Three costly words for Mitt? 'I didn't inherit'

Good morning. Welcome to O-Pinion, the Observer editorial board's place for commentary and discussion. I'm associate editor Fannie Flono, your host today.

It's election day in Florida and early signs point to a huge Mitt Romney win over Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary. But you never know. Voters are still voting, and nothing's over until the voting and counting are done.

Still, Mitt Romney has a commanding lead on Gingrich, his closest Florida rival, according to the National Journal. The Quinnipiac University poll had him up 14 points over Gingrich at 43 percent to 29 percent. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., were each at 11 percent. A Suffolk University poll had Romney with almost a majority of expected voters, 47 percent to Gingrich's 27 percent.

Still Kelli Goff thinks Romney has already sealed his fate as a loser if he gets the GOP nod. In a piece for the liberal Huffington Post , she writes about what she calls "The three words that will cost Mitt Romney the election." Those words: "I didn't inherit."

She takes note of previous presidential races and the seminal moments and phrases that have plagued candidates: The 1980 campaign, she notes, had the query from Ronald Reagan, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" In 1988, George Bush the elder skewered Democrat Michael Dukakis with the campaign ad about prison inmate Willie Horton. 1992, Bill Clinton had a good moment, "It's the economy stupid" and a not-so good one, "I didn't inhale."

Romney has stumbled in dealing with questions about his wealth at a time when rage against the widening income disparity in the U.S. has taken root with the Occupy movement. Couple that with a style that's often wooden and makes him come off as fake and unbelievable, and his "I didn't inherit" rang hollow to some. Goff says in her piece, "Within minutes of Romney debuting the 'I didn't inherit' line nationally, the New York Times had already debunked it with his own words. According to an earlier interview, he did inherit money upon his father's death. Romney claims he and his wife chose to donate the money to charity. That makes sense, considering the younger Romney was nearly 50 when his father passed and was already extremely wealthy by that point, helped along in no small part by his father's wealth and connections. Besides his entry into Harvard, which has served as a finishing school for the sons and daughters of political leaders of both major American political parties over the years, his father fronted he and his wife the funds for their first home."

Romney will have bigger issues to overcome should he become the GOP nominee, as his opponents in this bruising battle for the Republican crown keep pointing out. Romneycare and Obamacare, they note, are twin sisters. Still, the wealth issue - or more to the point, how Romney has handled the issue with the public - could remain a pebble in his shoe, creating a persistent ache all season long.

Speaking of Romneycare, Gingrich has his own questions to answer about his support of a health care individual mandate, according to the conservative Weekly Standard. Here's the recently discovered audio clip from May of 2009. His campaign is defending his past support as only a "conceptual discussion." Ummm.

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