my sight on a particular job.”

That provided a big, soft target for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chair of the Democratic National Committee—Los Angeles Times:

“Being unemployed, Mr. Romney, is not a joke–not to my constituents in Florida or to millions of Americans across the country,” said Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Weston and chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “Folks in my home state and across the country, who are struggling every day to make ends meet, do not need someone making light of their situation.”

Advice for presidential candidates everywhere: if you have a net worth exceeding $200 million, do not make jokes on the campaign trail about how you’re “also unemployed.” Particularly avoid doing so in a state with over 10% unemployment, but we think that $200 million net-worth individuals should probably just never say something like this, you know, ever. Your friendly audience might give you a pass, but the moment a competent reporter cross-checks the first and most obvious question here…well, “out of touch” doesn’t quite do this gaffe justice. Like the rich boss who tells employees asking for a raise that “we’re all poor at our own level,” you’re just not left with the impression that he understands how real people live–or cares to.

Which makes for a rough start to Romney’s “job search.”