TILTON, N.H. – Mitt Romney came here to serve up spaghetti and make people laugh, but he also wanted to stop any of his supporters from getting too fat and happy.
“We’re in a real battle right now,” he said, despite polls that show him with major leads in New Hampshire and South Carolina. “I know some pollsters, well, I’m doing real well. Those polls, they can just disappear overnight.”
He compared talking to pollsters with going on a date. Voting in a booth, that is like marriage.
At the end of his remarks, the music began playing and Romney waved it off. He wanted to take a few questions. Some were softballs, until one woman rose and put him – and his vast wealth – under the spotlight.
“I’m a middle class American like a lot of people here and we’re all hurting, we really are,” the woman said. “It’s a little hard for me because I know you’re a multimillionaire. I read that you have four houses. Would you be willing to give up some of that so that we middle Americans could get some tax cuts?”
“That’s a good idea,” Romney responded. “Okay, that’s right. Let’s see, well, I don’t have four houses, that’s number one, although it’s a good idea. Thank you for the idea.”
The former Massachusetts governor technically has two houses – in La Jolla, Calif., and on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire – and a condominium in Boston. In recent years, he’s sold homes in Belmont, Mass., and Park City, Utah.
“I can tell you this,” Romney continued. “The best way that I can help middle income Americans is to become president of the United States, to cut taxes for middle income Americans, which is what my proposal does.”
“I know that there are some who say, ‘Let’s just get more money from the higher-income people, let’s just tax them some more,’ ” he added. “And I understand that’s popular in a lot of people’s minds. But just don’t forget that old Margaret Thatcher line, ‘Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.’ ”
Romney also said after the nomination fight the candidates “will put our egos and bruised feelings aside” and support whoever emerges. He pledged to back whomever Republicans nominate.
“I know that in the process, in the primary process, we’ll be going after each other, I mean, as someone said long ago, politics ain’t bean bags,” Romney said. “And you know, so, we’ll be going back and forth and then when it’s all over we ought to be able to hug and go to work to get one of us elected president of the United States.”