Ten.

Editor,

Man.

I watched Romney's speech, linked to in your editorial, and I am stunned. Now I understand exactly what the skill is that is required to be the Repugnican candidate for president of the USA.

You have to be able to look the people you are going to rip off straight in the eye, just like George W. Bush used to do, and tell them exactly what you are going to do. Only you have to make it sound like letting corporations repatriate their offshore profits tax free, and repealing health care reform, and repealing the tax on inheritances more than $5 million, and cutting taxes on the rich, and not increasing taxes on capital gains are JUST WHAT THE MIDDLE CLASS NEEDS!

I can see being that cynical in writing. That would be like dropping an A-bomb from 30,000 feet. But standing in a high school gymnasium, surrounded by a loving throng of supporters who believe you, and lying straight into their faces is more like killing a defenseless civilian with a knife -- from the front.

You have to be able to stand there and tell those lies and not reflect for one second on how cruelly you are conning your victims.

Wow. That is an Olympic gold-medal performance.

Degrees of cruelty and cynicism: 10.

Re: "Romney Wins, the Middle Class Loses" (3/1/2011)