Reporter Ashley Parker found hypocrisy where none exists in a brief item in Tuesday's paper on Mitt Romney building on one of his properties, 'Room for All 16 Grandchildren [1].'
Mitt Romney has never claimed to be a middle-class man of the people.
But the news that he is planning to quadruple the size of his $12 million oceanfront property in the La Jolla section of San Diego, first reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune on Saturday evening, came at a particularly awkward time. Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had spent much of the previous week on the campaign trail criticizing President Obama for vacationing in Martha's Vineyard when many Americans are still out of work.
The Union-Tribune's Christopher Cadelago reported that Mr. Romney, who was expected to attend several fund-raisers in San Diego this weekend, recently filed an application to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot, three-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home and replace it with an 11,062-square-foot, two-story residence. The current single-story house sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac and overlooks a white sand beach. A date to consider the project has not yet been set.
What's the conflict between criticizing a vacation and building on to a luxury house? Perhaps Romney should just call the project his own economic stimulus - after all, expanding his house by 8,000-square feet will require hiring construction workers.