This week Romney was trying to make an innocuous, pedestrian and clichéd point that he cared the most about the middle class. To clarify that point he said that he didn’t worry about the rich because, well, duh, and he didn’t care about the poor because they had a social safety net to take care of them. The media reacted with “What?!!! You don’t care about the poor?!!! O!M!G!”

Romney claims that the “elite media” took his remarks out of context. When the media began to supply the context of the quote it was not a net improvement.

To make sure that everybody (not just liberals) got mad at him he said if the safety net had holes he’d fix them. Conservatives seem to believe that the safety net is a hammock for freeloaders and leeches and the poor should just go get jobs…or something. That belief among conservatives was foundational to Romney’s statement. No need to worry about the poor, they have food stamps and stuff.

How rich is Mitt Romney? Scary rich.

If you combined the wealth of all the US presidents since Richard Nixon and doubled that, you would be approaching Mitt Romney’s event horizon. There are only a little more than 3,000 people in the US who are richer than Romney. It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around that kind of money. He claims his critics are merely envious of his wealth. No, it’s hard to be envious of something you can’t conceptualize. For the vast majority of Americans it’s easier to be envious of the stray cash in his couch cushions.

If Romney had taken that “not very much” money he made in speaking fees last year and divvied it up among 10 poor families, he would have lifted them out of poverty into the middle class.

If Romney took the $4 million he donates to the Mormon Church every year he could lift 100 families out of poverty into the middle class.

If Romney decided to live in poverty himself—with full confidence in the efficiency of the safety net—then he could divide his wealth among 1800 people. That would lift every single poor person in Cheyenne, Wyoming into the middle class with a little left over.

People have been falling out of the middle class at an alarming rate since the crash of 2008. Therefore Romney’s focus on the middle class has narrowed since his last campaign by about 2.6%. He said he was focused on the “the 90-95% of Americans who are right now struggling.” I’m sure that was #notintendedtobeafactualstatement. The percentage of Americans who struggle in the middle class is 80%. More than 15% of the US population lives in poverty. That translates into more than 46 million people who are beneath Romney’s, uh, focus.

Pundits tell us that Americans want to elect a president that they would be comfortable having a beer with. George W. Bush is an example. He, too, is wealthy enough to qualify as a member of the American aristocracy but he doesn’t have Romney’s aristocratic demeanor. GWB was electable because he was really good at faking sincerity and concealing his blue blood.

I don’t want a president who is my beer buddy. I want a president who is smarter than I am, better educated than I am and someone who is a more talented leader than I could ever be. If they have used those skills to become wealthy, fine. No problem. But someone must have those skills to lead an enterprise as enormous and as complex as the United States of America. I definitely want a president who is a member of the elite in many ways. I want a president who is poised, polished and accomplished. I want a president who can play chess twelve moves deep and who uses that acumen to the best advantage of our country.

In other words I want someone who will govern, not just rule. An aristocracy is a dictatorship in lace pants. Aristocrats rule but do not govern. Americans know all this instinctively which is why “I’d like to have a beer with him” is a factor. The president of the USA needs to be first among equals.

Mitt Romney is having a huge problem hiding his lace pants.